Anna V. Parmenidou | The University of Sheffield (original) (raw)

Conference Presentations by Anna V. Parmenidou

Purpose: This paper is a summary of the research and policy that underpins a national framework f... more Purpose: This paper is a summary of the research and policy that underpins a national framework for recovery-oriented mental health services. It provides an overview and definition of the concepts of recovery and lived experience. It outlines the policy context for a move to recovery-oriented approaches and cites relevant research. It briefly describes the practice domains and key capabilities necessary for recovery-oriented practice and service delivery. Objectives: The ultimate goal is to improve outcomes and quality of life for people experiencing mental health issues. It will influence the design and development of innovative service models and systems of care by helping mental health professionals in a range of settings-hospitals, community mental health services and other public, private and non-government health and human service settings to align their practice with recovery principles. Results: The lived experience and insights of people with mental health issues and their families are at the heart of this framework. Bringing lived experience together with the expertise, knowledge and skills of mental health practitioners offers opportunities to challenge traditional notions of professional power and expertise. Conclusions: Existing professional standards and competency frameworks at a national and state level can become more effective. The mental health service system comprises services and programs in which the primary function is to provide promotion, prevention, early intervention, medical and psychological treatments, recovery support for people who experience mental health issues or mental illness, and/or their families, carers and support networks.

Safeguarding means protecting people's health, well being and human rights and enabling them to l... more Safeguarding means protecting people's health, well being and human rights and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. Three factors play dominant roles in family change: better educational opportunities, economic development and progress in information technology. Human behavior is related to culture being adoptive to the broad ecological and sociopolitical contexts in which they are situated. However, we still have a long way to go given the high unemployment rates, poverty and social exclusion. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, regressive social phenomena manifest themselves recognizing the need fοr better coordination of all family and social policies involved affecting young people, elderly and the disabled as well as health, employment, vocational training, social protection, consumer protection, culture and migration by giving them the protection and assistance which they need to discharge their functions in society and their full potential with the dignity which belongs to every human being.

Introduction: The challenge of creating and maintaining healthy environments raises several compl... more Introduction: The challenge of creating and maintaining healthy environments raises several complex theoretical, methodological and public policy questions. To address these issues we propose a social-ecological conceptualization of health-promotive environments that emphasize the interactions among physical-material and social-symbolic features of environments as they affect the emotional, physical and social-wellbeing of individuals and groups. Method: We approach the problem of science-practice relationship in the light of postmodern changes in perspectives on knowledge by redefining psychological science and proposing multiplicity in our methods and sources of knowledge since it is more unlikely that the new roles and relationships of research and practice will wholly displace the old but more likely that the two systems of relationship will coexist. Results: The social-ecological perspective emphasizes the advantages of multilevel interventions that combine complementary or synergistic behavioral and environmental components. Furthermore it has important implications not only for theory development and basic research but also for public policy, community intervention and program evaluation. Conclusions: We propose a greater role for the knowledge of practice in the scientific base of the profession. To achieve this end will require of the academy a pluralistic view of knowledge and demand of our discipline the effort to research the epistemology and products of practice. These changes imply new relationships among academic researchers, practitioners and the public that grants the profession its legitimacy.

INTRODUCTION: Under the shadow of recession and on the basis of terror management theory (TMT) it... more INTRODUCTION: Under the shadow of recession and on the basis of terror management theory (TMT) it was hypothesized that self-esteem would reduce the worldview defense produced by mortality salience (MS). The focus of TMT has been to unveil how death-related thought operates at an unconscious level to exert a powerful effect on symbolic modes of social behavior. METHOD: Research needs to be uniquely built to advance a heuristic model of the cognitive architecture of how people defensively respond to the awareness of death. This model might have implications for understanding a number of domains more generally while subsequent insights may give us an important understanding of a multifaceted range of human social behavior. RESULTS: The results based on literature review confirmed the hypothesis by showing that individuals with high self-esteem did not respond to MS with increased worldview defense, whereas individuals with moderate self-esteem did. High self-esteem therefore facilitates the suppression of death constructs following MS. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the cognitive architecture of death related thought might help to provide insight into current social phenomena that re-activate unfinished grief and unresolved issues from the past by allowing us to trace the cognitive activation that follows reminders of death in different contexts and for different individuals. In doing so we can facilitate a better understanding of how existential needs affect core social behaviors that characterize the human experience.

INTRODUCTION: Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1995) refer to ‘cultural trauma’ as the product of a legac... more INTRODUCTION: Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1995) refer to ‘cultural trauma’ as the product of a legacy of chronic trauma and unresolved grief across generations originating from stunning loss of lives, lands and vital aspects of native cultures resulting from contact with dominant cultures. Although cultural trauma shares some etiological similarity with post-traumatic stress disorder, it is clearly distinct, as cultural trauma stems from damage inflicted to a group’s rather than an individual’s psychological defensive system. OBJECTIVES: This lecture will attempt a. to draw some attention to the social and cultural aspects of the construction of psychological knowledge to the way it is practiced today with its emphasis on clinical effectiveness by showing the common link between the damage inflicted on indigenous cultures and the state of health and psychological well being suffered by these people and, b. outline how the resources of values-based practice have been applied in the development of training materials that have been used to support implementation of the now Mental Health Act in the UK, designing mental health policy, service changes, planning and delivering quality training for the enhancement of performance and learning at the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: A failure to integrate scientific knowledge with its social context or to face some of the difficult implications of its practice separates the discipline from its potential as a humanitarian project in the long run underestimating the welfare of the populations they are privileged to serve.

BACKGROUND: We live through an era of revolutionary economic change - much more revolutionary tha... more BACKGROUND: We live through an era of revolutionary economic change - much more revolutionary than most realize. The beginning of the 21st century will be identified as the digital age and the reinvention of economic and social structures as a consequence. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to explore the personal and professional development of therapists and counselors over their career life span in order to demonstrate their professional competence and evolution. The 2nd-order thinking is thought to be a viable framework for systemic change not only in family therapy but in other contexts as well. We aim to identify the professional and personal prerequisites that will facilitate unity in inner plurality the necessary move towards a second-order position respecting a cybernetic epistemology. METHOD: By introducing regulatory focus as a distinct motivational principle towards emotional and cognitive differentiation and guidelines for future cross-cultural research adopting this paradigm shift, the personal pillars of excellence and the efficacy of psychological services we demonstrate how this transition to professional training could lead to better integration, individuation and integrity. CONCLUSION: Undoubtedly the developmental process undergone by most therapists and supervisors starts with a first-order stance. Reaching a second-order therapy and supervision is likely to be a slow process that would depend on the individual’s professional and personal experiences, crises, self-reflection and work on his or her own growth.

After more than 40 years of research, a substantial body of evidence has shown psychotherapy to b... more After more than 40 years of research, a substantial body of evidence has shown psychotherapy to be helpful in ameliorating psychological suffering. This is seldom questioned in professional circles, yet intense debate persists over how, when, and why therapy works. Those claiming to know the answers fall into two main camps, one arguing that some empirically supported treatments are therapeutic for specific problems, while others are less effective. The other camp posits that all approaches work equally well, as long as a strong therapist–client relationship and other common curative factors are present. To better elucidate this, first-order change refers to solutions that do not change the problem but that create stability, while second-order change transforms the first-order solutions, resulting in a resolution of the problem. The distinction between 1st- and 2nd-order change may hold important implications for the rationalist-constructivist contrast as portrayed by M. J. Mahoney (in press). An outline of the theoretical bases of the distinction between 1st- and 2nd-order change from P. Watzlawick et al (1974) is presented followed by parallel portrayals of this distinction in developmental and contemporary systems perspectives. A relationship is proposed between the 2 types of change, and implications of this relationship for counselling practice are discussed.

BACKGROUND: For more of the twentieth century senior psychotherapists have struggled with the tas... more BACKGROUND: For more of the twentieth century senior psychotherapists have struggled with the task of how best to impart the skills and techniques of therapeutic work to novices trying to avoid charlatanism. Cultural pluralism is not yet reflected in students, faculty, curriculum or research of psychotherapy training programs (Highlen, 1994), however, the vast majority of studies consisted of surveys of therapists' opinions indicate that personal therapy has a positive effect on those therapist qualities often cited as constructive to client change (e.g. empathy, warmth, genuineness). OBJECTIVES: The face of our world changes, so must the training of psychotherapists. It is evident that there needs more methodologically sound research as well as a more theoretical understanding of how personal therapy affects clinical practice, before any firm conclusions can be drawn about its usefulness. METHOD: The teleological nature of action is dependent on narratives therefore we adapt a life-span narrative research perspective. The point of narrative research is to make explicit the view of lives, which is embodied in stories. The life story offers a template that can be applied in many disciplinary settings or to fulfill much research needs. RESULTS: The vision of the lives that the stories express and the practices that they present have to be regarded as relevant not only to people involved but also to the researcher and his/her world. It is suggested that it may be more useful for future research in this area to focus on therapy process rather than client outcome. CONCLUSION: On the assumption that “people are not the problem they are the solution” therapy needs to attend to the political as well as the clinical symptoms of clients, that being ‘spiritual’ and ‘just’ as well as being ‘scientific’, ‘neutral’ and ‘professional’. No therapist however, has the omnipotence or the omniscience to decide what is the best way for clients to restructure their lives since each life path and journey is unique.

OVERVIEW: The natural propensity of the universe is its tendency to construct systems of evolving... more OVERVIEW: The natural propensity of the universe is its tendency to construct systems of evolving complexity and since there is neither single nor simple answer to the mental health of a population by the continuous violation of laws of natural necessity and economic progress has not been secured or evenly distributed; prevention continues to gain importance among the strategies open for governmental development of social policy. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to be an important policy-oriented contribution to the analysis and the solution of the problems of mental health in a macroeconomic dimension. It draws attention to factors related to the, shortcomings of educational policies, negative impact on educational outcomes, and the necessity of innovative platform in research and application. We specify our methodology taking into account the unpredictability of human factor. METHOD: This could be based on convergent validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and divergent validity assessments of a range of widely used measures, which are included in the Quality of Life Panel Survey (Headey, B., Kelley, J. and Wearing, A. 1993); using as dependent variables: social pathologies and as independent variables: a focus on structural determinants. CONCLUSION: This study contains the specific implications and the interesting contribution of the changing conception of science οn the problems of humanistic ethics, values and spirituality. This contribution with its macroeconomic orientation to the theoretical and practical analysis of the mental health problems of a population is not only an interesting and useful piece of research on conceptual and measurement issues, but could also help in the formation of better policies by facilitating understanding of the diverse and difficult current social realities and unprecedented challenges in a comparative way.

BACKGROUND: Health is a multidimensional concept. In basic documents from UN, WHO and EU social w... more BACKGROUND: Health is a multidimensional concept. In basic documents from UN, WHO and EU social well-being is an integrated part of health and also a human right (Council of Europe, 2000). All over the world however, approximately 50 million people are still suffering from mental disorders. More than half of these disorders could be prevented or treated adequately, if simple methods aiming at prevention or early identification of these disorders would be used. OBJECTIVES: This paper emphasizes ways of healing and recovery through self-knowledge and understanding related to culture, identity and personality, biology and society (Evangelista, M., 2003). Communication and expression of deep aspects of cultural self and of connections between the conscious and collective world reveal what is benevolent and nurturing and essential for recovery and wellbeing. METHOD: We undertook a metacognitive study to current facts, challenges and cultural changes that shape families and social institutions in Europe for early identification in terms of availability of resources to provide effective interventions (Shimamura, A. P., 2000, Matsaganis M., et al., 2003, Odom, S. L. and Kaul, S. 2003). RESULTS: There are undoubtedly considerable differences of the mental health services between developed and developing countries and the problem of inadequate usefulness of provisional services is common. Even when mental health services are available, less than half, of those who really need them, are turning to them. This is also related with the stigmatization of people with mental disorders as well as with the inadequacy of the services provided (W.H.O., Report for Global Health, 2001). CONCLUSION: In Greece, the existing number of community based alternatives to inpatient psychiatric care is considered to still be inadequate to reduce admissions in public mental hospitals and to accommodate to yet-to-be deinstitutionalized long-stay patients (Madianos et al., 2000). International scientific collaboration between developed and developing countries will fail to cope if there is asymmetry in resources and infrastructure between these two sets of countries; a) Strong scientific and technical skills must be complemented with strong leadership skills, b) Management skills, c) Interpersonal skills; d) Increase infrastructure and materials for research e) Research activities more combined with socio-economic requirements, f) Information sharing mechanism.

AIM: In this study: a) we attempt a well-established review of clinical and empirical work examin... more AIM: In this study: a) we attempt a well-established review of clinical and empirical work examining the origins, correlates and consequences of clinical supervision, which has a number of implications for psychotherapeutic work and; b) we aim to get a reflective output of the training at the Institute around a specific set of principles and objectives. MATERIAL-METHOD: Invited participants of this study were 22-trainee play and drama therapists enrolled in the training program during the period 1997-2001. The original version format for such an assessment was used as a blueprint of Peter Hawkins and Shohet Robin’s (1989). We chose an innovative reflective action research (Meyer J., & Bridges J. 1998), “discovery oriented” or “heuristic” in nature (Moustakas, 1994). RESULTS: Since our findings were based in a “social constructionist” perspective on knowledge (Gergen, 1985); they are reflecting the current state of affairs at the particular population. Possible factor analytic elaboration could be made. If the findings are to be compared though they need to be matched as to their demographic characteristics as well as to their curriculum module with other Psychotherapy Training Institutes using the same modalities. CONCLUSIONS: All trainee participants seem to have attained an adequate acquisition of knowledge, managerial and responsibility skills. The system currently seems to function to a great degree as a “supportive container” (Bion, 1961, 1962) to all sorts of growth and dependency needs to use Buber’s (1970) term.

Talks by Anna V. Parmenidou

Papers by Anna V. Parmenidou

Research Background: Family sociologists such as Reuben Hill and Evelyn Duvall first proposed a d... more Research Background: Family sociologists such as Reuben Hill and Evelyn Duvall first proposed a developmental framework for studying families in the late 1940's in an effort to account for regularities in family life overtime (Falicov, 1988). Family sociology played a major role in the study of family change in the twentieth century with the theory of Parsons (1943) its most seminal influence. The main research question in this study is focused on how the same environment produces such apparently different people? We attempt an in depth comprehension of family relationships, family interaction and developmental patterns of a low-income working class family having an identified paranoid schizophrenic son and a well-adjusted same-gender sibling. A well researched literature review is needed in order to comprehend how disordered familial patterns of relating and communicating develop through time and inhibit emotional, social and intellectual growth.

HUMANISTIC ETHICS, VALUES AND SPIRITUALITY BASED ON THE CHANGING CONCEPTION OF SCIENCE: REVERSING CUMULATIVE COSMOLOGICAL VIOLATIONS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES ON RANDOMIZED EVOLUTION, Nov 2011

"OVERVIEW: The natural propensity of the universe is its tendency to construct systems of evolvin... more "OVERVIEW: The natural propensity of the universe is its tendency to construct systems of evolving complexity and since there is neither single nor simple answer to the mental health of a population by the continuous violation of laws of natural necessity and economic progress has not been secured or evenly distributed; prevention continues to gain importance among the strategies open for governmental development of social policy. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to be an important policy-oriented contribution to the analysis and the solution of the problems of mental health in a macroeconomic dimension. It draws attention to factors related to the, shortcomings of educational policies, negative impact on educational outcomes, and the necessity of innovative platform in research and application. We specify our methodology taking into account the unpredictability of human factor. METHOD: This could be based on convergent validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and divergent validity assessments of a range of widely used measures, which are included in the Quality of Life Panel Survey (Headey, B., Kelley, J. and Wearing, A. 1993); using as dependent variables: social pathologies and as independent variables: a focus on structural determinants. CONCLUSION: This study contains the specific implications and the interesting contribution of the changing conception of science οn the problems of humanistic ethics, values and spirituality. This contribution with its macroeconomic orientation to the theoretical and practical analysis of the mental health problems of a population is not only an interesting and useful piece of research on conceptual and measurement issues, but could also help in the formation of better policies by facilitating understanding of the diverse and difficult current social realities and unprecedented challenges in a comparative way.

HUMANISTIC ETHICS, VALUES AND SPIRITUALITY BASED ON THE CHANGING CONCEPTION OF SCIENCE: REVERSING CUMULATIVE COSMOLOGICAL VIOLATIONS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES ON RANDOMIZED EVOLUTION, Nov 2011