Search results

Measures of risk employed in mental health settings in the last 20 years have consisted of clinical scales that comprise both historical and clinical factors. Examples of such tools include the widely used HCR‐20 (Webster et al, 1997), SVR‐20 (Boer et al, 1997) and VRS (Wong & Gordon, 2000). Such tools are time‐intensive and, in the main, completed by an independent rater. At present there is a lack of systems to guide teams to investigate salient risk factors related to mental state and violent offending that inform treatment effectiveness, change and, ultimately, risk assessment decisions. This paper describes the application of such a system. The Standard Goal Attainment Scaling for Sex Offenders (GAS‐S) (Hogue, 1994) has been modified for use with violent offenders and is presented herewith. Application of the tool to the Violent Offender Treatment Programme (VOTP) is discussed, alongside its potential usefulness in informing risk assessment and the effectiveness of treatment intervention.

There is limited empirical literature on the effectiveness of leadership coaching in healthcare settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of leadership coaching for individuals implementing strategic change in the Australian public health system.

Using a within-subjects (pre-post) design, participants (n=31) undertook six one-hour coaching sessions. Coaching was conducted by professional leadership coaches. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected.

Participation was associated with significant improvements in goal attainment, solution-focused thinking, leadership self-efficacy, perspective-taking capacity, self-insight and resilience, and ambiguity tolerance. There were significant reductions in stress and anxiety. The benefits of coaching transferred from the workplace to the home. Many participants reported being able to use insights gained in coaching in their personal lives, and reported better work/life balance, less stress and better quality relationships at home.

Few studies have provided evaluation of leadership coaching in healthcare setting. Leadership coaching in the public health system may be an important methodology for facilitating goal attainment and fostering resilience in this vital social sector, benefiting workers in the health services, their families and ultimately their patients and the broader community.

Customer engagement (CE) literature features divergent definitions and conceptualizations. To clarify its meaning, antecedents and outcomes, this paper aims to propose that psychological customer engagement (PCE) is the mechanism by which customers’ readiness to engage influences behavioral customer engagement (BCE) in the form of in-role and extra-role behaviors, which then affect customers’ goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.

Set in the fitness center industry, this study combines perceptual data (from customers) and behavioral data (from the fitness center) to reveal a hierarchy of effects: customer readiness to PCE to BCE to customer goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.

Customer readiness variables (role clarity, ability, motivation) influence in-role and extra-role BCE directly and indirectly through PCE. Extra-role BCE is associated with goal attainment and satisfaction, and the latter is linked to customer retention. In-role BCE is associated with goal attainment only.

The proposed integrative model bridges the psychological–behavioral divide in CE literature and encourages the adoption of a broader nomological network that accounts for the effects of customers’ characteristics and actions on their goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.

Managers can enhance CE by improving customer role clarity, ability and motivation. Relative to in-role BCE, extra-role BCE appears more critical because it affects both goal attainment and satisfaction directly and retention indirectly.

The novel integrative approach, combining BCE and PCE in a single model, also provides a consumer-oriented view on CE, which establishes a more comprehensive perspective, as summarized in the proposed model of consumer engagement.

Sensory processing difficulties can negatively affect children with autism at school. There is limited evidence to guide practice in this area. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a sensory activity schedule (SAS) used in a school setting on task mastery and occupational performance in the classroom.

A randomised control trial (RCT) was conducted with 30 children to evaluate the efficacy of a school-based SAS. Children in the intervention group received SAS intervention and usual teaching. Children in the control group received only usual teaching. Outcome measures were the perceive, recall, plan and perform stage one procedural task analysis and goal attainment scaling.

Children in the intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in school performance when compared with the control group in both outcome measures.

This was a pilot study with small sample size, so results should be interpreted with caution. Further research is needed to replicate these findings.

A classroom-based SAS may have a positive effect on classroom performance for children with autism. This has implications for professionals who support children with autism and sensory processing difficulties in a school setting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first of its kind in evaluating SAS intervention in a school setting using RCT methodology.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of an eight-week gardening and woodwork group programme on individuals’ recovery goals in an adult community mental health setting.

Seven individuals participated in the research. The programme was designed and facilitated by two occupational therapists (the authors) and one horticulture and trade skills facilitator. The goal attainment scale was used as a quantitative outcome measure as it allowed individuals to collaboratively set occupation-focused recovery-oriented goals. Due to the small sample size, descriptive statistics were used to analyse this data. Qualitative feedback was gathered through participant feedback forms when the programme ended.

Quantitative findings indicate positive results for individuals’ progression towards their recovery goals, with six out of seven participants either achieving or exceeding their goals. One person who attended only one out of eight groups had “worse than expected” goal achievement.

While there is evidence for the use of gardening and woodwork group therapy in mental health settings, most studies have relied on symptom-focused questionnaires or qualitative results rather than quantifiable recovery-oriented measures (Cipriani et al., 2017; Kamioka et al., 2014; Parkinson et al., 2011). It is hoped that this paper begins to bridge that gap and also outlines how recovery principles, gardening and woodwork can be incorporated into occupational therapy group programmes. This is of particular merit during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a greater need for group intervention in outdoor settings, where social distancing can be comfortably facilitated.

This study aimed to examine how the effects of traditional tertiary education (lecture format) on various outcomes – including goal attainment, psychopathology (stress, anxiety and depression), resilience, solution-focused thinking and self-insight – compare to effects of traditional education supplemented by health coaching, delivered through Zoom video-conferencing.

The study, which involved mature-age Israeli undergraduate students enrolled in a health promotion course (n = 178), used a randomized controlled between-subjects (pre-post) design. Participants were each randomly assigned to a traditional-education condition (n = 90) or to a coaching condition (n = 88). All participants attended 13 weekly course lectures; those in the coaching condition also participated in weekly Zoom-based coaching sessions, with trained health coaches. Each participant completed online questionnaire measures at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA.

Compared with participants in the traditional-education condition, those in the coaching condition showed, over the course of the semester, significant improvement in goal attainment, solution-focused thinking, self-insight, resilience and psychopathology. Participants in the traditional-education condition showed no change in these measures.

The authors’ findings suggest that health coaching, as a supplement to traditional lectures, can enhance undergraduates' goal attainment and multiple facets of their mental well-being. These findings may have significant practical implications for the vast numbers of students struggling to cope in higher education systems worldwide. The authors further suggest a range of alternative, coaching-inspired interventions that do not require development of a full coaching program.

Goal setting is a crucial aspect of client-centered practice in occupational therapy (OT) for mental health conditions. However, it remains to be seen how goal-setting has been delivered in mental health, particularly the OT process. The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the nature and extent of goal setting delivered in mental health and informed OT practice.

The authors followed the guidelines of Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and searched three databases using key search terms: “mental disorder,” “goal setting,” and “occupational therapy” and their synonyms.

After excluding duplicate records, the authors initially screened 883 records and resulted in 20 records in total after the screening process. Most of the identified articles used goal-setting delivered by both a health professional and a client (n = 14), and focused on people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n = 13), but three interventions were delivered by occupational therapists. Further research needs on goal-setting in mental health OT, exploring the reliability and validity of different goal-setting strategies and investigating the effectiveness of goal-setting for promoting behavior change and client engagement across various mental health conditions and settings.

The scoping review has some limitations, such as not investigating the validity and reliability of goal-setting strategies identified, and excluding conference papers and non-English articles.

This scoping review presents a mapping of how goal-setting has been delivered in mental health and informed OT practice. The findings suggest limited research in OT and highlight the need for more studies to address the evidence gap in individualized client-centered OT.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which hope and perceived goal attainment can be developed in subsistence entrepreneurs through the right training tools.

A longitudinal study of a subsistence entrepreneurship training program in three Central American countries was carried out. Participants were divided on the basis of their exposure to training (yes, no), and of the type of training received (none, business plan, business model). The authors carried out three assessments (just before the program, six months and one year after the program) of participants’ business goals and their hope of attaining them. Information was analyzed using linear regression.

Participants exposed to training reported significant increases in perceived goal attainment and in their hope levels. Training based on the business plan affected hope agency in the short term, as predicted by the logic of causation theory. Training based on the business canvas affected hope pathways, as predicted by the logic of effectuation theory.

Given the data collection process (a non-random sample and selection of participants), the findings are not generalizable without stringent procedures and further replication.

If hope is a reliable predictor of goal attainment, it should be promoted and measured. Given the limited means of gathering data and making reliable projections that most entrepreneurs endure, the business canvas’ contribution to entrepreneurs’ “emotional equipment” ceteris paribus should be more valuable for subsistence entrepreneurs.

This is the first study comparing the short- and long-term effects of two entrepreneurial learning devices on entrepreneurs’ hope and business goal attainment.

New developments in concepts and approaches to job stress should incorporate all relevant types of resources that promote well-being and health. The success resource model of job stress conceptualizes subjective success as causal agents for employee well-being and health (Grebner, Elfering, & Semmer, 2008a). So far, very little is known about what kinds of work experiences are perceived as success. The success resource model defines four dimensions of subjective occupational success: goal attainment, pro-social success, positive feedback, and career success. The model assumes that subjective success is a resource because it is valued in its own right, triggers positive affect and emotions (e.g., pleasure, cf., Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), helps to protect and gain other resources like self-efficacy (Hobfoll, 1998, 2001), has direct positive effects on well-being (e.g., job satisfaction, cf., Locke & Latham, 1990) and health (Carver & Scheier, 1999), facilitates learning (Frese & Zapf, 1994), and has an energizing (Locke & Latham, 1990, 2002) and attention-directing effect (Carver, 2003), which can promote recovery by promoting mental detachment from work tasks in terms of absence of job-related rumination in leisure time (Sonnentag & Bayer, 2005).

The model proposes that success is promoted by other resources like job control (Frese & Zapf, 1994) while job stressors, like hindrance stressors such as performance constraints and role ambiguity (LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005), can work against success (Frese & Zapf, 1994). The model assumes reciprocal direct effects of subjective success on well-being, health, and recovery (upward spiral), and a moderator effect of success on the stressor–strain relationship. The chapter discusses research evidence, measurement of subjective occupational success, value of the model for job stress interventions, future research requirements, and methodological concerns.

This paper aims to investigate if a sensory intervention of moderate pressure touch of children with sensory processing disorder (SPD) affects sleep behaviours and sensory processing behaviours.

A total of 50 children, aged 5–11 years with both SPD and sleep difficulties in Israel, were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group, nonblinded. Participants in the experimental group received three weeks of nightly massage by their parents, with a baseline week on both ends. Parents filled out questionnaires reporting on sensory and sleep behaviours and filled out a nightly sleep log. Parents determined outcome goals using goal attainment scoring. The assessment tools used were the short sensory profile and the child sleep habits questionnaire (Dunn, 1999; Owens et al., 2000).

Significant improvement was found in the total and subgroup scores of sleep participation measures including sleep onset, sleep anxiety, parasomnias, sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, as well as the total sleep score (F (1,48) = 24.71, p < 0.001).

Results of this study suggest that consistent application of moderate pressure touch as advised or trained by an occupational therapist may be used in clinical practice to improve sleep participation in children with SPD.