Far-reaching changes to the structure and function of the Earth's natural systemsrepresent a growing threat to human health. And yet, global health has mainly improved
as these changes have gathered pace. What is the explanation? As a Commission, we
are deeply concerned that the explanation is straightforward and sobering: we have
been mortgaging the health of future generations to realise economic and development
gains in the present. By unsustainably exploiting nature's resources, human civilisation
has flourished but now risks substantial health effects from the degradation of nature's
life support systems in the future.
In this chapter, we make the case and propose policy recommendations to the US Secretary of Education, as well as state commissioners of education and other educational leaders, on how to effectively scale up high-quality social-emotional and character development (SECD) in all schools. First, we define SECD, social-emotional learning (SEL), and related competencies, identify effective approaches to developing these competencies through universal school-based programming, and summarize the known individual, social, and economic benefits of systematic efforts to promote these competencies in schools. Next, we review the current state of US education policy with regard to SEL and SECD, including the scope of program implementation, state standards, preservice and in-service teacher development, evaluation and assessment, and funding. We end the chapter with a set of policy recommendations on how to leverage existing strengths and build further capacity for making SECD an integral and seamless component of the education system.
Social isolation is a deprivation of social connectedness. It is a crucial aspect that continues to be named by people as a core impediment for achieving well-being and as a relevant factor for understanding poverty. The notion of social isolation has been discussed within a diversity of theories that have provided rich insights into particular aspects of social isolation. However, there is no agreement on the core components of this social malady or on how to measure it. Although the challenge of conceptualising and measuring social connectedness is daunting, this paper argues that existing research in several fields provides solid ground for a common concept and for the construction of basic internationally comparable indicators that measure specific aspects of social isolation. In particular, this paper aims to contribute to the debate on social connectedness and its measurement in three ways: (1) presenting a working definition that, while doing justice to the rich insights advanced by different theories, stresses relational features in the life experience of people; (2) emphasising the relevance of isolation for poverty analysis; and (3) proposing some indicators to measure social connectedness that could be feasibly incorporated into a multi-topic household survey.
This chapter sets out two arguments. My argument in relation to the fi rst issue is that while there are subtle aspects in Tibetan medical concepts of the body, we need to be careful in talking about a separate entity of a ‘subtle body’ as such. My second argument is more preliminary in nature and suggests that Tibetan medical ‘circulatory systems’ or ‘circulatory channels’ do not necessarily move in circulation in the Western sense of the term, and therefore such terms, both in themselves or as translations of Tibetan medical terms, should be used more cautiously.
<p>Provides guidelines for the use of 3 approaches to stress management in children: guided imagery, yoga and autogenic phrases, and thermal biofeedback. It is advised that counselors, teachers, and parents should have personal experience with these methods before implementing them. Counselors should work with small groups (5–7 children) when they first learn these techniques. It is recommended that a program using these methods should extend for no less than 3 mo and include at least 3 practice sessions each week.</p>
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The western adaptation of non-western medical systems and traditions is a complex process that takes place at a variety of different levels. In many practical medical contexts, epistemological issues receive little attention. Both patients and practitioners may switch frameworks relatively freely, without much concern about underlying theoretical assumptions. Epistemological issues may be more central elsewhere, for example in regard to the licensing and approval of practitioners and medicinal substances, or in terms of the rethinking of western models of knowledge to include new insights from these non-western sources. I suggest in this paper that the major learned medical traditions of Asia, such as āyurveda and traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Tibetan medicine, for all their differences from biomedicine and among each other, are in some respects relatively compatible with western biomedical understandings. They can be read in physiological terms, as referring to a vocabulary of bodily processes that underlie health and disease. Such approaches, however, marginalise or exclude elements that disrupt this compatibility (e.g. references to divinatory procedures, spirit attack or flows of subtle 'energies'). Other non-western healing practices, such as those in which spirit attack, 'soul loss' or 'shamanic' procedures are more central, are less easily assimilated to biomedical models, and may simply be dismissed as incompatible with modern scientific understandings. Rather than assenting to physiological reduction in the one case, and dismissal as pre-scientific in the other, we should look for a wider context of understanding within which both kinds of approach can be seen as part of a coherent view of human beings and human existence.
PURPOSE We undertook a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of group-based behavioral activation with mindfulness (BAM) for treating subthreshold depression in primary care in Hong Kong.METHODS We recruited adult patients aged 18 years or older with subthreshold depression from public primary care clinics and randomly assigned them to a BAM intervention group or a usual care group. The BAM group was provided with eight 2-hour weekly BAM sessions by trained allied health care workers. Patients in the usual care group received usual medical care with no additional psychological interventions. The primary outcome was depressive symptoms measured by the Beck Depression Inventory-II at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included incidence of major depressive disorder at 12 months. We assessed quality of life, activity and circumstances change, functional impairment, and anxiety at baseline, end of intervention, 5 months, and 12 months.
RESULTS We randomly allocated 115 patients to the BAM intervention and 116 patients to usual care. At 12 months, compared with usual care peers, BAM patients had a slightly more favorable change in levels of depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (between-group mean difference in score = −3.85; 95% CI, −6.36 to −1.34; Cohen d = −0.46, 95% CI, −0.76 to −0.16). Incidence of major depressive disorder was lower with BAM (10.8% vs 26.8%, P = .01), whereas groups did not differ significantly on other secondary outcomes at 12 months.
CONCLUSIONS Group BAM appears to be efficacious for decreasing depressive symptoms and reducing the incidence of major depression among patients with subthreshold depression in primary care, although generalizability of our findings may be limited.
Much of what Western medicine classifies as psychiatric illness is understood by Tibetan thought as associated with imbalance of rlung (wind, breath). Rlung has a dual origin in Indian thought, combining elements from Ayurvedic medicine and Tantric Buddhism. Tibetan theories of rlung seem to correspond in significant ways with Western concepts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and Western medicine too has associated psychiatric issues with ANS problems. But what is involved in relating Tibetan ideas of rlung to Western ideas of the emotions and the ANS? The article presents elements of the two systems and then explores similarities and differences between them. It asks whether the similarities could be the basis for a productive encounter between Tibetan and Western modes of understanding and treating psychiatric illness. What could Western psychiatry learn from Tibetan approaches in this area?
In 1942, Balwina Piecuch, a non-Jewish Polish woman, sheltered 12-yearold Shmulek Oliner from the Nazis, saving the Jewish boy’s life after the Nazis had killed his entire family. Shmulek later emigrated to the United States and is now Samuel Oliner, sociologist and director of the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute at Humboldt State University. Oliner has dedicated his life to understanding the roots of altruistic acts like Balwina’s—“to discover what leads to caring and compassion, to name what gives an individual a sense of social responsibility, and what it means to put the welfare of others alongside one’s own,” he writes in Do Unto Others, his latest book.
Background: School-based social-emotional and character development (SECD) programs can influence not only SECD but also academic-related outcomes. This study evaluated the impact of one SECD program, Positive Action (PA), on educational outcomes among low-income, urban youth. Methods: The longitudinal study used a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled design. Student-reported disaffection with learning and academic grades, and teacher ratings of academic ability and motivation were assessed for a cohort followed from grades 3 to 8. Aggregate school records were used to assess standardized test performance (for entire school, cohort, and demographic subgroups) and absenteeism (entire school). Multilevel growth-curve analyses tested program effects. Results: PA significantly improved growth in academic motivation and mitigated disaffection with learning. There was a positive impact of PA on absenteeism and marginally significant impact on math performance of all students. There were favorable program effects on reading for African American boys and cohort students transitioning between grades 7 and 8, and on math for girls and low-income students. Conclusions: A school-based SECD program was found to influence academic outcomes among students living in low-income, urban communities. Future research should examine mechanisms by which changes in SECD influence changes in academic outcomes.
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