Applications of Health Psychology - Essay Example

? Applications of Health Psychology Insti Applications of health psychology Section Review, overview, and a brief summary of health psychology In health psychology, specialists take into consideration a broad spectrum of factors that are capable of providing insights and details into health related issues. In order to understand the psychology of the human health, it is imperative to make note that psychological factors have a huge impact on health directly (Brannon & Feist, 2010). For instance, psychological factors, which include stress results to the release of such hormones like cortisol, which leads to the eventual damage of the body. On the other end, psychological factors also affect the human body indirectly through different personal choices that may help either protect the health of the body or damage it. Such behaviors comprise of taking exercise or smoking among others (Snooks, 2009). Profoundly, health psychology encompasses other aspects like social processes, which include ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status of an individual. Evidence provided by reliable sources maintain that with greater understanding and better harnessing of psychological factors, health psychologists are in a much better position to improve the health status of an individual by working with directly and can indirectly transform the health of the public by intensifying training of healthcare professionals such as nurses and physicians (Brannon & Feist, 2010). The history of health psychology is long and complicated. However, there are certain circumstances and situations that describe health psychology history as insightful at a time when 20th century brought in advanced research technologies. Health psychology started emerging, but as a distinct area of psychology, in 1970s particularly in the United States and by mid 20th century, people in a better place of understanding that behavioral changes had a huge effect on the human health (Snooks, 2009). A study that started in the 1960s, the Alameda County Study, pointed out that people who were able to eat regularly, received adequate sleep, and those exercised regularly were in good health and could live longer. Simultaneously, other studies proved that good communication skills were imperative in solving health problems as well as in medical consultation. As such, medical researchers proposed that there was the need to study this field of health psychology with advent linkage to physical health (Ogden, 2012). In the year 1969, William Schofield, in his report, pointed that the field of medicine would have better ways of approaching health related issues if medical professionals could pay greater attention to the psychological factors, which have an impact on health. This idea made it clear that there was insurmountable need for further training, on the one side, and improved education in the field of health psychology on the other (Brannon & Feist, 2010). In the future, health psychologists need to improve their levels of understanding psychological factors affecting the human health and harness better ways of approaching issues and concerns opined to the health psychology field (Brannon & Feist, 2010). Nevertheless, bearing in mind that getting patients to follow or adhere to their medical advice consciously is not an easy task for psychologists in the health field (Tilley, 2008). Thus, it is important to tailor the medical or treatment programs of a patient on a daily basis to ensure that they do not commit mistakes as people easily forget routines. Pertinently, the future would seem brighter if the government in conjunction with other interested organizations as well as individuals with stakes in the health psychology field could add of the required energy, effort, and initiation into further understanding and harnessing of knowledge (Ogden, 2012). Section 2: Conceptual background on the original problem Before undertaking this study, the Child Welfare Investigation predicted that mental health problems are common among children investigated by the child welfare agencies for maltreatment. On an issue published on the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in June 19, 2012, Washington D.C., researchers vowed to determine the prevalence of mental challenges among certain children particularly those found to have issues of maltreatment in their early ages. The research led by Dr. Sarah Horwitz from the Stanford University carried out an examination involving 1117 children aged between 12 and 36 months (Tilley, 2008). The research aimed at documenting the frequency with which a child can develop mental health problems and predictors that prospect the likelihood of their families to receive the services for this problem. Given that health psychology is a broad area of study, it is agreeable that many diseases that fall under this category and according to researchers some are complex and require intensified study. According to the researchers, the precipitating problem was that those children between these months examined for maltreatment by the child welfare agencies exhibited fluctuating problems. For example, when measured using the BITSEA Problem scale (Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment), they scored high but scored low in their social competence when measured using the CBCL (Child Behavior Checklist) (Snooks, 2009). Though there were signs showing some level of support towards intervening for this issue, very few children received the required services through the responsible caregiver. Dr. Horwitz signified that it is ultimately surprising to find out that some children despite being in contact with the child welfare agencies still have somewhat emotional and social problems (Tilley, 2008). Examiners as well as other concerned agents are finding it difficult to understand why children accorded with maltreatment services are facing challenges. This implies that there are issues to do with either embezzlement of funds or inadequate functioning of the responsible staff. Research established that, this precipitating problem did not only affect the victims, but also their parents and the community as well (Brannon & Feist, 2010). Clearly, with a large number of children suffering from mental issues, it is agreeable to find that their parents are also experiencing relatively similar challenges in their daily lives (Tilley, 2008). It is also easy to find that this menace can drain the pertinent caregivers of their financial base, which can in turn resolve to a communal disaster. After seeing that the most families in the US were undergoing a series of mental, psychological, and social related problems, the child welfare agencies took it upon their will to research and offer solutions to these problems (Ogden, 2012). Knowing that health psychology provides deeper insights into complex health problems, participating health professionals highlighted that solving the problem of mental disorders among children in the US would save the children a great deal of their lives. Moreover, solutions will lead to a cut for expenses incurred when dealing with this issue. It will also create better ways of handling this issue in the outlook. Section 3: The intervention and its development Although there were similar interventions, whose aim was to eradicate this health issue by dealing with it psychologically, Dr. Horwitz’s and colleagues intervention was much better compared to and that is the reason it was able to offer substantial solutions (Snooks, 2009). There were some child welfare agencies, which provided some level of services to families with children, investigated for maltreatment but, according to Dr. Horwitz, the services offered were disturbing and the need for urgent and effective interventions was seeable. NSCAW II gave rise to the need for development of a more significant intervention and this is where Dr. Horwitz and colleagues intervened (Tilley, 2008). As of today, America has many agencies seeking to find the reasons behind the skyrocketing cases of maltreatment among many families with children. Definitely, understanding this issue could aid in providing the required services and attention can be brought into this area with consistent review of the available information regarding this subject. Health psychology falls under the science of psychology and talks about the study of behavioral and psychological processes in healthcare, illnesses, and health (Ogden, 2012). It concerns itself with the understanding of ways in which cultural, behavioral, and psychological factors involve in illness and physical health in addition to those biological causes that medical science understand very well (Brannon & Feist, 2010). Currently, the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (NSCAW II) is examining the contemporary notion that children investigated for maltreatment by the child welfare agencies are likely to have mental problems in the future (Ogden, 2012). As seen, health psychologists apply a bio-psychological approach whereby this means that they understand that health is not only a product of biological processes such as tumor and viruses, but also a product of psychological processes that range from thoughts to stress to beliefs (Tilley, 2008). However, researchers point out that this level of understanding is pragmatic for healthy living if it results to usable knowledge and practices. In conclusion, their intervention was successful in that, 76 percent of all the children investigate for maltreatment improved their mental health status by having an 80 percent reduction in their social and emotional competence. Substantially, the researchers measured these scores using the BITSEA Problem scale and the CBCL (Brannon & Feist, 2010). The results obtained in this research declared that health psychology is very pragmatic especially in studying any problem related to the mind or physic of an individual. However, there is advent need to have a greater research into the field in order to make sure that people and the community are safe from health problems (Snooks, 2009). Surely, profound research and support is the overall effort that can lead to increased efficacy of health psychology, which can in turn bring essential solutions into mental health, clinical health, public health, critical health, and community health psychology (Ogden, 2012). Truthfully, since health psychology is both an applied area and theoretical area of study, psychologists employ very many diverse methods of research, which include quasi experiments, time series designs, and randomized experiments thus empowerment of this field is essential and consistent. References Brannon, L., & Feist, J. (2010). Health psychology: An introduction to behavior and health. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Ogden, J. (2012). Health psychology: A textbook. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Snooks, M. (2009). Health psychology: Biological, psychological, and sociocultural perspectives. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Tilley, S. (2008). Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: The Field of Knowledge. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Read More