Purdue Offers New Online Graduate Certificate in Telemental Health Counseling

Older, lower-income, and rural individuals frequently lack easy access to mental health services where they live, but technological advances and the burgeoning field of telemental health hold out the promise of bringing these services to them.

Telemental health provides its own set of challenges for mental health professionals. But there are currently few opportunities for these professionals to obtain relevant training in how to address those challenges, as well as applied training in telemental health best practices.

A new online graduate certificate program from Purdue University represents a leap forward in addressing that training deficit, as well as enabling professionals in the field to enhance their careers or practices.

“This program doesn't really exist anywhere else,” says Kelly LeMaire, PhD, HSPP, assistant director of the Purdue Psychology Treatment and Research Clinics and a clinical assistant professor and licensed psychologist.

The new Telemental Health Counseling Graduate Certificate, a collaboration between Purdue’s College of Education and College of Health and Human Sciences through Purdue Online, also stands out for its focus on serving diverse populations, including those who traditionally don't have good access to mental health services.

To complete the Telemental Health Counseling Graduate Certificate, students will take the following four online courses encompassing 12 credits:

Foundational Techniques for Telemental Health Providers;
Addressing Demographic Health Disparities in Telehealth;
Introduction to Telemental Health Assessment and Intervention; and
Technology, Law, and Ethics for Telemental Health Providers.

The courses cover foundational clinical skills and such topics as technological aspects of telemental health, including data security, confidentiality and risk management, application of theory, standards of care, ethical and legal issues, as well as documentation, informed consent, interjurisdictional practice, and testing and assessment.

The curriculum is based on the latest research and includes skills-applying activities in addition to lectures and related materials. The courses are asynchronous and don’t have to be taken in any particular order, making the program flexible for working professionals and others who might be interested.

The online program is for licensed and unlicensed professionals in counseling, psychology, social work, and therapy positions as well as master’s and doctoral students who might want to add a telemental health credential to their degree.

More information on Purdue’s online Telemental Health Counseling Graduate Certificate is available at the program website.

— Source: Purdue University

Sufi Psychology Association Launches ‘Caregiver Wellness Program’

After more than a year of unimaginable stresses and devastating loss, the Sufi Psychology Association, the nonprofit behind the global “Caring 4 Our Caregivers” initiative that has helped more than 325 hospitals worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic, announces the rollout of a new Caregiver Wellness Program, available now to health care teams on an annual subscription basis. The Caregiver Wellness Program provides frontline heroes with helpful tools they need, focused on preventing burnout, a leading cause of life-threatening errors made in the field. Designed by Saloumeh Bozorgzadeh, PsyD, and team, the program is tailor-made to address challenges specific to the health care community, incorporating research on overarching topics including fear, anxiety, financial worries, parenting stressors, nutrition, sleep, and more. The program offers a variety of videos, stress reduction exercises including dynamic breathing, visualization and movement exercises, and a weekly meditation session—accessible online, 24/7, from any device or location, and led by doctoral-level experts currently practicing in the field themselves.

According to the Medscape Lifestyle Report, burnout and suicide rates have increased a staggering 25% in four short years even before the pandemic. Effects of burnout in the health care community span far beyond the traditional connotations of irritability and fatigue. Higher levels of burnout among nurses are associated with higher rates of both patient mortality and dissemination of hospital-transmitted infection. As it stands, medical errors are the third-leading cause of deaths in the United States. Suicide is also a leading issue among health care professionals, with nearly 400 physicians lost per year to suicide—a rate double that of the normal population. Most recently, some of the earliest studies from China, Italy, and Canada have shown frontline workers now struggling with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and insomnia as a result of stressors related to the pandemic.

With this new program, health care teams will also have access to ancillary elements provided by Sufi Psychology Association experts, including a scheduled quarterly check-in to discuss techniques to further engage health care workers, along with a personal instructor to perform an in-person workshop as a “wellness day,” as well as evidence-based and research-informed mind relaxation resources utilizing the Tamarkoz method, which has been shown to lower levels of emotional distress with regular practice, along with highly functional DNA repair efficiency and a statistically significant decline in depression. Tamarkoz has also been shown to decrease heart rate and perceived stress, while significantly increasing positive emotions including joy, love, compassion, amusement, awe, and contentment during times of high stress.

Sufi Psychology Association provides a variety of other resources accessible digitally worldwide including workshops, Tamarkoz classes, and educational retreats. The website sufipsychology.org offers more information on the Caregiver Wellness Program and the nonprofit’s resources, events, and initiatives.

— Source: Sufi Psychology Association