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Biomedical subjects

E E Griffith

Publications and source records attributed to E E Griffith.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

A historical review of the Madison model of community care.

The community-based mental health care programs developed by Stein, Test, and their colleagues in Madison, Wisconsin, have had a profound impact on the delivery of mental health services to the severely mentally ill. The authors trace the development of the model from its late-1960s emphasis on improving Mendota State Hospital and providing intensive post-discharge care through the phases of releasing patients early to the community, preventing hospitalization, providing continuous community care for young schizophrenics, maintaining difficult patients in the community, and organizing a system of care. Throughout its evolution the model has changed significantly in response to changing circumstances, reflecting the assertive adaptability of the approach. Program planners attempting to incorporate elements of the Madison model in their own settings must be aware of current pressures that are likely to force further adaptations.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1989

Recent trends in suicide and homicide among blacks.

The black community contends daily with the phenomena of suicide and homicide. However, it is the killing of black males that constitutes the heaviest burden for the group. Black suicide rates, on the other hand, continue to be lower than white suicide rates. Nevertheless, it is the black male group between the ages of 25 and 34 years that bears the brunt of both suicide and homicide. This article reviews the major theories advanced to explain the existence of these serious public health problems in the black community, suggests ways of attacking these problems, and also delineates significant areas for future research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The development and practice of pastoral counseling.

The practice of pastoral counselors is not well understood by secular mental health professionals, although evidence suggests that advantages can be gained by increasing the interaction between the two groups. Trends in the historical development of pastoral counseling are summarized, and a typology that distinguishes three major thrusts among its practitioners--religious counseling, pastoral mental health work, and pastoral psychotherapy--is offered. A clergy malpractice case that raises issues of joint concern to secular and religious therapists is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Expert testimony in cult-related litigation.

The work of forensic psychiatrists has expanded into the controversial area of cases involving new religious movements. Challenges to the expert witness in such cases include new questions and a large body of relevant literature. Published appeals decisions have appeared with judicial comments on the conduct of the involved experts. This article presents the comments about expert witnesses from judges who decided cases involving the major new issues of coercion both in recruitment into and forcible abduction from cults, and competency to join and make donations to these groups. The judicial comments are evaluated using relevant literature from the fields of law, psychiatry, and religion. This provides a basis for general observations and suggestions regarding the involvement of psychiatric experts in cult-related cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Institutional response to inpatients' threats against the President.

Federal law makes it a crime to threaten the life of the President of the United States. However, psychiatric clinicians have no legal obligation to report all such threats encountered in their practice. In deciding whether to report a threat, they must balance their obligation to protect the President with their duty to uphold a patient's rights to confidentiality and to freedom from self-incrimination. The authors present a case highlighting the issues faced by clinicians in deciding whether to report threats made by psychiatric inpatients and offer guidelines for dealing with such situations. In general, responses to patients' threats against the President should follow the Tarasoff principle, which asserts that clinicians who conclude that a patient presents a danger to another person should take steps to protect that person.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Recent developments in the Grenada mental health program.

The activities of a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals during their initial year of work to upgrade the mental health system in the English-speaking Caribbean nation of Grenada are described. Improvement of services at the islands only psychiatric hospital received top priority. The team helped Grenadian staff to sharpen basic techniques of active treatment, which included assessment of psychiatric symptoms, development of treatment plans, and intervention with patients. Maintenance of medical records was improved, procedures for medication and seclusion were standardized, weekly ward rounds were routinized, and regular staff meetings were urged. Among the obstacles faced by the team in implementing these changes were staffs delayed acceptance of collaborative interdisciplinary team-work, as well as shortages of money and personnel.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1987

Pastoral counseling and the concept of malpractice.

The discipline of pastoral counseling has developed to the point at which malpractice claims against pastoral counselors are a reality. The need for forensic psychiatrists to participate in such suits is likely to increase. In this article, we review the recent California case of Nally v. Grace Community Church. Kenneth Nally committed suicide while under the care of clergy. His parents claimed that the pastoral counselors negligently counseled their son and that this counseling led to his death. This case will serve as a point of departure for reviewing the developments and evolution of pastoral counseling as a discipline. Then we shall highlight the difficult problem of whether pastoral counseling ought to be classified as a religious or a secular activity, while pointing out that this dichotomous view does not accurately portray the activities and beliefs of pastoral counselors. Nevertheless, we underline the connection made between the definition of pastoral counseling and the assertion that pastors should be shielded from malpractice claims.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning," II: An empirical assessment.

Members of a West Indian Christian sect called the Spiritual Baptists participate in a "mourning" ritual that is characterized by praying, fasting, and the experiencing of dreams and visions while in isolation. Sixteen individuals who underwent mourning were evaluated with the SCL-90-R before and after the ritual. In general, the mourners showed significant improvement on the self-report scales.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Racism, psychological injury, and compensatory damages.

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have paid only modest attention to the idea that discriminatory conduct causes emotional suffering for those who are the object of it. However, courts have held that if such racist conduct is willful and outrageous and the ensuing suffering is severe, the plaintiff has a reasonable claim to compensatory damages. The authors trace these developments in the legal arena in both tort actions and complaints under civil rights statutes. They also point out how psychiatrists could be more influential in sharpening considerations about the idea that racism causes psychological injury.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1986

The psychiatric unit as a dynamic model for change.

The concept of the psychiatric unit as a social system, with staff members and patients working together to pursue a number of functions, is a departure from the disease model and the classic patient-doctor dyadic relationship. The organization of a psychiatric unit as a social system can facilitate an atmosphere that promotes a corrective emotional experience for patients and a positive emotional climate for the staff. The various ways in which social organization and environment can effect clinical change are described.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning".

Members of the Spiritual Baptist Church in the West Indies engage in a ceremony called "mourning," which involves prayer , fasting, and the experiencing of dreams and visions while in isolation. Twenty-three church members who had undergone the experience were interviewed. Mourners cited six benefits of the practice: relief of depressed mood; attainment of the ability to foresee and avoid danger; improvement in decision-making ability; heightened facility to communicate with God and to meditate ; a clearer appreciation of their racial origins; identification with church hierarchy; and physical cures. Mourning appears to be a viable psychotherapeutic practice for these church members.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1984

An analysis of the therapeutic elements in a black church service.

Twenty members of an independent urban black church who frequently attended a midweek service were interviewed to determine the nature of their experiences during the service and to assess its psychological impact. The majority were relatively young, married, and from a Northern urban or Southern rural background. Their responses differed for each of four selected aspects of the service. Testimony was an ineffable and explicitly religious experience. Holy Ghost possession provided an emotionally ecstatic feeling that also produced a sense of relief. Dancing and speaking in tongues were intense individualistic experiences; speaking in tongues was a more explicitly religious phenomenon. The service as a whole imparted feelings of group closeness and strength. The authors note that participants' responses correspond to several curative factors associated with group psychotherapy and suggest that the black church service is a functional community mental health resource for its participants.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Biofeedback: a possible substitute for smoking, experiment I.

Biofeedback techniques were utilized in this study to identify those physiological variables which possibly contribute to maintenance of cigarette smoking and to investigate the hypothesis that smoking frequency would decrease when individuals were trained via biofeedback procedures to increase 8-12 Hz occipital EEG activity as a substitute for smoking. Results of the study indicate that of the six smokers physiologically monitored, the following physiological changes occurred while actually smoking one cigarette: four smokers increased the percent of time they were producing 4-8 cycle per second (Hz) brain waves; five smokers increased their heart rate (beats per minute); all six smokers decreased their 8-12 Hz activity. Immediately after the smoking of one cigarette, six of the smokers demonstrated an increase in their heart rate and four of the smokers demonstrated a decrease in their skin temperature. There did not appear to be any specific consistent brain wave change across the subjects. Two smokers, who were able to continue producing high levels of 8-12 Hz activity without use of the biofeedback equipment, were able to quit completely at the end of an eight-month followup period.

Alpha Rhythm↗