Respond to 2 classmates post for Social Work Course

RESPOND WITH AT LEAST 200 WORDS EACH….ONLY USE PEER REVIEWED REFERENCES

POST 1:

The article I choose to use for this discussion is titled; “Rational-Emotive Behavioral Interventions for Children with Anxiety Problems” by Jerry Wilde. This article provides a detailed description of definitive interventions that can be used by REBT therapist with child clients who are suffering from anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental and emotional problems that can happen during childhood or adolescence. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 13% of children and adolescents age 9-17 experience some form of anxiety disorder. One researcher discovered that 36% of parents voice concerns about their child possibly struggling with anxiety. If these problems are left untreated they can persist into adulthood which may explain why the lifetime prevalence rate for anxiety disorders is 28.8%. The most common subtypes of anxiety are phobia (12.5%), social anxiety disorder (12.1%) and post traumatic stress disorder (6.8%) (Wilde, 2008).

REBT has had a long history of being an effective therapy for children with anxiety problems. Ration-emotive interventions have also been shown to be beneficial in a large number of other commonly occurring childhood disorders such as low frustration tolerance, impulsivity, poor academic performance and depression. Other research had shown the REBT can be effective in preventing depression and developing a better sense of self and coping abilities. In this article the author goes into detail about different rational-emotive techniques that have been used in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. The research question within this article is, if left untreated does anxiety in children cause more problems later in life? The following techniques were used during therapy sessions with children and this research has shown that these techniques work great with children who are suffering from anxiety (Wilde, 2008) .

The first technique that the author describes is the use of distraction. The most important belief about REBT is that emotions are not caused directly by events but are the results of the thoughts and beliefs that a person has about the event. This means that if children have the ability to change their thoughts about a certain event, they will also be able to change their feelings as well. The distraction technique is one of the simplest techniques devised to bring about change in thought. Distraction does not involve a change in the evaluation of the event, so, it is not considered to bring about cognitive reconstruction. Distraction simply helps the child to think of something else other than their current situation. This can pose some difficulty due to the fact that when children are getting anxious, they only thing that they seem to be able to focus on is their current situation. This is why it is important for clients to decide what to think about before they become anxious. Professionals should advise the child client to think of “a scene” before they experience the event they become anxious about. The particular scenes should something that makes them happy or laugh or relax. Therapist may need to help the client choose a scene that will fit their individual needs and the client should practice visualizing the scene at least 3-4 times a day over the next few weeks. The idea of this technique is for clients to switch to this distraction scene whenever they feel they are becoming anxious. Instead of focusing on the event they are getting anxious about they change their focus to the distraction scene. It is impossible for people to become anxious while thinking of their distraction scene. Since anxiety is produced by beliefs, thinking about a happy or fun time will keep them from getting upset or decrease the intensity of emotions (Wilde, 2008).

The next technique that the article goes into is known as rational emotive imagery or the imagination game. This technique works best if there is a particular situation in which the anxiety occurs. The therapist should start by having the child describe the situation in the most vivid manner possible. It’s important to get as many details as possible about the situation including sight, sounds, and the events occurring in the situation. After this the therapist should have the child sit in a chair with both feet on the ground and make sure they are comfortable. The therapist should then spend several minutes describing relaxing imaging until they can see the child fall into deep relaxation. Once the child is relaxed the therapist should dialogue the situation and get the client to let them know when they have reached their situation by wiggling their finger. Once the client is there ask them to try and calm down and once they have achieved being calm again ask them to wiggle their finger. Once they wiggle their finger wake them up in a relaxing manner and ask them exactly what they did to calm themselves. Once the client has informed the therapist how they calmed themselves down they should be instructed to practice this technique on their own so that they can get better at calming themselves when they feel anxiety coming on (Wilde, 2008).

The last technique described in the article is known as thought stopping. This technique involves the therapist asking the client to describe their anxiety invoking situation and before they can finish the thought they yell “Stop!” The second part of the technique involves the therapist only think about the situation and then signals the therapist when they are thinking of it and the therapist will then yell “Stop!” All of the techniques described are east to perform with children and they are brief. In order to have maximum success the children need to be closely monitored and given encouragement through the process (Wilde, 2008).

Reference:

Wilde, J. (2008). Rational-emotive behavioral interventions for children with anxiety problems. Journal Of Cognitive And Behavioral Psychotherapies, 8(1), 133-141.

POST 2:

Find a program evaluation article that is peer-reviewed and includes a methodology and results section. Describe research question(s), design, and the findings. Explain the statistical tests used and how the author(s) interpreted the findings. Critique the article.

Unemployment rates are of concern for middle aged and older working adults. Older working adults tend to face longer-term periods for being unemployed. With the new technological advancements of society, growing economy that is fast paced, increased educational needs for job placements, extended skills and training are all obstacles that some middle-aged and older working adults face (Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. 2018).

This study was completed to represent the data of older workers in the United States and the association between skills and employment (Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. 2018). Jobs that use to be more manual labor are now requiring more cognitive abilities, more technological knowledge, the rate for participation in the US Labor Force is projected to be 17% in 2024 up by 9% in 1994 (Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. 2018). Human Capital Theory and Practice Engagement theory guided the theoretical features of this study.

The research question for this study questions whether literacy skills and use of literacy skills are correlated to employment, hypothesizing that older adults that have increased literacy skills will have better employment opportunities (Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. 2018). There is a Program the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which conducted this study. The program studies competencies and compares basic skills of adults, to determine discrepancies, so an improvement could be made for learning opportunities for adults.

The sample size included adults 45-65, and a weighted descriptive summary was provided for results. The sample size was 2,169 adults, 1370 employed, 310 unemployed, and 489 out of labor force. Variables included employed, unemployed and within the labor force. Literacy skills were assessed based upon performance in a multiple literacy tasks. Statistical Analysis included a macro program SAS, which was designed to measure sampling weights, replicate weights, and plausible values. Multinomial logistic regression was used to differentiate the effects of literacy skills, use of literacy skills and employment (Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. 2018).

The results showed that there is a higher literacy skill mean for adults who are employed compared to those unemployed, and the labor force group mean was in between the two. To me the results make sense that if an elder adult lacks literacy skills, being employed in today’s workforce would be difficult. If we think about all of the areas of labor, we can see that advancement has made even the most simple job tasks more difficult. Such as many jobs have some form of computer, or technological tool to complete a task. Even a job at McDonalds requires, the use of computers, touch screen, etc. I feel that today with advancing technology and increased population for adults ranging from 45-65; there should be programs, which seek to develop literacy and learning opportunities for this population. Especially if this also helps to improve unemployment rates, also these adults utilize the most health care. Therefore, if they are employed and have insurance through the workforce then it will be less out of the Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Takashi, Y., Cummins, P. A., Arbogast, A., & Millar, R. J. (2018). Adult Competencies and Employment Outcomes Among Older Workers in the United States: An Analysis of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. Adult Education Quarterly, 68(3), 235-250. doi:10.1177/0741713618773496

 

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