What are the unmet needs after psychosocial counselling and mental health of women who opt for donor sperm treatment (DST), and are unmet counselling needs related to their mental health?
This ...quantitative study included women in a heterosexual relationship (n = 19), women in a lesbian relationship (n = 25) and single women (n = 51) who opted for DST. Women were included if they had passed the DST intake procedure at a Dutch fertility clinic, were not pregnant and had no previous donor-child. Unmet needs were measured by a self-developed questionnaire based on specific topics identified in a previous qualitative study with added items from experts in the field of DST. The Adult Self Report was used to measure mental health. Relationships between unmet counselling needs and mental health were explored by multiple regression analyses.
Fifty-two women (55%) reported unmet counselling needs. Women in heterosexual relationships mostly had unmet counselling needs on the topics of the decision to opt for DST (n = 11, 58%) and non-genetic parenthood (n = 11, 58%); women in lesbian relationships (n = 10, 40%) and single women (n = 14, 27%) mostly had unmet needs on the topic of choosing a sperm donor. In general, women had good mental health, but 13 (14%) met the criteria for clinical mental health problems. Women with more unmet counselling needs also had more mental health problems.
Evidence-based guidelines for psychosocial counselling in DST should be developed. Only then can counselling be improved and be fit for purpose.
Are unmet needs for psychosocial counselling, peer support and friends/family support in parents directly and/or indirectly related to the mental health of parents and their donor-children?
A ...cross-sectional sample of 214 parents participated in this quantitative study via an online questionnaire. The sample comprised mothers and fathers in a heterosexual relationship (n = 85), mothers in a lesbian relationship (n = 67) and single mothers (n = 62). Parents were recruited via three Dutch fertility clinics and four network organizations. Unmet support needs were measured with an adapted version of the Unmet Needs for Parenting Support questionnaire, changing the original items into items about donor conception. The items were derived from a qualitative study and checked by experts in donor conception. The parents' mental health was measured with the Adult Self Report and the donor-children's mental health with the Child Behaviour Checklist. A multigroup mediation analysis was conducted to explore relationships between parents’ unmet support needs and their child's mental health, with the parents’ mental health as a possible mediator.
There were no direct relations between parents’ unmet support needs and the mental health of donor-children. Unmet needs for psychosocial counselling, peer support and friends/family support for parents and children's mental health were indirectly related through the mental health of the parents: 0.074 (CI 95% = 0.013–0.136; P = 0.017), 0.085 (CI 95% = 0.018–0.151; P = 0.036) and 0.063 (CI 95% = 0.019–0.106; P = 0.013), respectively.
We recommend that fertility clinics, network organizations and authorities for infertility counsellors make their support available to parents for extended periods after their treatment. Further qualitative studies are necessary to assess how to relieve unmet support needs during donor sperm treatment.
The movement for global mental health calls for rapidly scaling up mental health services in low- and middle-income countries. This call has mobilised new resources, logics and solidarities while ...also igniting polemical scholarly debates about culture and power in the psy‑ences. Over the past 10 years, Nepal has become a key site of global mental health research and practice. In the wake of the devastating 2015 earthquake, advocates worked to channel unprecedented financial and political supp...
The COVID‐19 pandemic presents a threat to physical and psychosocial health of individuals. In lieu of the subsequent lockdown and containment measures, helpline counselling becomes a viable method ...of accessing psychosocial services during the pandemic. The present paper describes experiences of counsellors working with a special COVID‐19 counselling helpline initiated by iCALL, a national‐level technology‐assisted counselling service of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, which aims to address the psychosocial impact of the pandemic and the lockdown. The paper is based on two focus group interviews held with 11 counsellors during the initial two months of the helpline's functioning. Findings of the study highlight the diverse profile of the callers, with individuals belonging to different strata of society and to marginalised communities. The nature of concerns presented by the callers were often a mix of psychological, relational and practical issues. The resultant distress emanated from an interplay of these factors with the relational contexts, their social locations and social structures the individuals were embedded in. This highlighted the need for conceptualising and responding from a psychosocial lens, whereby interventions involved traditional counselling approaches and strategies for addressing determinants of distress by connecting callers to required ground‐level resources. Counsellors’ engagement with this process impacted their professional and personal selves, necessitating the need for structured and continuous training, supervision and support. At a larger level, the counsellors’ narratives asserted the need for adopting a psychosocial paradigm for conceptualising and addressing mental health concerns in India.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has adverse impacts on the state of mental health of the individuals, no attention has been paid so far in the academia whether there is an association between students’ ...inattentiveness to study and their psychological conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the study was intended to find out the association between students’ inattentiveness to study and their psychological conditions during this pandemic. Primary data for this study were collected from a total of 157 samples chosen from 18 academic departments of the Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), Bangladesh on the basis of snow-ball sampling. The study reveals that most of the respondents are much inattentive to study during the COVID-19 pandemic and they are much anxious, depressed, tensed, restless, bored and frightened and thereby their mental health and well-being has been affected. The study opines that there is a strong positive association between students’ inattentiveness to study and their psychological conditions which involve anxiety, depression, tension, restlessness, boredom and fear/panic. The study indicates that the association between students’ inattentiveness to study and their psychological conditions is statistically significant. Finally, the study suggests that the Government and the authority concerned should undertake proper measures to mitigate the adverse psychological conditions of the students of the NSTU by means of motivations and psychosocial counselling and thereby keeping up their attentiveness to study during the pandemic or any critical situation. As such, there is a crying need to establish a psychosocial counselling centre or an educational counselling centre in all universities of Bangladesh including the NSTU.
Objective: This study aimed to explore which topics intended parents who opt for donor sperm treatment find relevant to discuss in psychosocial counselling.
Background: The choice for donor sperm ...treatment has psychosocial implications for intended parents and therefore psychosocial counselling is advised as an integral part of DST. To date, little is known about which topics intended parents find relevant to discuss in psychosocial counselling.
Methods: We conducted 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews between 2015 and 2017 with heterosexual men and women, lesbian women and single women who opted for donor sperm treatment and had a counselling session as part of their intake. They were recruited through three Dutch fertility centres, three network organisations and by snowball sampling.
Results: Intended parents found it relevant to discuss the following seven topics in psychosocial counselling: the decision to opt for donor sperm treatment, choosing a sperm donor, coping with questions from family and friends, non-genetic parenthood, single motherhood, openness and disclosure, and future contact between the child and half-siblings.
Conclusion: We recommend that counsellors take a more active role in bringing up the topics found in our study and that a clear distinction is made between counselling with the aim to screen intended parents and counselling with the aim to offer guidance.
BACKGROUND
This study evaluated couples' perceptions of preparatory psychosocial counselling prior to participation in medically assisted reproduction (MAR).
METHODS
Eighty-three couples about to ...undergo IUI treatment were asked about their expectations regarding a subsequent single psychosocial counselling session and assessed in terms of their levels of infertility-specific stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Afterwards, participants rated their satisfaction with different elements of the session.
RESULTS
Almost two-thirds of women and one-half of men expected counselling to be important, and the majority anticipated that the session would be helpful and informative. Views of preparatory counselling were significantly more positive afterwards, indicating that a focused session addressing issues of treatment concerns, goal setting and managing infertility stress was more beneficial than anticipated. Those experiencing higher levels of infertility-specific stress expected the counselling session to be more important, and elevated stress and greater utilization of social support were predictive of post-counselling satisfaction.
CONCLUSIONS
Preparatory psychosocial counselling provided with a specific and practical focus appears to be a potentially important and helpful service prior to MAR. Clinics should not assume that patients can accurately judge the benefits of counselling before actually engaging in the session. Identifying patients most likely to benefit and providing a clear rationale may further increase receptivity to this proactive counselling service. While patients characterize this intervention as beneficial, it is not yet known if these benefits translate into improved management of treatment procedures.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
The decision to proceed with surgical treatment for pectus excavatum (PE) is rarely clear-cut. Patients interested in treatment are referred for evaluation by numerous different ...specialists, but psychosocial counselling is currently not included in this process. Our objective was to assess whether PE patients would be interested in formal assistance with the decision-making process surrounding PE surgery using narrative therapy principles.
METHODS
Ninety-seven untreated PE patients at 5 different institutions in 4 countries completed a questionnaire consisting of 13 questions, with 3 questions specifically evaluating interest in narrative therapy.
RESULTS
Eighty-two percent of participants were interested in narrative therapy to assist with the decision-making process surrounding PE surgery. Individuals most interested in narrative therapy tend to be more interested in correction (P < 0.05) to improve the way they feel about their body (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
The majority of PE patients are interested in narrative therapy to aid the decision-making process about treatment. We propose that narrative therapy should be offered to PE patients during the treatment evaluation process to address the psychosocial difficulties associated with PE and the surgical decision-making process overall. Future studies should assess the effectiveness of this interdisciplinary model.
Abstract Encountering infertility and involuntary childlessness and undergoing infertility treatment are acknowledged as stressful experiences that impact on individuals’ psychological and emotional ...health – and for which access to psychosocial counselling by a skilled mental health professional may be beneficial. Evidence of patients’, gamete donors’ and surrogates’ experiences indicates that utilization of infertility treatment in another country may not only exacerbate these psychosocial adversities, but may also pose additional risks to the psychological or physical health of participants, thus further emphasizing the need for competent psychosocial counselling services in cross-border reproductive care. However, this is a largely neglected topic in recent discussions of both CBRC itself and of infertility counselling practice. This paper extends the previous work undertaken by two of the authors to begin to map out practice issues within an ethical framework for counsellors when working with clients, donors, surrogates, individuals conceived following infertility treatment and existing children in clients’, donor’s and surrogates’ families where cross-border reproductive treatment is considered or undertaken. Encountering infertility and involuntary childlessness and undergoing infertility treatment are acknowledged as stressful experiences that impact individuals’ psychological and emotional health – and for which access to psychosocial counselling by a skilled mental health professional may be beneficial. Evidence of patients’, gamete donors’ and surrogates’ experiences indicates that utilization of infertility treatment in another country may not only exacerbate these psychosocial adversities, but may also pose additional risks to the psychological or physical health of participants, thus further emphasizing the need for competent psychosocial counselling services in cross-border reproductive care (CBRC). However, this is a largely neglected topic in recent discussions of both CBRC itself and of infertility counselling practice. This paper extends the previous work undertaken by two of the authors to begin to map out practice issues within an ethical framework for counsellors when working with clients, donors and surrogates where cross-border treatment is considered or undertaken.
The psychosocial and mental health support system in Afghanistan has evolved significantly over the last decades. Inge Missmahl, founder and director of the International Psychosocial Organisation ...gGmbH traces the history of the sector over the last fourteen years and reflects on working towards the long-term integration of biopsychosocial mental health care in the Afghan Public Health System. Health system integration was accomplished through development and training delivery of a value-based counselling approach. The approach is based on six fundamental principles which consider the sociocultural origins and context of the individual's symptomatology, emphasises personal empowerment over pathologisation and promotes a symmetrical relationship between counsellor and client. Over 300 Afghanis were trained in this approach and qualified as psychosocial counselors and counselled over 10,000 clients in total. The work to date highlights the importance of designing long-term, applied training programmes which include self experience and qualitative supervision in psychosocial support provision.
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