Community-based psychological counselling services (CPCS) is crucial for the oldest-old who often faces challenges or are reluctant to seek care at the healthcare settings. This study aims to examine ...trends in availability of CPCS over time and rural-urban disparities in service availability among nationwide oldest-old in China.
Multiple cross-sectional data were derived from the 2005–2018 Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey. Service availability was reported by each oldest-old participant or their next-of-kins as having CPCS in one's neighborhood. We used Cochran-Armitage tests to estimate service availability trends and applied sample-weighted logistic regression models to examine its rural-urban disparities.
Of 38,032 oldest-old, CPCS availability decreased from 6.7 % in 2005 to 4.8 % in 2008/2009, followed by continual increases to 13.6 % in 2017/2018. In 2017/2018, rural oldest-old's neighborhoods had no greater service availability. Oldest-old residing in the Central (6.7 %), Western (13.4 %) and Northeast China (8.1 %) were less likely to report having services locally than their Eastern counterparts (17.8 %). Oldest-old having any disability or living in the nursing homes reported having greater service availability than those without disability or living at home.
Service availability might have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the increasing service availability, as of 2017/2018, only 13.6 % oldest-old in China had reported CPCS availability. It raises concerns on the disproportionate access to and continuity of mental health care, especially for those living the Central, Western China and those living at home. Policy efforts are needed to incentivize service expansion and eliminate disparities in the service availability.
•Community-based psychological counselling services (CPCS) are increasingly available in China.•Only 13.6 % of oldest-old in China reported having access to CPCS in 2017/2018.•Geographic disparities in CPCS availability are substantial and persistent.
The article reveals issues related to formation of moral self-awareness in the process of psychological counselling. The meaning of the concepts: “consciousness”, “moral”, “moral self-awareness”, ...“counselling”, “psychology”, “psychological counselling” is clarified. A classification of psychological counselling is presented. A review of literature by domestic and foreign researchers on fostering moral self-awareness in adolescents is made. It is investigated that the American psychologist Hall (1904) first covered the issue of formation of moral self-consciousness in adolescents. It is determined that the functions of moral self-consciousness include self-control, self-perception, self-approval, self-understanding, self-improvement. It is found that scientists distinguish 2 types of self-awareness: subjective and objective. It is emphasized that self-awareness is the ability to clearly and realistically evaluate one’s behavior. The moral self-consciousness of adolescents with high, medium and low levels of self-esteem is considered. In addition, emphasis is placed on the fact that moral traits are the factors that shape a person. It has been found that moral self-awareness is based on the following factors: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. It is noted that the ability to communicate plays an important role in formation of moral self-awareness. The signs that prompt a teenager think about visiting a psychologist have been identified. It is proved that knowledge about one’s strengths in moral self-awareness helps adolescents to form their own moral well-being. It is found that conducting simulation games by a psychologist during a group training allows a specialist to determine the level of moral self-awareness of an adolescent, as well as to form strong moral virtues. It is proved that a game helps to conduct an effective psychological counselling, because a child feels comfortable, relaxed, openly shares thoughts and feelings. A remote form of psychological counseling is considered. It is emphasized that a psychologist works with a teenager, as well as with his/her parents. It was found that psychological counseling comprises a diagnostic and a therapeutic part.
The COVID-19 has had an impact on almost every aspect of life throughout the world. The quarantine, limited social life, and fear of contamination have triggered psychological symptoms in societies. ...The need for mental health services has increased, and online psychological counselling, which provides psychological help with no risk of infection, has become more popular. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 on psychological counselling services and compare the general situation of publications on online psychological counselling before and during the pandemic. For this purpose, 463 publications related to online psychological counselling in the Web of Science (WoS) database were examined. The results were discussed in the context of trends and differences before and during COVID-19.
Several studies have shown how COrona VIrus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and the consequent isolation and quarantine measures could affect physical and mental well‐being. Therefore, the increased request ...for support and assistance represents a critical challenge for clinicians requiring a reorganization of care systems. In this regard, online counselling has been identified as a useful tool in providing psychological assistance and support. Thus, the main purpose of the current study was to investigate the clinical usefulness of a single online counselling session in reducing psychopathological symptoms (i.e., state anxiety and negative affect) and increasing individual well‐being and positive affect during the first Italian lockdown. Fifty‐three subjects were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive an online counselling session Online Counselling Group (OCG) = 26 or to act as controls Waiting List Group (WLG) = 27. In the post‐assessment, compared to WLG, the OCG showed a significant decrease in negative affect (18.04 ± 6.30 vs. 30.26 ± 8.61; F1:47 = 29.45; p < .001; dppc2 = .92) and state anxiety (36.65 ± 8.35 vs. 48.04 ± 11.51; F1:47 = 17.86; p < .001; dppc2 = .49). Taking into account the cyclical nature of COVID‐19, with the possibility of new peaks and waves, it would be appropriate to consider the versatility and usefulness of online psychological counselling in the management of COVID‐19‐related distress.
Abstract Background Extensive research has been conducted treating burnout as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable to proffer possible solutions to burnout and job ...performance among academics. Despite this, the burnout crises persist and are exacerbated by the ongoing global proliferation of higher education. Acknowledging this, the current study explored whether performance may contribute to the emergence of burnout. Methods The study’s sample population comprised 689 academics from Jiangsu province, China. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results served to measure performance. Psychological counselling and Burnout were calculated using mental health results garnered from the universities. Data was collected on respondents' demographic characteristics and work situations. The mean scores were 0.517 (SD = 0.5) for gender and 1.586 (SD = 1.103) for age. The relationship among performance, job burnout, and psychological counselling was analysed via a cross-sectional survey deploying grouped regression. Results Academics’ job performance was found to regulate their burnout (β = -0.058, P < 0.01). Higher performance of academics was significantly associated with lower job burnout and psychological counselling. Furthermore, psychological counselling significantly moderated job burnout (β = -0.012, P < 0.05) among academics without regulating their job performance. Conclusion The paper supplements the discourse on job burnout and academic performance by suggesting a pre-counselling measure as a strategy to address the crises of burnout. The paper argued that the continued competence of employees should prevent burnout in Higher education and ensure better job performance.
The demand for psychological counselling has grown significantly in recent years, particularly with the global outbreak of COVID-19, which heightened the need for timely and professional mental ...health support. Online psychological counselling emerged as the predominant mode of providing services in response to this demand. In this study, we propose the Psy-LLM framework, an AI-based assistive tool leveraging large language models (LLMs) for question answering in psychological consultation settings to ease the demand on mental health professions. Our framework combines pre-trained LLMs with real-world professional questions-and-answers (Q&A) from psychologists and extensively crawled psychological articles. The Psy-LLM framework serves as a front-end tool for healthcare professionals, allowing them to provide immediate responses and mindfulness activities to alleviate patient stress. Additionally, it functions as a screening tool to identify urgent cases requiring further assistance. We evaluated the framework using intrinsic metrics, such as perplexity, and extrinsic evaluation metrics, including human participant assessments of response helpfulness, fluency, relevance, and logic. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Psy-LLM framework in generating coherent and relevant answers to psychological questions. This article discusses the potential and limitations of using large language models to enhance mental health support through AI technologies.
Background
Adherence to treatment, including inhaled therapies, is low in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Although psychological interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people ...with CF have been developed, no previous published systematic review has evaluated the evidence for efficacy of these interventions.
Objectives
The primary objective of the review was to assess the efficacy of psychological interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The secondary objective was to establish the most effective components, or behaviour change techniques (BCTs), used in these interventions.
Search methods
We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis Trials Register, which is compiled from electronic database searches and handsearching of journals and conference books.
We also searched databases (PubMed; PsycINFO; EBSCO; Scopus; OpenGrey), trials registries (World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform; US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trials Register ClinicalTrials.gov), and the reference lists of relevant articles and reviews, with no restrictions on language, year or publication status.
Date of search: 7 August 2022.
Selection criteria
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing different types of psychological interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people with CF of any age, or comparing psychological interventions with usual care. We included quasi‐RCTs if we could reasonably assume that the baseline characteristics were similar in both groups.
Data collection and analysis
Two review authors independently assessed trial eligibility and completed data extraction, risk of bias assessments, and BCT coding (using the BCT Taxonomy v1) for all included trials. We resolved any discrepancies by discussion, or by consultation with a third review author as necessary. We assessed the certainty of the evidence using GRADE.
Main results
We included 10 trials (1642 participants) in the review (children and adolescents in four trials; adults in five trials; and children and adults in one trial). Nine trials compared a psychological intervention with usual care; we could combine data from some of these in a number of quantitative analyses. One trial compared a psychological intervention with an active comparator (education plus problem‐solving (EPS)). We identified five ongoing trials.
Psychological interventions were generally multi‐component and complex, containing an average of 9.6 BCTs (range 1 to 28). The two most commonly used BCTs included 'problem‐solving' and 'instruction on how to perform the behaviour'. Interventions varied in their type, content and mode of delivery. They included a problem‐solving intervention; a paper‐based self‐management workbook; a telehealth intervention; a group training programme; a digital intervention comprising medication reminders and lung function self‐monitoring; a life‐coaching intervention; a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention; a brief MI intervention (behaviour change counselling); and a digital intervention combined with behaviour change sessions. Intervention duration ranged from 10 weeks to 12 months. Assessment time points ranged from six to eight weeks up to 23 months.
Psychological interventions compared with usual care
We report data here for the 'over six months and up to 12 months' time point. We found that psychological interventions probably improve adherence to inhaled therapies (primary outcome) in people with CF compared with usual care (mean difference (MD) 9.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.60 to 10.40; 1 study, 588 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence). There was no evidence of a difference between groups in our second primary outcome, treatment‐related adverse events: anxiety (MD 0.30, 95% CI ‐0.40 to 1.00; 1 study, 535 participants), or depression (MD ‐0.10, 95% CI ‐0.80 to 0.60; 1 study, 534 participants), although this was low‐certainty evidence. For our secondary outcomes, there was no evidence of a difference between groups in terms of lung function (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) % predicted MD 1.40, 95% CI ‐0.20 to 3.00; 1 study, 556 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence); number of pulmonary exacerbations (adjusted rate ratio 0.96, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.11; 1 study, 607 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence); or respiratory symptoms (MD 0.70, 95% CI ‐2.40 to 3.80; 1 study, 534 participants; low‐certainty evidence). However, psychological interventions may improve treatment burden (MD 3.90, 95% CI 1.20 to 6.60; 1 study, 539 participants; low‐certainty evidence). The overall certainty of the evidence ranged from low to moderate across these outcomes. Reasons for downgrading included indirectness (current evidence included adults only whereas our review question was broader and focused on people of any age) and lack of blinding of outcome assessors.
Psychological interventions compared with an active comparator
For this comparison the overall certainty of evidence was very low, based on one trial (n = 128) comparing an MI intervention to EPS for 12 months. We are uncertain whether an MI intervention, compared with EPS, improves adherence to inhaled therapies, lung function, or quality of life in people with CF, or whether there is an effect on pulmonary exacerbations. The included trial for this comparison did not report on treatment‐related adverse events (anxiety and depression). We downgraded all reported outcomes due to small participant numbers, indirectness (trials included only adults), and unclear risk of bias (e.g. selection and attrition bias).
Authors' conclusions
Due to the limited quantity of trials included in this review, as well as the clinical and methodological heterogeneity, it was not possible to identify an overall intervention effect using meta‐analysis. Some moderate‐certainty evidence suggests that psychological interventions (compared with usual care) probably improve adherence to inhaled therapies in people with CF, without increasing treatment‐related adverse events, anxiety and depression (low‐certainty evidence). In future review updates (with ongoing trial results included), we hope to be able to establish the most effective BCTs (or 'active ingredients') of interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people with CF.
Wherever possible, investigators should make use of the most objective measures of adherence available (e.g. data‐logging nebulisers) to accurately determine intervention effects. Outcome reporting needs to be improved to enable combining or separation of measures as appropriate. Likewise, trial reporting needs to include details of intervention content (e.g. BCTs used); duration; intensity; and fidelity. Large trials with a longer follow‐up period (e.g. 12 months) are needed in children with CF. Additionally, more research is needed to determine how to support adherence in 'under‐served' CF populations.
The article compares pedagogical-psychological counselling care in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. As early as the end of the 19th century, the first laboratories began to appear in some states ...to provide advice on the education and training of students. After the First World War, the then Czechoslovakia also joined them. The text presents and describes two types of counselling facilities in the Czech Republic, as well as educational care centers. It also introduces counselling and counselling for pupils with special educational needs in the UK. The article concludes with a description of personal experience from an internship at Brighton Metropolitan College and their ability to provide counselling care.
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