A comment on Martin''s relation

Interviews with 80 therapists and 50 patients at a community mental health center revealed that peer review effectively monitored the appropriateness of treatment and allocated limited treatment funds without unduly interfering with established treatment patterns, relationships, or outcomes. Most therapists reported receiving helpful consultation from the peer review committee, and the process encouraged them to focus more clearly on treatment goals. On the other hand, patients were concerned about the committee's role in making decisions about their treatment. Therapists noted as a problem the lack of certainty in establishing a treatment contract prior to peer review since the contract with the patient must remain fluid during the evaluation period. The therapists and patients demonstrated remarkable agreement in their assessment of treatment progress and whether further therapy was needed.     

The Colorado Medicare study: Perspective of the peer review committee.

In 1977, the Social Security Administration sponsored a study to determine whether including psychologists as independent providers and increasing the dollar limit of Medicare's mental health benefits would have an impact on the availability of mental health care to Medicare recipients, the quality of care provided, and the cost and utilization of the program. The present study discusses peer review issues that emerged from the study: (1) the peer review criteria for quality of care provided, (2) the range of covered services and covered diagnoses under Medicare, (3) the unique patient population aspects, (4) patient participation in the treatment plans and outcome forms used for peer review, (5) the issue of confidentiality of the peer review forms, (6) and findings regarding medical consultation on cases treated by psychologists. The review committee concluded that within the limits of the study, the review system was successful and the quality of services delivered was high. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le diagnostic et le traitement des troubles du sommeil: nécessité d'une interaction médico-psychologique.

Reviews research and treatment methods for sleep disorders, emphasizing the concerted contributions of psychology and medicine. In view of the possibility on the one hand of general physicians' overusing pharmacological treatment, and on the other hand of psychologists' bypassing medical consultation, the authors recommend the introduction of basic notions of normal and abnormal sleep and appropriate treatment in the training programs of practitioners in both disciplines. The development of additional sleep-disorder centers, well entrenched in health services programs, should fill an important health need and serve as a resource for general practitioners in medicine and psychology. (English abstract) (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate training programs in evaluation and measurement: A report of the Test Use Committee of Division 5.

In furtherance of its efforts to increase the effectiveness of the use of psychological and educational tests, the American Psychological Association's Division 5 (Evaluation and Measurement) appointed a Test Use Committee in the fall of 1954. At the time of appointing this committee, its mission was to carry on where the Committee on Test Standards left off and its particular concern would be to consider problems of training test users and to study other ways in which services involving the use of tests could be improved. After some study, the committee decided that an appropriate starting point for its activity would be to conduct a survey of the training programs, course offerings, and placement procedures for high level specialists in the field of measurement, since such specialists exercise a major influence on the use of tests. In the summer of 1956 a questionnaire was mailed to 83 Division 5 members who were deemed likely to have some connection with measurement and evaluation training programs at the graduate level. The questionnaire items and the responses are summarized in this report. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training professional psychologists in school-based consultation: What the syllabi suggest.

This article reports the findings from consultation syllabi from 25 American Psychological Association-approved school psychology programs (40% response rate). Most responding programs offered 1 consultation course and many programs' syllabi stated expecting students to conduct 1 consultation case. The analysis showed most syllabi listed training in multiple models of consultation, with almost all mentioning the problem-solving model. Almost all syllabi listed training in treatment, but fewer than half suggested that students would learn about the use of consultation to promote prevention. Most programs' syllabi mentioned considering others' culture in consultation, whereas fewer than half mentioned considering the impact of the consultant's culture in consultation relationships and even fewer mentioned social justice. The discussion addresses the need for a better understanding of school-based consultation preservice training, consultation training in a diverse and inequitable world, and how practitioners' cognitive appraisals of consultation services could inform school-based consultation training. Considerations for consultation syllabi design are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer review in California: Summary findings in 40 cases.

Describes 40 requests for review of psychological services and fees processed by the California State Psychological Association Professional Standards Review Committee between January 1979 and August 1981. Nearly half of the reviews required a formal hearing by an ad hoc committee (2 psychologists and 1 public member) that met with the provider. Less complex cases were handled by a committee member who acted as ombudsman. The most frequent questions involved fees for specific services, utilization of services, reimbursement by the carrier for psychological treatment of psychological assistants and employees, and overutilization and duplication of services with hospitalized patients. Deficiencies in quality of care were found in one-third of the cases. The relative newness of peer review, the problems of using volunteers to perform the reviews, the increasing utilization of peer review by carriers, the lack of visibility to consumers, and the necessity of peer review to counter sunset legislation are discussed. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A brief reminder about documenting the psychological consultation.

The documentation of clinical services has taken on unprecedented importance for practicing psychologists. Structuring quality care, decreasing liability exposure, and fulfilling requirements for reimbursement are primary objectives in pursuing thorough documentation practices. As a practice aid and a brief reminder, the authors review the basic structure for documenting an initial evaluation, highlighting content areas that are felt to be important for attaining the objectives noted above. The authors suggest that psychologists use the term psychological consultation to specify this procedure, designating it as a distinct process from psychological testing or psychological treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

APA-accredited doctoral programs in clinical, counseling, and school psychology: 1983.

The Committee on Accreditation has accredited the doctoral training programs in clinical, counseling, and school psychology that are conducted by the institutions listed below. In the institutions listed, the accredited programs are directed by the department of psychology unless otherwise indicated. All programs, unless otherwise noted, are PhD programs. Programs that have not requested evaluation, and programs that have been evaluated but not accredited, are not included in the list. Readers desiring information on training goals and approaches of specific programs are encouraged to write directly to the departments in which the programs are offered. The criteria for evaluating these programs can be obtained from the Accreditation Office. There are three categories of accreditation. Full accreditation is awarded to any program that, in the professional judgment of the committee, meets the criteria in a satisfactory manner. Provisional accreditation is awarded to programs making initial application that, in the professional judgment of the committee, do not meet all the criteria but for which the committee believes there is a reasonable expectation that they will be met within a foreseeable period of time from the date of the initial site visit. Probation is the category into which a fully accredited program is placed when the committee has evidence that the program is not currently in satisfactory compliance with the criteria. Inclusion of an institution in this list indicates accreditation of doctoral programs in clinical, counseling, school, and combined professional-scientific psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Omentoplasty in the management of filarial lymphoedema

OBJECTIVE: Peer review is an important part of the publication of scientific results. We analysed the peer review process of abstracts submitted to the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) congress in Copenhagen in 1995. DESIGN: Comparative study. All abstracts were reviewed by all six members of the EASL scientific committee. Furthermore, each abstract was evaluated by three to six experts within 17 specific study fields, appointed by the scientific committee. All abstracts received a score on a scale from 1 to 5, one being the best. For each abstract the average was calculated for the scores of the committee members and the expert reviewers separately. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Abstract score. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the scores between the committee members, who scored 3.31 on average, and the expert reviewers, who scored 3.02 on average. Within most of the study fields the tendency was that the expert reviewers gave the highest scores. Moreover, there was a significant variation in the estimates among the individual reviewers as well as between the 2 groups of reviewers. Only 25% of the abstracts that received the best scores by the expert reviewers were classified in the same way by the committee members. The predictive value of a positive evaluation by the committee members was 0.6, the predictive value of a negative evaluation was 0.90. CONCLUSIONS: There was a considerable variation in the peer review process for abstracts submitted to the 1995 EASL congress depending on selection of reviewers. Various types of peer review strategies should be tested and evaluated to secure the highest possible scientific quality of published research results.     

Using Adlerian personality priorities to custom-design consultation with parents of play therapy clients.

The authors describe a model of using Adlerian personality priorities to guide play therapists in their consultation with parents of their clients. Parent consultation is an important function of the play therapist, particularly because it holds such promise for reinforcing the positive changes of clients. Using an Adlerian model of consultation that emphasizes personality priorities in the design and implementation of the consultation helps when dealing with parental consultation for two reasons: (1) this model offers the advantage of a straightforward four stage approach, with a significant theoretical grounding, (2) play therapists utilizing personality priorities to custom-design their consultation can anticipate the sources of parental resistance and plan approaches that circumvent or prevent many potential problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher perceptions of consultation services provided by school psychologists.

Investigated the following questions: Do teachers prefer consultation or traditional testing services? Do teachers view the consultee role as one that is appropriate for their profession? Do consultation interactions result in increased professional skills for the consultee? 12 schools from a wide range of communities were provided with school psychology consultants for 14 wks. At the end of this time, teacher attitudes concerning the consultation process were assessed. Data analyses revealed that the 173 teachers reacted positively to the consultation services, placed a high priority on working along with school psychology consultants, and believed that their professional skills would improve as a function of consultation interactions. None of the results differed between schools as a function of gross demographic characteristics. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual foundations for school psychology: Perspectives from the development of the school psychology program at Berkeley.

Describes the Berkeley School Psychology Program, instituted in 1965 to prepare doctoral level school psychologists in the cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences and to be skilled in applying this knowledge to educational programs for children and youths. Grounded in a scientific basis for practice and trained in developing applications of this knowledge base to direct and indirect services for children and youths, the school psychologist promotes individual effectiveness and prevents educational failure. The medium through which the school psychologist's knowledge is translated into action by the educators who are responsible for educational programs is school-based consultation. An overview of the history of the program from its inception to the present is provided, and challenges for program and professional development for the remainder of the century are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Outcome studies in mental hospitals: A search for criteria.

Considers issues raised by H. H. Strupp and A. E. Bergin in their review of individual treatment. It is argued that the task of determining whether therapy has been successful is conceptually more complicated for hospital programs. Individual therapy is presented as a 2-party contract between the patient and therapist while hospital programs are seen as a 6-party contract including the patient, state, local community, family, hospital staff, and therapist. The goals of each of the 6 parties are presented and some incompatabilities noted. Given the multiplicity of incompatible goals, it is suggested that various treatment programs may be designed for optimal success on the terms set by 1 of the 6 parties and evaluation of outcome may involve selecting whose outcome to assess. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

University counseling center consultation: Developing a faculty outreach program.

A faculty outreach program created by a university counseling center had the goals of strengthening the working relationship between staff of the center and academic faculty, informing faculty of the center's services and their relationship to the academic mission, providing coordination of academic departments' requests for outreach and consultation services, and increasing center staff involvement in outreach services to faculty. In its first year this program reached 53 departments and programs and 370 faculty and staff. The program design, results, and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consultant and client outcomes of competency-based behavioral consultation training.

One barrier to the systematic provision of consultation services in the schools may be the lack of applied training provided to preservice individuals in graduate preparation programs. A model of behavioral consultation training which extends previous competency-based progams is presented. Five doctoral students in school psychology were trained in behavioral consultation procedures using written manuals, videotape models, behavioral rehearsal, performance feedback, self-monitoring, and generalization training. Following university-based practice with trained consultees and student teachers, consultants were assigned consultation cases with teachers who presented actual cases. Behavioral consultation services were effective at remediating behavioral and academic difficulties in 4 of 5 target clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Report of the… .

Asummary of a report containing "information about subdoctoral training programs,… questions the committee deemed relevant and important,… and appropriate recommendations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical therapy for a patient through six stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This case report describes the use of Sinaki and Mulder's approach to staging amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and functional outcome measures in designing a treatment program for a 59-year-old woman with ALS. CASE DESCRIPTION AND OUTCOMES: As the patient progressed from stage I through stage VI, over 12 months, the physical therapy goals changed from optimizing remaining function, to maintaining functional mobility, and finally to maximizing quality of life. DISCUSSION: Disease staging and the use of functional outcome measures provide a framework for physical therapy evaluation and treatment of patients with ALS throughout the disease process. Physical therapists can assist patients with ALS through the provision of education, psychological support, rehabilitation programs, and recommendations for appropriate equipment and community resources.     

Neuronal signals are required for estrogen-mediated induction of progesterone receptor in cultured rat Schwann cells

This paper presents a methodology for estimating costs of delivering specific substance abuse treatment services. Data collected from 13 programs indicate that the mean cost of residential treatment is $2,773 per patient per month, and outpatient treatment costs average $636 per patient per month. Data are presented on the cost patient per month for individual treatment and nontreatment services, average number of services, cost per unit of service, and intensity of services. In addition to their application to insurance benefit cost estimation, these data illustrate the costing of best-practice adolescent treatment consistent with a Center of Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Treatment Improvement Protocol. In the emerging policy environment, detailed cost estimates like these will aid the design of cost-effective treatment programs, and serve the development of the substance abuse benefit in a health care reform insurance package.