discussion response 166

Review fellow learners’ posts and respond (100-word minimum response).

1) Meghan Linquist

In Fletcher’s article, the author identifies the correlation between an employee’s performance in their role within an organization and the employee’s accurate level of engagement with their leader and the organization stating that when an employee has a sense of connection and engagement with others within the organization and the organization itself, the employee is able to be themselves without fear of reprimand (Fletcher, 2016).

In the study conducted within the article, the researchers had study participants living in the United Kingdom complete an online questionnaire consisting of 304 participants of both genders and various educational and professional degrees or levels. The questionnaire asked questions pertaining to the employee’s engagement level within the organization, their ability to receive training sessions focusing on necessary and appropriate topics, and other areas related to training and employee evaluations at work.

The study determined that in order to have the employees sense a stronger connection between their professional responsibilities and training sessions was to allow and encourage employees to make a connection to their work duties that will allow the employees to engage with their careers and functions within the organization.

This information could be applied to this learner’s current work situation by allowing her to have more input into the decisions being made regarding the topics covered in her mandatory professional development sessions. Often times this learner feels as though the training topics are irrelevant to her and her professional duties and she does not feel as though the trainings apply to her specific professional duties. By being able to have more input regarding training sessions as well as increasing employee engagement with such topics, this learner believes that not only will the staff feel as though their mandatory professional development sessions are beneficial to them, they may even be more enthusiastic to attend and participate in each session,

Review fellow learners’ posts and respond(100-word minimum response).

2) Iris Kelly-Wallace

Working in the mental health field with children and adolescents has shown the writer that being trained and certified in trauma-informed care is needed. Being a mental health professional has shown that trauma does not discriminate because it impacts people from neonatal until death. Children experience life-altering traumatic events that forever change them. Unlike adults, their bodies and minds are not developed enough to fully grasp the totality of what they endure.

The writer would like to be trained more in trauma-informed care. There is a need for more mental health professionals to be properly trained in trauma-informed care so that the right approach is given to help those that are traumatized. (Cutuli, Alderfer, & Marsac, 2019) The International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP) through their organization gives the training to become a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP). (PESI, n.d.) Another resource is The National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers webinars and e-learning courses to help individuals learn more about child trauma. Gaining more knowledge about trauma and the most effective approach to helping the traumatized through the e-learning and training would establish a strong foundation regarding trauma. With a good foundation taking the program to become certified will be easier to complete. But the best benefit to gaining these resources is becoming more effective at helping the children to build their resilience to recover from their trauma.

Response Guidelines

Respond and include relevant, required information; adequate explanations; and alternative viewpoints. Offer additional resources that may help expand their perspective, divergent issues for consideration, and suggestions for enhancing their discussion. Your responses to your peers should contain at least 250 words as well as two scholarly resources. Keep in mind the academic honesty policy and academic integrity stressing respectful discussion.

3) Jeffery Lavalley

According to the CDC (2020) adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur prior to a person’s 18th birthday. These events are categorized as abuse, neglect and household dysfunction. Aspects of a child’s environment can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding, and growing up in a household with substance abuse is one such aspect. Preventing and treating substance abuse are integral and reciprocal elements for reducing the prevalence of ACEs. Family-centered treatment for substance use disorders is an important component of community collaboration intended to improve the overall well-being and social resilience of a community.

The Champlain Valley Family Center is a private non-profit community-based organization dedicated to the provision of substance abuse treatment, prevention, education, and related support programs to promote the well-being and quality of life (CVFC, 2020). CVFC offers outpatient treatment, housing programs, intensive family support program, prevention programs, jail services program, recovery campus, community center, and a peer support and recovery support program. These programs and services provide needed community support and education.

Solving complex social issues requires commitment and collaboration and the Champlain Valley Family Center recognizes the importance of both. The Center has been serving the community since 1982 and is well respected for providing compassionate care. During it’s nearly 40 year history CVFC has grown to meet the needs of the community, particularly during the past decade with the opioid crisis ravaging communities across the country. The culture of this organization is important to the ecological network necessary for bringing community partners together in an effort to reduce the prevalence of adversity and promote resilience.

4) Tarell Williams

Faith-based programs include a non-sectarian training and service program dedicated to changing lives through Bible and other textual study. They include seminars, programs, instruction and other methods designed to build life skills, develop positive character traits, and change thinking patterns. In light of these facts, legislation can be influenced due to affiliations, beliefs, partnerships, brokered deals, and loyalties (Rogers, 2009). Many polititians belong to faith-based programs and or organizations. In fact their constituency are a large part of their financial and political backing of which gets them elected in hopes of persuading policy.

Beginning in 1996, Congress enacted several pieces of legislation that included provisions that have become known as charitable choice rules. Included in legislation for various federally funded social service programs, charitable choice rules were aimed at ensuring that faith-based organizations could participate in federally funded social service programs like other nongovernmental providers. The rules allow religious organizations to receive public funding to offer social services without abandoning their religious character or infringing on the religious freedom of program beneficiaries. Much of the controversy that has surrounded these programs has centered on the constitutionality of the federal government funding faith-based social service programs and so-called religious hiring rights, the term often used to refer to religious organizations’ selectivity in employment decisions. Supporters of faith-based funding argue that religious organizations have a constitutional right to retain their preferences for co-religionists in hiring as a matter of religious identity and exercise. Opponents argue that allowing organizations that receive public funding to discriminate based on religion violates principles of neutrality guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution (Rogers, 2009).

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws that apply to recipients of Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, or sex (Edwards, 2015). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces federal civil rights laws, conscience and religious freedom laws, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, Breach Notification Rules, and the Patient Safety Act and Rule. Faith-based organizations play a major role in the influence of legislation to ensure equality based on religious and political beliefs. However, as currently structured and enforced, the Faith-Based and Community Initiative has given religious institutions wide latitude to pressure employees and beneficiaries to subscribe to certain religious tenets and beliefs. Those who work in or take advantage of government-funded social service programs should be free from discrimination and from situations in which their personal religious expressions may be stifled or their beliefs attacked. Poor collaborations based on religious and or political bias is a direct violation of a constituent’s civil liberties and rights. In cases like these, faith-based organizations can do more harm than good and be more political in nature than inclusive.

Response Guidelines

Respond by citing additional resources that may help his or her work, presenting divergent issues for consideration, and providing suggestions for enhancing the post. Your response must contain at least 150 words and one scholarly resource that your peer did not incorporate in his or her initial post.

5)Amy Ngurukie

In terms of definition, happiness is a psychological well-being or a state of positive human functioning (Ruini & Fava 2014, p. 147). This state of well-being is further broken down into hedonic which happiness viewed as a result of experiencing pleasant emotions, low levels of negative moods, and high levels of perceived life satisfaction; and eudaimonic that consists of subjective happiness, pleasure and pain avoidance (Ruini & Fava 2014, p.147). In therapeutic settings, well-being therapy (WBT) is used to increase psychological well-being or happiness. Clinical frameworks that have been used for both control subjects and patients suffering from mood or anxiety disorder using the Psychological Well-being Scales (PWB) were instrumental in developing well-being enhancing psychotherapeutic strategy, also known as well-being therapy (Ruini 2014, p.77). Psychotherapy is drawn to this type of intervention because it focuses on the presence of wellness rather than the absence of illness, a concept that has been historically used in mental health care (Ruini & Fava 2014, p.149). The impact WBT has on happiness is based on the six dimensions of positive functioning and eudaimonic well-being: autonomy, environmental masters, personal growth, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and positive interpersonal relationships (Ruini & Fava 2014, p.151). WBT has been associated with a significant increase in PWB well-being, as well as lower levels of residual symptoms of depression after drug discontinuation, and lower numbers of recurrences of multiple relapses (Ruini 2014, p.79). The development of WBT originated from three converging developments; 1) residual symptoms after apparently successful treatment in mood and anxiety disorders; 2) partial remission after treatment was not found to be limited to negative affective symptoms; and 3) clinicians working with patients with mood and anxiety disorders confronted with unsatisfactory degree of remission that current therapeutic strategies yield and with the problems of relapse and recurrence (Moeenizadeh & Salagame 2010, p.224)

Positive interventions like the WBT do not create happiness, but it can be seen as a means of restoring the balance between psychological well-being and distress (Ruini & Fava 2014, p.150). Two positive characteristics of gratitude and autonomy often exist on a continuum, and their impact depends on the specific situation and the interactions with concurrent distress and other psychological attitudes (Ruini & Fava 2014, p.150). The cognitive restructuring used in WBT encourages the patient to not only pursue the highest possible levels in psychological well-being in all dimensions but to obtain a balanced functioning (Ruini 2014, p.78). From a clinical perspective, human healthy functioning is characterized by an optimal balance of positive and negative cognitions or affects, and that psychopathology is marked by deviations from this balance (Ruini 2014, p.78). This goes to show that each individual has areas of happiness in their lives, and it is only when these deviate, then WBT and other positive interventions can be used to restore this balance.

Research on WBT on patients with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and other depressive symptoms have shown the positives of the application of this therapy. In one test, ten patients with recurrent depression who relapsed while taking antidepressant drugs were randomly assigned a dose increase or a sequential combination of CBT and WBT (Ruini 2014, p.80). Four out of the five patients responded to a larger dose, but all relapsed again on that dose after a one-year follow-up, while five patients being treated by CBT-WBT only one relapsed while four improved (Ruini 2014, p.80). In patients who were being treated for GAD, twenty patients were randomly assigned to sessions of CBT or sequential administration of 4 sessions of CBT and 4 sessions of WBT. The result showed that the WBTCT sequential combination was superior to CBT, both in terms of symptom reduction and psychological well-being improvements (Ruini 2014, p.80). These results suggest the clinical advantages of adding WBT to treatment (Ruini 2014, p.80).