Dr. Amy Grubb is an industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). I/O psychology may be an overlooked area of psychology, but it is important to the functioning of many of the greatest industries and organizations in our country. Although Dr. Grubb performs job duties that are comparable to those of other psychologists, certain aspects of her job are atypical

Access to high-quality health care, including mental health care, remains a high priority for the Department of Veterans Affairs and civilian health care systems. Increased access to mental health care is associated with improved outcomes, including decreased suicidal behavior. Multiple policy changes and interventions are being developed and implemented to improve access to mental health care. The

A greater understanding of factors that are associated with successful outcomes among patients receiving collaborative depression care services is needed. This study sought to examine the unique associations between 3 indices of social ties and changes in depressive symptoms among veterans receiving collaborative depression care management. Data on sociodemographics, behavioral health indices, perceived

Applicants to graduate school in clinical psychology are warned against disclosing something in their application that could be the "kiss of death," information that by itself causes admissions committees to reject otherwise strong applicants. Specifically, several renowned authorities warn applicants against disclosing a lived experience with, or close connection to, psychopathology. This state of

Although research indicates that the prevalence of psychiatric disability differs depending on gender, a paucity of information exists as to whether men and women with psychiatric disability also differ regarding service program outcomes. For a United States Southwest peer support specialist training program, this study examines whether gender moderates the association between psychiatric disability

This interview highlighted the atypical career of Dr. Colleen Hacker. She discusses her experiences as a mental skills coach, corporate speaker, and full-time professor. The convergence of these career paths has led her to be a leader in the Olympic and professional sports setting, as well as in academia. Dr. Colleen M. Hacker provides critical insights into how she obtained these positions and how

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been training clinicians in its cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBT-CP) structured protocol since 2012. The aim of this project was to review patient outcomes to determine the effectiveness of the VA's CBT-CP treatment. From 2012-2018, 1,331 Veterans initiated individual CBT-CP treatment as part of the training program. Patient outcomes

The Alternative to Restraint and Seclusion State Incentive Grant was a national initiative to reduce restraint and seclusion use in psychiatric hospitals and community based mental health settings sponsored by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. This initiative was implemented in a large public sector psychiatric hospital. It involved the use of a restraint and seclusion

Mental health care providers who have a personal lived experience of mental health challenges are valuable employees who may be vulnerable to workplace bullying, which causes harm both to these individuals and to their organizations. We used snowball sampling to survey 40 mental health professionals with lived experience about their history of workplace bullying and whether or not their lived experience

It is well established that some students face psychological difficulties, such as feelings of distress, major depressive episodes, and/or suicidal risk. This study aimed to shed light on students' use of psychological care and the reasons for nonuse among students facing these troubles and, by controlling the socionormative context in which students were interviewed, the role of knowledge about these

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinics in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) often provide psychoeducational or skill-building groups to prepare veterans for trauma-focused PTSD treatments. However, there has been limited evaluation of the effectiveness of this phase-based approach for treatment engagement and symptom reduction. Participants included 575 veterans seeking treatment for PTSD

Suicide rates are higher in some Alaska Native and American Indian communities than the general U.S. population. Screening for suicide risk typically requires self-report, but many people may not engage with conventional screening because of distrust or are reluctant to disclose thoughts of suicide. Resource-sensitive methods of detecting suicide risk are needed. This study identifies routinely collected

Mr. Everett Alvarez is a prior Navy pilot and officer who served during the Vietnam War as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG, O-2). Mr. Alvarez was the first pilot shot down, captured, and held as a prisoner of war (POW) at the Hỏa Lò Prison, also known as the "Hanoi Hilton." He was held as a POW for 8.5 years, the second longest period of time a United States service member has been held captive. After

A substantial proportion of U.S. military veterans experience mental health and/or substance use disorders. As public awareness of these difficulties rises, so too does interest in the relation between veteran behavioral health and high-risk events, namely suicide attempts, incarceration, and homelessness. Using latent class analysis and a large, nationally representative sample of community veterans

How does it feel to be a doctor and a patient? What impact does my lived experience have on my work as a psychiatrist? In the present narrative, I describe my personal experiences with bipolar disorder and my difficulties in accepting the diagnosis of a mental health disorder due to mental health stigma. I outline the possible benefits resulting from a deeper insight into a psychological crisis (e

A majority of mental health care providers seek personal therapy (i.e., are prosumers), and many providers experience suicidal ideation. Although mental health care providers may have more awareness of mental health than undergraduates, stigma is prevalent across both mental health care professionals and within universities. Furthermore, suicidality is a particularly stigmatized aspect of mental health

The debilitating stigma of mental illness is present in psychologists, psychology departments, and in the larger higher education environment. My reflections on my experience as an African American psychology professor living with bipolar disorder can shed light on how stigma can prevent colleagues from intervening and providing much-needed support to a colleague in crisis. I summarize the history

This special issue highlights new research in psychological assessment and measurement-based care. Psychological assessment has historically been central to the field of psychology. Measurement-based care, considered an evidence-based practice, is a special type of applied psychological assessment in which patient-reported outcome measures are used to track progress in care as part of a clinical process

Community mental health services are increasingly embracing evidence-based interventions (EBIs), and the professional workforce is diversifying to meet the needs of historically underserved groups. As such, it is increasingly important to understand how psychotherapist cultural factors may be associated with attitudes toward EBIs. The use of standardized assessments within routine progress monitoring

Measurement-based care (MBC) in behavioral health involves the repeated collection of patient-reported data that is used to track progress, inform care, and engage patients in shared decision making about their treatment. Research suggests that MBC increases the quality and effectiveness of mental health care. However, there can be challenges to implementing MBC, such as time burden, lack of resources

Ongoing and comprehensive assessment is a critical part of the implementation of evidence-based care; yet, most providers fail to routinely incorporate measurement into their clinical practice. Few studies have focused on the complex application of routine assessment or measurement-based care (MBC) with children. This pilot examined the acceptability, appropriateness, adoptability, and feasibility

Although the benefits of measurement-based care (MBC) are widely noted, MBC remains underutilized in mental health services. In 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration began the MBC in Mental Health Initiative to implement MBC as a standard of care across VHA mental health services. Subsequently, in January 2018 The Joint Commission (TJC) revised their behavioral health

Measurement-based care (MBC) in behavioral health is the systematic use of validated measurement tools to guide clinical decision making and collaborative treatment planning. Although benefits of MBC for clinicians and patients have been supported by research, it appears to be underutilized in clinical settings. This study examined the effectiveness of a MBC implementation plan informed by the theory

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is widely used within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), both as an assessment tool and as a part of measurement-based care practices. However, there is preliminary evidence that the BAI may perform uniquely in veteran samples, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive investigation of the BAI in this population. The present study compared the normative data reported

Clinically useful and evidence-based mental health assessment requires the identification of strategies that maximize diagnostic accuracy, inform treatment planning, and make efficient use of clinician and patient time and resources. This study uses classification tree analyses to determine whether parent- and child-report instruments, alone or in combination, can accurately predict diagnoses as measured

The current study evaluated the Brief Adjustment Scale-6 (BASE-6), a measure of general psychological adjustment. The psychometric properties of the BASE-6 are documented using 3 adult samples, including online participants (Sample 1: n = 459), college students (Sample 2: n = 244), and a clinical sample (Sample 3: n = 296). Acceptability ratings comparing the BASE-6 to the Outcome Questionnaire-45

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) developed Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Centers (PRRCs) to enhance recovery-oriented mental health services to large populations of veterans diagnosed with serious mental illness (e.g., psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder) and significant functional challenges. Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Centers were designed to support a rehabilitation

Measurement-based care has important implications across multiple avenues in mental and behavioral health care, including clinical care, quality improvement, and accountability. Using measurement-based care to demonstrate that quality care is being provided within the context of cost-efficient care could strengthen the position of mental and behavioral health providers as critical members of the health

In 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) began the Measurement-Based Care in Mental Health Initiative to implement measurement-based care (MBC) across all mental health programs with the goal of making MBC the national standard of care. Phase 1 of this initiative, beginning in fall 2016 through fall 2017, was carefully designed to meet the ambitious goals of the organization while minimizing

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is used within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to measure depression symptom severity. This naturalistic study aimed to examine VHA-specific BDI-II use and establish normative data and psychometric properties. Initial BDI-II data for 152,260 individual veterans were extracted from preexisting medical records using the VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure

The purpose of this investigation is to provide descriptive information on veteran response styles for a variety of VA referral types using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), which has well-supported protocol validity scales. The sample included 17,640 veterans who were administered the MMPI-2-RF between when it was introduced to the VA system in

Measurement-based care (MBC) can improve mental health treatment outcomes and is a priority within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, to date, MBC efforts within the VA have focused on assessment of psychological symptoms to the exclusion of psychotherapy process variables such as the therapeutic alliance that may predict treatment response. This quality improvement project involved

Identifying patients at risk of misusing prescription opioids is a priority. Standardized risk measures exist, but prior research has been limited in an assessment of their utility by a reliance on cross-sectional or retrospective analyses. In this study, the Pain Medication Questionnaire (PMQ), a standardized self-report measure of risk for prescription opioid misuse, was used to predict aberrant

Transdiagnostic behavior therapy (TBT) has been found to lead to significant reductions in affective disorder symptoms. However, patient satisfaction and treatment fit for TBT have not been examined. Within a sample of veterans, the current study examined the acceptability of TBT in comparison to brief behavioral activation (BA) for depression. Results found individuals in the TBT condition (compared

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to discover if and how clinicians integrate cultural factors into treatment, what specific 'culturally sensitive' practices clinicians utilize, and who clinicians use these practices with. In Study 1(N = 9) qualitative interviews were conducted with psychologists who shared information about the culturally sensitive clinical practices that they utilize. Based

This article is a combined 1st-person narrative of a mental health professional with a mental illness, referred to as a prosumer, and her psychologist friend who stood by her during her 1st manic episode with psychosis. Challenges prosumers face are highlighted. These include stigma, questions about the impact of illness on ability to work in the field, and the choice of whether to disclose about the

Individual psychotherapy is routinely offered within coordinated specialty care services for early psychosis. In the United States, 2 primary models have been implemented: cognitive-behavioral therapy for psychosis and individualized resiliency training. However, coordinated specialty care services have typically chosen between these approaches, thus limiting access to the unique aspects of each of

Because the mental health burden of PTSD among many racial and ethnic minority veterans is greater than among non-Latinx Whites (NLW) and there are disparities in VHA mental health treatment, we evaluated variations in clinical outcomes across veteran racial and ethnic groups in a large national cohort diagnosed with PTSD in VHA. This was a planned secondary analysis of patient-reported outcomes from

In this article, through a reflexive account, I present the ways the sudden onset of clinical depression in my own life brought me closer to the vulnerabilities (due to stigma around mental illness) as well as opportunities to contribute to the mental health of my clients as a prosumer. In delineating this process, I have also highlighted how my role as an active qualitative researcher of homeless

In clinical trials, standardized assessment conducted by research staff facilitates identification of treatment benefit. Narrative notes completed by clinicians offer a novel source to characterize and contextualize outcomes. In this study, we examine qualitative analysis of clinical notes as a method to augment quantitative outcome measures and supply meaningful context in clinical trials. Two hundred

The present study examined individualized behavioral change of externalizing and internalizing problems of adolescents in residential youth care, divided into different change groups (improvement, no change, or deterioration), by using the reliable change index. We also identified demographic and clinical factors that may predict individual behavioral change. A naturalistic dataset was used which consisted

High rates of drop-out from treatment of PTSD have challenged implementation. Care models that integrate PTSD focused psychotherapy and complementary interventions may provide benefit in retention and outcome. The first 80 veterans with chronic PTSD enrolled in a 2-week intensive outpatient program combining Prolonged Exposure (PE) and complementary interventions completed symptom and biological measures

Although the experience of trauma is a widespread, global phenomenon, individuals living with HIV, who are two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ (2SLGBTQ+), who use injection drugs, and/or who have marginalized status, are disproportionately affected (Harris & Fallot, 2006; Hopper, Bassuk, & Olivet, 2009; Seedat, 2012). The need for trauma competent service provision, meaning integrating

As demand increased for mental health services, especially in university counseling centers, providers have seen increasing numbers of clients. The effect of this increase on therapist caseloads is explored, with a recognition that past research on therapist caseloads lacks direct and fluctuating measures of caseload that reflect practice in naturalistic settings. Using a large dataset from a counseling

Although there are effective treatments that promote recovery and improve quality of life for serious mental illness in nonincarcerated populations, more research is needed to understand the recovery process for individuals with a history of incarceration. A qualitative, grounded theory study was conducted with 17 men and women who have serious mental illness (SMI) and a history of incarceration. Findings

A graduating medical student and incoming psychiatry resident reflects on his diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his treatment for this condition. He also examines the impacts of ADHD and stimulant medication on his career, education, and personal life, as well as the impacts of individual and systemic mental health stigma on mental health care providers as prosumers.

Although measures for assessing mental health functioning and criminogenic need exist independently, there remains a need for an integrated measure that assesses both constructs simultaneously. The Service Needs Inventory (SNI) was developed to identify aspects of mental health functioning and criminogenic needs of criminal justice-involved persons with mental illness (CJ-PMI). In this multistudy series

Research on the effects of restricted housing on inmate well-being indicates mild to moderate psychological effects and barriers opportunities for treatment and positive growth. Yet, there are few interventions tailored both to the needs of this high-risk population and to the institutional constraints of their environment. Given the financial and safety burdens associated with housing someone in segregation

In 2011, Dr. Antonette Zeiss became the first psychologist and the first woman to serve in the highest mental health leadership role at the Central Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, She is now a consultant who supports other people in succeeding in these types of roles. This interview is aimed at providing the context and critical factors within which psychologists can seek opportunities

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recommends that patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) receive either of the 2 frontline evidence-based psychotherapies, cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure (PE). However, VHA providers have reported low use of these treatments, and voiced their concerns over exposing patients to distress in PE and their patients not understanding

The prevalence of hazardous drinking is elevated among returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, particularly among returning veterans and those with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Understanding the reasons for drinking as well as motivations for change can tremendously improve intervention efforts. Unfortunately, little is currently known regarding the motivations

By virtue of their occupational responsibilities, protective service workers are often exposed to stressors and hazards that may increase their risk for various mental health problems. Efforts are thus needed to enhance connection to psychological services across protective service worker groups and to tailor the delivery of these services based on the specific needs of these workers. To enhance the

Human rights advocates are routinely exposed to direct and secondary trauma. In addition, a growing body of research has found that trauma exposure in human rights work is associated with depression, burnout, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in human rights advocates. Despite the potential mental health risks associated with advocacy, little is known about the ways in which organizational and

Under conditions of profound stress, individuals in high-risk occupations may experience an acute stress reaction (ASR). Given that ASRs may interfere with functioning, placing the team in danger, the Israel Defense Forces developed YaHaLOM training to teach service members how to manage ASRs in team members. YaHaLOM is a novel, rapid, peer-based intervention specifically designed for use in the midst

Employees in high-risk occupations can experience stigma associated with developing mental health problems and getting treatment for problems that can oftentimes be attributed to traumatic events encountered at work. The present study examined the perceived unit climate of support for mental health as a predictor of changes (over the course of 3 months) in the perceived stigma associated with seeking

Limited research exists in the area of police mental wellness and suicide prevention, especially regarding programs utilized by these agencies. The purpose of this project was to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of use of police officer wellness promotion and suicide prevention programs implemented in the United States and an understanding of the perceptions of program effectiveness (Part

Given raised rates of patient suicide and violence in secure psychiatric facilities, staff in such settings are arguably at increased risk for burnout and reduced mental health. The present article responds to the recent U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) call to assess workforce well-being. This article held the following aims: (1) to quantify existing levels of mental health

Previous literature is severely limited in evaluation of psychometric properties of suicide screening methods in American Indian (AI) populations, despite the disproportionate burden of suicide faced within AI communities. The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior (SIQ-JR) for AI youth using 2 community samples of AI adolescents

Program evaluation data from 451 veterans treated with at least four sessions of prolonged exposure (PE) within a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient posttraumatic stress disorder program were examined to explore to what degree change by Session 8 predicted achieving meaningful change (MC; 50% reduction on the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale-Self-Report [PSS-SR]) after Session

The current study aim was to examine mental health characteristics in a sample of returning OEF/OIF/OND veterans initially enrolling in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care (N = 1,307), with a particular focus on a subgroup considered at risk for suicide (N = 445). Methods included examination of mental health screening measures and clinical interview data from a VA postdeployment clinic