Health Psych Flashcards
Biopsychosocial model
> All disease conditions have both mental and social components
Very distinct interaction between these
Mind, body and socially determined factors interact
Individuals and society view (holistic)
Replaces biomedical model of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (reductionist with an emphasis on cure, rather than health promotion)
Clinical health psychology
> Helping people recover or self-manage
Develop and implement behaviour change interventions and self-management programs
Reducing problems that can accompany and contribute to illness and injury
Helping people cope with diagnosis and treatment
Helping people cope during death, bereavement and dying
Designing and testing interventions
Who are “carers”?
Anyone might be a carer – quite young children through to elderly people
They provide care and unpaid support to family and friends across a range of conditions
They provide social support – there are different theories and definitions of social support
They could be children, elderly or those with their own illness.
Transtheoretical Model
A core theory in Health Psychology, proposed by Prochaska & DiClemente (1983)
Stages of Change model, which proposes when making a behaviour change, we go through stages: (not linear and not all stages are gone through)
- Precontemplation (not thinking about it)
- Contemplation (thinking about it)
- Preparation (going to do soemthing)
- Action (doing it)
- Maintenance (continuing to change)
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
One of the key skills for a Health Psychologist, MI first proposed by Miller in 1983 and then later, Rollnick
“Coming along side” the patient – being empathetic to their situation/motivations
A counselling method that involves enhancing a person’s motivation to change – moving them through the stages of change to ideally, Maintenance
Guiding principles include:
•Resist the desire to argue with resistance to change (never argue with patient, ever!)
•Understand the person’s own motivations
•Listen with empathy and
•Empower the person (patient centred)
Can be done as a whole multidisiplinary team
Health Belief Model
This model is akin to explanatory models of illness which Arthur Kleinman, a medical anthropologist proposedIn this psychological model, the following constructs are proposed to help us understand health behaviours:
•Perceived susceptibility
•Perceived severity (How does the patient feel about their illness?)
•Perceived benefits of taking action
•Perceived barriers (ie, fear of needles)
•Modifying variables (such as demographic factors)
•Cues to action (for example, pain)
•Self-efficacy (perceived competence to change the behaviour)
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Theory is underpinned by the idea of behavioural intentIntentions are influenced by the person’s beliefs about the likelihood that the behaviour will have the expected outcome (“If I take insulin, my health will be better”) and their beliefs about the risks and benefits of that outcome. There are six constructs to consider:
•Attitudes – toward the outcomes of performing the behaviour
•Behavioural intention – i.e. motivational factors
•Subjective norms – beliefs about what peers and people o f importance think
•Social norms – what is considered normative, or standard
•Perceived power – factors that may facilitate or impede changing behaviour
•Perceived behavioural control – perception of the ease or difficulty of changing
Compassion fatigue and how to manage it in HCPs (health care professionals)
Carers are not the only ones to experience burn out and compassion fatigue – so do health care professionals (HCPs), including psychologists
Sometimes its best to speak to another psychologist, leave the profession or have a break
The treatment for HCPs, like carers, is foremost, to attend to our own self-care – and to seek help and discuss with trusted peers
We have an important responsibility to our profession and our communities, to ensure that if we are feeling burned out, or have compassion fatigue, that we do not practice, and take leave, to recover, or, some people leave their profession – in Psychology we have a Code of Ethics we must follow, and we must not practice if we are unwell and that affects our treatment of clients/patients
Compassion fatigue and how to manage it for carers
When the carer shifts from positive and caring to negative and unconcerned, they are likely burned out and experiencing compassion fatigue
The most important treatment for carers in this situation, is to take time to care for themselves – “self-care”.
This can include seeing a medical practitioner and perhaps a psychologist, as well as practical help, such as financial and respite – time away from the carer role
Some excellent resources are available for carers, such as the Carer Gateway:
Sandwich generation
The sandwich generation is a group of middle-aged adults who care for both their aging parents and their own children. It is not a specific generation or cohort in the sense of the Greatest Generation or the Baby boomer generation, but a phenomenon that can affect anyone whose parents and children need support at the same time.
