Category: Mental Health

What is Distress?

Published on by Andrew Marshall3 Comments

Introduction

In medicine, distress is an aversive state in which a person is unable to completely adapt to stressors and their resulting stress and shows maladaptive behaviours.

It can be evident in the presence of various phenomena, such as inappropriate social interaction (e.g., aggression, passivity, or withdrawal).

Distress is the opposite of eustress, a positive stress that motivates people.

Risk Factors

Stress can be created by influences such as work, school, peers or co-workers, family and death. Other influences vary by age.

People under constant distress are more likely to become sick, mentally or physically. There is a clear response association between psychological distress and major causes of mortality across the full range of distress.

Higher education has been linked to a reduction in psychological distress in both men and women, and these effects persist throughout the aging process, not just immediately after receiving education. However, this link does lessen with age. The major mechanism by which higher education plays a role on reducing stress in men is more so related to labour-market resources rather than social resources as in women.

In the clinic, distress is a patient reported outcome that has a huge impact on patient’s quality of life. To assess patient distress, a Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire is most commonly used. The score from the HADS questionnaire guides a clinician to recommend lifestyle modifications or further assessment for mental disorders like depression.

Management

People often find ways of dealing with distress, in both negative and positive ways. Examples of positive ways are listening to music, calming exercises, colouring, sports and similar healthy distractions. Negative ways can include but are not limited to use of drugs including alcohol, and expression of anger, which are likely to lead to complicated social interactions, thus causing increased distress.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_(medicine) >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is a Flashback (Psychology)?

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Introduction

A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience.

These experiences can be frightful, happy, sad, exciting, or any number of other emotions. The term is used particularly when the memory is recalled involuntarily, especially when it is so intense that the person “relives” the experience, and is unable to fully recognise it as memory of a past experience and not something that is happening in “real time”.

Brief History

Flashbacks are the “personal experiences that pop into your awareness, without any conscious, premeditated attempt to search and retrieve this memory”. These experiences occasionally have little to no relation to the situation at hand. For those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), flashbacks can significantly disrupt everyday life.

Memory is divided into voluntary (conscious) and involuntary (unconscious) processes that function independently of each other. Theories and research on memory, dates back to Hermann Ebbinghaus, who began studying nonsense syllables. Ebbinghaus classified three distinct classes of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.

  • Sensory memory is made up of a brief storage of information within a specific medium (the line you see after waving a sparkler in your field of vision is created by sensory memory).
  • Short term memory is made up of the information currently in use to complete the task at hand.
  • Long term memory is composed of the systems used to store memory over long periods. It enables one to remember what happened two days ago at noon, or who called last night.

Miller (1962-1974) declared that studying such fragile things as involuntary memories should not be done. This appears to have been followed, since very little research has been done on flashbacks in the cognitive psychology discipline. However, flashbacks have been studied within a clinical discipline, and they have been identified as symptoms for many disorders, including PTSD.

Theoretical Accounts

Due to the elusive nature of involuntary recurrent memories, very little is known about the subjective experience of flashbacks. However, theorists agree that this phenomenon is in part due to the manner in which memories of specific events are initially encoded (or entered) into memory, the way in which the memory is organised, and also the way in which the individual later recalls the event. Overall, theories that attempt to explain the flashback phenomenon can be categorised into one of two viewpoints. The “special mechanism” view is clinically oriented in that it holds that involuntary memories are due to traumatic events, and the memories for these events can be attributed to a special memory mechanism. On the other hand, the “basic mechanism” view is more experimentally oriented in that it is based on memory research. This view holds that traumatic memories are bound by the same parameters as all other every-day memories. Both viewpoints agree that involuntary recurrent memories result from rare events that would not normally occur.

These rare events elicit strong emotional reactions from the individual, since they violate normal expectations. According to the special mechanism view, the event would lead to fragmented voluntary encoding into memory, thus making the conscious subsequent retrieval of the memory much more difficult. On the other hand, involuntary recurrent memories are likely to become more available, and these are more likely to be triggered by external cues. In contrast to this, the basic mechanism view holds that the traumatic event would lead to enhanced and cohesive encoding of the event in memory, and this would make both voluntary and involuntary memories more available for subsequent recall.

What is currently an issue of controversy is the nature of the defining criteria that make up an involuntary memory. Up until recently, researchers believed that involuntary memories were a result of traumatic incidents that the individual experienced at a specific time and place, while losing all the temporal and spatial features of the event during an involuntary recollection episode. In other words, people who suffer from flashbacks lose all sense of time and place, and they feel as if they are re-experiencing the event instead of just recalling a memory. This is consistent with the special mechanism viewpoint in that the involuntary memory is based on a different memory mechanism compared to the voluntary counterpart. Furthermore, the initial emotions experienced at the time of encoding are also re-experienced during a flashback episode, which can be especially distressing when the memory is of a traumatic event. It has also been demonstrated that the nature of the flashbacks experienced by an individual are static in that they retain an identical form upon each intrusion. This occurs even when the individual has learned new information that directly contradicts the information retained in the intrusive memory.

Upon further investigation, it was found that involuntary memories are usually derived from either stimuli that indicated the onset of a traumatic event, or from stimuli that hold intense emotional significance to the individual simply because they were closely associated with the trauma during the time of the event. These stimuli then become warning signals that, if encountered again, serve to trigger a flashback. This has been termed the warning signal hypothesis. For example, a person may experience a flashback while seeing sun spots on their lawn. This happens because he or she associates the spots with the headlights of the vehicle that he or she saw before being involved in a car accident. According to Ehlers and Clark, traumatic memories are more apt to induce flashbacks because of faulty encoding that cause the individual to fail in taking contextual information into account, as well as time and place information that would usually be associated with everyday memories. These individuals become sensitised to stimuli that they associate with the traumatic event, which then serve as triggers for a flashback, even if the context surrounding the stimulus may be unrelated. These triggers may elicit an adaptive response during the time of the traumatic experience, but they soon become maladaptive if the person continues to respond in the same way to situations in which no danger may be present.

The special mechanism viewpoint further adds to this by suggesting that these triggers activate the fragmented memory of the traumatic event, while the protective cognitive mechanisms function to inhibit the recall of the original memory. Dual representation theory enhances this idea by suggesting two separate mechanisms that account for voluntary and involuntary memories. The first of which is called the verbally accessible memory system and the latter of which is referred as the situationally accessible memory system.

In contrast to this, theories belonging to the basic mechanism viewpoint hold that there are no separate mechanisms that account for voluntary and involuntary memories. The recall of memories for stressful events do not differ under involuntary and voluntary recall. Instead, it is the retrieval mechanism that is different for each type of recall. In involuntary recall, the external trigger creates an uncontrolled spreading of activation in memory, whereas in voluntary recall, this activation is strictly controlled and is goal-oriented.

In addition, the basic mechanism’s involuntary recall for negative events, are also associated with memories of positive events. Studies have shown that out of the participants who suffer from flashbacks, about 5% of them experience positive non-traumatic flashbacks. They experience the same intensity level and has the same retrieval mechanism as the people who experienced negative and/or traumatic flashbacks, which includes the vividness and the emotion related to the involuntary memory. The only difference is whether the emotion evoked is positive or negative.

Cognition

Sensory Memory

Memory has typically been divided into sensory, short-term, and long-term processes. The items that are seen, or other sensory details related to an intense intrusive memory, may cause flashbacks. These sensory experiences that takes place right before the event, acts as a conditioning stimulus for the event to appear as an involuntary memory. The presence of the primer increases the likelihood of the appearance of a flashback. Just as the sensory memory can result in this, it can also help erase the connections between the memory and the primer. Counter conditioning and rewriting the memory of the events that are related to the sensory cue, may help dissociate the memory from the primer.

Short-Term Memory/Working Memory

There have been many suspicions that disruptive memories may cause deficiencies in short term memories. For people who suffer from flashbacks, the hippocampus that is involved with the working memory has been damaged, supporting the theory that the working memory could have also been affected. Many studies were conducted to test this theory and all results concluded that intrusive memory does not affect the short-term memory or the working memory.

Long-Term Memory

Out of the three types of memory processes, long-term memory contains the greatest amount of memory storage and is involved in most of the cognitive processes. According to Rasmuseen & Berntsen (2009), “long-term memory processes may form the core of spontaneous thought”. Thus, the memory process most related to flashbacks is long term memory. Additionally, other 2009 studies by Rasmuseen & Berntsen have shown that long term memory is also susceptible to extraneous factors such as recency effect, arousal, and rehearsal as it pertains to accessibility. Compared to voluntary memories, involuntary memories show shorter retrieval times and little cognitive effort. Finally, involuntary memories arise due to automatic processing, which does not rely on higher-order cognitive monitoring, or executive control processing. Normally, voluntary memory would be associated with contextual information, allowing correspondence between time and place to happen. This is not true for flashbacks. According to Brewin, Lanius et, al (2009), flashbacks, are disconnected from contextual information, and as a result are disconnected from time and place.

Episodic Memory

Episodic memory is a type of long-term memory where the involuntary memories are made up of intense autobiographical memories. As a version of declarative memory, this follows the same idea that the more personal the memory is, the more likely it will be remembered. Disruptive memories are almost always associated with a familiar stimulus that quickly becomes stronger through the process of consolidation and reconsolidation. The major difference is that intrusive thoughts are harder to forget. Most mental narratives tends to have varying levels of some type of emotions involved with the memory. For flashbacks, most of the emotions associated with it are negative, though it could be positive as well. These emotions are intense and makes the memory more vivid. Decreasing the intensity of the emotion associated with an intrusive memory may reduce the memory to a calmer episodic memory.

Neuroscience

Anatomy

Several brain regions have been implicated in the neurological basis of flashbacks. The medial temporal lobes, the praecuneus, the posterior cingulate gyrus and the prefrontal cortex are the most typically referenced with regards to involuntary memories.

The medial temporal lobes are commonly associated with memory. More specifically, the lobes have been linked to episodic/declarative memory, which means the damage to these areas of the brain would result in disruptions to declarative memory system. The hippocampus, located within the medial temporal regions, has also been highly related to memory processes. There are numerous functions in the hippocampus that includes aspects of memory consolidation. Brain imaging studies have shown flashbacks activating areas associated with memory retrieval. The praecuneus, located in the superior parietal lobe, and the posterior cingulate gyrus, have also been implicated in memory retrieval. In addition, studies have shown activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex to be involved in memory retrieval.

Thus, the medial temporal lobe, praecuneus, superior parietal lobe and posterior cingulate gyrus have all been implicated in flashbacks in accordance to their roles on memory retrieval.

Clinical Investigations

To date, the specific causes of flashbacks have not yet been confirmed. Several studies have proposed various potential factors. Gunasekaran et al. (2009) indicate there may be a link between food deprivation and stress on the occurrence of flashbacks. Psychiatrists suggest that temporal lobe seizures may also have some relation.

Conversely, several ideas have been discounted in terms of being a possible cause to flashbacks. Tym et al. (2009) suggest this list includes medication or other substances, Charles Bonnet syndrome, delayed palinopsia, hallucinations, dissociative phenomena, and depersonalization syndrome.

A study of the persistence of traumatic memories in World War II prisoners of war, investigates via the administration of surveys, the extent and severity of flashbacks that occur in prisoners of war. This study concluded that the persistence of severely traumatic autobiographical memories can last up to 65 years. Until recently, the study of flashbacks has been limited to participants who already experience flashbacks, such as those suffering from PTSD, restricting researchers to observational/exploratory rather than experimental studies.

There have also been treatments based on theories about the inner workings of the involuntary memory. The procedure involves changing the content of the intrusive memories and restructuring it so the negative connotations associated with it is erased. The patients are encouraged to live their lives and not focus on their disruptive memories, and are taught to recognise any stimulus that may start the flashbacks. The events related to the flashbacks still mostly exist in their mind, but the meaning and the way the person perceives it is now different. According to Ehlers, this method has a high success rate with patients who have suffered from trauma.

Neuroimaging Investigations

Neuroimaging techniques have been applied to the investigation of flashbacks. Using these techniques, researchers attempt to discover the structural and functional differences in the anatomy of the brain in individuals who suffer from flashbacks compared to those who do not. Neuroimaging involves a cluster of techniques, including computerised tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (including functional), as well as magnetoencephalography. Neuroimaging studies investigating flashbacks are based on current psychological theories that are used as the foundation for the research. One of theories that is consistently investigated is the difference between explicit and implicit memory. This distinction dictates the manner in which memories are later recalled, namely either consciously (voluntarily) or unconsciously (involuntarily).

These methods have largely relied on subtractive reasoning, in which the participant first voluntarily recalls a memory before recalling the memory again through involuntary means. Involuntary memories (or flashbacks) are elicited in the participant by reading an emotionally charged script to them that is designed to trigger a flashback in individuals who suffer from PTSD. The investigators record the regions of the brain that are active during each of these conditions, and then subtract the activity. Whatever is left is assumed to underpin the neurological differences between the conditions.

Imaging studies looking at patients with PTSD as they undergo flashback experiences have identified elevated activation in regions of the dorsal stream including the mid-occipital lobe, primary motor cortex, and supplementary motor area.[28] The dorsal stream is involved in sensory processing, and therefore these activations might underlie the vivid visual experiences associated with flashbacks. The study also found reduced activation in regions such as the inferior temporal cortex and parahippocampus which are involved in processing allocentric relations.[28] These deactivations might contribute to feelings of dissociation from reality during flashback experiences.

Relations to Mental Illness and Drug Use

Flashbacks are often associated with mental illness as they are a symptom and a feature in diagnostic criteria for PTSD, acute stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Flashbacks have also been observed in people suffering from bipolar disorder, depression, homesickness, near-death experiences, epileptic seizures, and substance abuse.

Some researchers have suggested that the use of some drugs can cause a person to experience flashbacks; users of LSD sometimes report “acid flashbacks”, while other studies show that the use of other drugs, specifically cannabis, can help reduce the occurrence of flashbacks in people with PTSD.

In Popular Culture

The psychological phenomenon has frequently been portrayed in film and television. Some of the most accurate media portrayals of flashbacks have been those related to wartime, and the association of flashbacks to PTSD caused by the traumas and stresses of war. One of the earliest screen portrayals of this is in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback_(psychology) >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is Eustress?

Published on by Andrew Marshall3 Comments

Introduction

Eustress means beneficial stress – either psychological, physical (e.g. exercise), or biochemical/radiological (hormesis).

The term was coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, consisting of the Greek prefix eu- meaning “good”, and stress, literally meaning “good stress”.

It is the positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings. Selye created the term as a subgroup of stress to differentiate the wide variety of stressors and manifestations of stress.

Eustress is not defined by the stress or type, but rather how one perceives that stressors (e.g. a negative threat versus a positive challenge). Eustress refers to a positive response one has to a stressor, which can depend on one’s current feelings of control, desirability, location, and timing of the stressor. Potential indicators of eustress may include responding to a stressor with a sense of meaning, hope, or vigour. Eustress has also been positively correlated with life satisfaction and well-being.

Refer to Distress.

Definition

Eustress occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. The goal is not too far out of reach but is still slightly more than one can handle. This fosters challenge and motivation since the goal is in sight. The function of challenge is to motivate a person toward improvement and a goal. Challenge is an opportunity-related emotion that allows people to achieve unmet goals. Eustress is indicated by hope and active engagement. Eustress has a significantly positive correlation with life satisfaction and hope. It is typically assumed that experiencing chronic stress, either in the form of distress or eustress, is negative. However, eustress can instead fuel physiological thriving by positively influencing the underlying biological processes implicated in physical recovery and immunity.

Measurement

Occupational eustress may be measured on subjective levels such as of quality of life or work life, job pressure, psychological coping resources, complaints, overall stress level, and mental health. Other subjective methodological practices have included interviews with focus groups asking about stressors and stress level. In one study participants were asked to remember a past stressful event and then answer questionnaires on coping skills, job well-being, and appraisal of the situation (viewing the stressful event as a challenge or a threat). Common subjective methodologies were incorporated in a holistic stress model created in 2007 to acknowledge the importance of eustress, particularly in the workplace. This model uses hope, positive affect, meaningfulness, and manageability as a measure of eustress, and negative psychological states, negative affect, anxiety, and anger as a measure of distress. Objective measures have also been used and include blood pressure rate, muscle tension, and absenteeism rates. Further physiological research has looked for neuroendocrine changes as a result of eustress and distress. Research has shown that catecholamines change rapidly to pleasurable stimuli. Studies have demonstrated that eustress and distress produce different responses in the neuroendocrine system, particularly dependent on the amount of personal control one feels over a stressor.

Compared with Distress

Distress is the most commonly referred to type of stress, having negative implications, whereas eustress is usually related to desirable events in a person’s life. Selye first differentiated the two in an article he wrote in 1975. In this article Selye argued that persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation should be known as distress, and may lead to anxiety, withdrawal, and depressive behaviour. In contrast, if stress enhances one’s functioning it may be considered eustress. Both can be equally taxing on the body, and are cumulative in nature, depending on a person’s way of adapting to the stressor that caused it. The body itself cannot physically discern between distress or eustress. Differentiation between the two is dependent on one’s perception of the stress, but it is believed that the same stressor may cause both eustress and distress. One context that this may occur in is societal trauma (e.g. the black death, World War II) which may cause great distress, but also eustress in the form of hardiness, coping, and fostering a sense of community. The Yerkes–Dodson model demonstrates the optimum balance of stress with a bell curve (shown in the image in the top right).[17] This model is supported by research demonstrating emotional-coping and behavioural-coping strategies are related to changes in perceived stress level on the Yerkes-Dodson Curve. However, the Yerkes-Dodson Curve has become increasingly questioned. A review of the psychological literature pertaining work performance, found that less than 5% of papers supported the inverted U-shaped curve whereas nearly 50% found a “negative linear” relationship (any level of stress inhibits performance).

Occupational

Much of the research on eustress has focused on its presence in the workplace. In the workplace, stress can often be interpreted as a challenge, which generally denotes positive eustress, or as a hindrance, which refers to distress that interferes with one’s ability to accomplish a job or task.

Research has focused on increasing eustress in the workplace, in an effort to promote positive reactions to an inevitably stressful environment. Companies are interested in learning more about eustress and its positive effects to increase productivity. Eustress creates a better environment for employees, which makes them perform better and cost less. Occupational stress costs the United States somewhere in between 200 and 300 billion dollars per year. If this were eustress instead of distress, these companies would retain this money and the US economy could improve as well. Stress has also been linked to the six leading causes of death: “disease, accidents, cancer, liver disease, lung ailments, suicide.” If workers get sick and/or die, there is obviously a cost to the company in sick time and training new employees. It is better to have productive, happy employees. Eustress is necessary for achievement. Eustress is related to well-being and positive attitudes and thus increases work performance.

Techniques such as Stress Management Interventions (SMI) have been employed to increase occupational eustress. SMI’s often incorporate exercise, meditation, and relaxation techniques to decrease distress and increase positive perceptions of stress in the workplace. Rather than decrease stress in the workplace, SMI techniques attempt to increase eustress with positive reactions to stressful stimuli.

Self-Efficacy

Eustress is primarily based on perceptions. It is how you perceive your given situation and how you perceive your given task. It is not what is actually happening, but a person’s perception of what is happening. Eustress is thus related to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is one’s judgement of how they can carry out a required task, action or role. Some contributing factors are a person’s beliefs about the effectiveness about their options for courses of action and their ability to perform those actions. If a person has low self-efficacy, they will see the demand as more distressful than eustressful because the perceived level of what the person has is lower. When a person has high self-efficacy, they can set goals higher and be motivated to achieve them. The goal then is to increase self-efficacy and skill in order to enable people to increase eustress.

Flow

When an individual appraises a situation as stressful, they add the label for distress or eustress to the issue at hand. If a situation induces eustress, the person may feel motivated and can experience flow. Positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, created this concept which is described as the moments when one is completely absorbed into an enjoyable activity with no awareness of surroundings. Flow is an extremely productive state in which an individual experiences their prime performance. The core elements are absorption, enjoyment and intrinsic motivation.

Flow is the “ultimate eustress experience – the epitome of eustress”. Hargrove, Nelson and Cooper described eustress as being focused on a challenge, fully present and exhilarated, which almost exactly mirrors the definition of flow. Flow is considered a peak experience or “the single most joyous, happiest, most blissful moment of your life.”

Factors

There are several factors that may increase or decrease one’s chances of experiencing eustress and, through eustress, experiencing flow:

  • Stress is also influenced by hereditary predispositions and expectations of society. Thus, a person could already be at a certain advantage or disadvantage toward experiencing eustress.
  • If a person enjoys experiencing new things and believes they have importance in the world, they are more likely to experience flow.
  • Flow is negatively related to self-directedness, or an extreme sense of autonomy.
  • Persistence is positively related to flow and closely related to intrinsic motivation.
  • People with an internal locus of control, have an increased chance of flow because they believe they can increase their skill level to match the challenge.
  • Perfectionism, however, is negatively related to flow. A person downplays their skill levels therefore making the gap too big, and they perceive the challenge to be too large to experience flow. On the opposite end of perfectionism, however, there are increased chances of flow.
  • Active procrastination is positively related to flow. By actively delaying work, the person increases the challenge. Then once the challenge is matched with the person’s high skill levels, the person can experience flow. Those who passively procrastinate or do not procrastinate do not have these same experiences. It is only with the purposeful procrastination that a person is able to increase the challenge.
  • Mindset is a significant factor in determining distress versus eustress. Optimistic people and those with high self-esteem contribute to eustress experiences. The positive mindset increases the chances of eustress and a positive response to stressors. Currently, the predominant mindset toward stress is that stress is debilitating. However, mindsets toward stress can be changed.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustress >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is the European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations?

Published on by Andrew Marshall1 Comment

Introduction

The European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental student organisation that consists of psychology student associations from across Europe. EFPSA currently consists of 33 Member Organisations and two Observer Organisations, each represented by a Member Representative, who collectively form the legislative body of the Federation.

The work of the Federation is perpetuated through the work of the Member Representatives (MRs), the Executive Board (EB) and the Board of Management (BM). EFPSA provides psychology students with diverse opportunities for scientific- and self-development through its Events and Services. Additionally, EFPSA also aims to contribute to a positive impact in society through a variety of campaigns while representing the interest and needs of psychology students on a European level.

Brief History

EFPSA was founded in April 1987 at the University of Lisbon, Portugal where European psychology students from all over Europe had been invited to a meeting. Psychology students from eight European countries formed the European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA).

The basic outlines of this Federation were transformed into formal statutes during the second meeting in Liege, Belgium in April 1988. At the same time, EFPSA initiated its first project, the EUROPSYCHO-Database on education and exchange. In January 1989, EFPSA was registered as an international association according to the Belgian law.

During the third General Assembly in April 1989 in Lund, Sweden, the Federation developed its initial structure with the first meeting of the Executive Board (EB) being held for the first time in that same year. In July 1991, EFPSA started a collaboration with the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, after which EFPSA became an official affiliate member of EFPA in 2001.

After EFPSA’s participation in the first European Student Conference (which brought together about 500 students from a number of disciplines) in Liege (Belgium) in November 1990, a lot of new contacts were made, especially with Eastern European countries. During the fifth General Assembly in April 1991 in Geneva (Switzerland) EFPSA grew to 11 member countries, and the first delegation from Eastern Europe was welcomed. In this year the idea of permanent working groups (called “task forces”) came into being to enable more efficient work on projects such as EUROPSYCHO, ERASMUS, etc. Over the years leading up to new millennium, more Events in the form of Summer Schools and seminars and, of course, the Congress were organised under the guidance of EFPSA. In 2006, EFPSA developed its Corporate Visual Identity and became recognised with its representative logo and orange colour.

Structure

The structure of EFPSA was developed at the third General Assembly in April 1989 in Lund (Sweden). At this time, members of the Executive Board also covered the functions that Member Representatives do now. There were no Board of Management positions, only a President. Since then, EFPSA has grown in size and had to implement some significant structural changes, creating a new form of Executive Board. In 2003, the concept of National Representatives (nowadays known as Member Representatives) was introduced. These formed the new decision-making body from each of the associations which were members of EFPSA. Furthermore, the Board of Management as a separate body within the Executive Board was formed due to the need for leadership on strategic decisions, as well as monitoring the efficiency of the whole organisation.

Events

EFPSA currently organises eleven annual and one biennial event:

  • The Congress;
  • European Summer School (ESS);
  • EFPSA Academy;
  • Train the Trainers (TtT) Summer School;
  • Train Advanced Trainers (TAT);
  • Trainers’ Meeting (TRAM);
  • Trainers’ Conference (TRaC);
  • EFPSA Day; and
  • The Joint Executive Board & Member Representatives Meeting and Board of Management Meetings are the annual events, while the Conference is the biennial event.

European Summer School

The first European Summer School (ESS) took place in Leie, Estonia in 2007. with the topic ‘Cross-Cultural Psychology’ followed by European Summer Schools covering different topics each subsequent year. During this seven-day event students immerse themselves into a programme of intercultural research where they have the opportunity to join one of six research projects led by a PhD supervisor in planning and implementing a 12-month study. Apart from this, the programme is enriched by a variety of lectures given by professionals from relevant areas of psychology. Each year, all lectures and research are set against a theme, chosen to reflect a field of contemporary psychology. Since 2011, all ESS participants completing the training programme and committing to the research project have been invited to join the Junior Researcher Programme, extending the European Summer School from a one-week Event into a fully structured 12-month research programme.

EFPSA Day

EFPSA Day is a promotional event that takes place across Europe at the beginning of December. The first EFPSA Day was held in 2010. The aim of this one-day event is to spread the word about EFPSA all over Europe. Presentations, workshops and other activities connected with EFPSA take place in many universities on the same day in order to make as many students as possible familiar with EFPSA.

Train the Trainers

In 2010, the first Train the Trainers summer school took place in Austria.[9] The Train the Trainers (TtT) summer school is an annual seven-day event featuring experiential and non-formal education aimed at providing its participants with insights and tutoring on a broad set of skills and knowledge about delivering training and information. Upon completion of set requirements, the TtT graduates may be invited to join the EFPSA Trainers’ Pool – a supportive environment for furthering training skills and experiences.

EFPSA Conference

The EFPSA Conference first took place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2013. The EFPSA Conference is a biennial event and places a particular emphasis on its scientific programme. It brings together around 150 students from all over Europe for four days of lectures, workshops and student presentations. During the Conference, there is an open day, which consists of approximately 30 students from the hosting country/region joining the Conference for one day, to get an opportunity to learn, partake in the lectures and network with the participants.

Journal of European Psychology Students

The Journal of European Psychology Students (JEPS) is a double-blind peer-reviewed open access academic journal run entirely by students, covering all aspects of psychology published by the EFPSA and Ubiquity Press since 2009. JEPS brings a legitimate opportunity for psychology students to consider their thesis or research with international scope. Submissions have to be based on research conducted by bachelor or master students who may also be from outside Europe. Authors of selected submissions will receive professional feedback and help in developing their scientific publication. Articles are selected based on quality of research alone, disregarding the perceived importance and originality of a particular paper. Articles are indexed in EBSCOHost. Since 2016, JEPS invites students to submit Registered Reports. The JEPS team also run a blog, the JEPS Bulletin, which has been publishing since November 2010 on a range of issues relevant to psychology students of all levels and varied fields of interest.

Member Organisations

Organisations from all countries recognised by the Council of Europe can become members of EFPSA. Organisations from countries/regions that are not recognised by the Council of Europe can be taken into consideration as Regional Members. As of April 2018, EFPSA has 33 Member Organisations and two Observer Organisations.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Federation_of_Psychology_Students%27_Associations >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations?

Published on by Andrew Marshall2 Comments

Introduction

The European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations is the umbrella organisation of national societies in the field of psychology that are located in the European Economic Area.

Refer to the European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA).

Brief History

The federation was founded in 1981 and the first general assembly was held in Heidelberg. Since then, general assemblies have been held every two years in different European cities. Since 1995, the general assembly is held in conjunction with the biennial European Congress of Psychology.

Aims

The federation is concerned with promoting and improving psychology as a profession and as a discipline, particularly, though not exclusively, in applied settings and with emphasis on the training and research associated with such practice. Its official journal is the European Psychologist. In 2009, the federation launched the EuroPsy register.

Member Associations

As of July 2019 the federation has 39 member associations, which together represent over 350,000 psychologists from all 28 members states of the European Union. In addition, there are 11 organisations registered as associate member associations and 2 that are registered as affiliate member associations.

EuroPsy

One of the major initiatives of the federation was the establishment of the EuroPsy or European Certificate in Psychology. This qualification sets a common standard for education, professional training and competence for psychologists to practice independently across Europe.

Aristotle Prize

The Aristotle Prize, established in 1995, is awarded by EFPA to a psychologist from Europe who has made a distinguished contribution to psychology.

Recipients of the prize have been:

  • 1995: Pieter Drenth.
  • 1997: Paul Baltes.
  • 1999: David Magnusson.
  • 2001: Alan Baddeley.
  • 2003: Lea Pulkkinen.
  • 2005: Rocio Fernandez-Ballesteros.
  • 2007: William Yule.
  • 2009: Claus Bundesen.
  • 2011: H. Marinus Van Ijzendoorn.
  • 2013: Niels Birbaumer.
  • 2015: José Maria Peiro.
  • 2017: CON AMORE – Centre on Autobiographical Memory Research.
  • 2019: Naomi Ellemers.

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What is Enmeshment?

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Introduction

Enmeshment is a concept in psychology and psychotherapy introduced by Salvador Minuchin (1921-2017) to describe families where personal boundaries are diffused, sub-systems undifferentiated, and over-concern for others leads to a loss of autonomous development.

Background

Enmeshed in parental needs, trapped in a discrepant role function, a child may lose their capacity for self-direction; their own distinctiveness, under the weight of “psychic incest”; and, if family pressures increase, may end up becoming the identified patient or family scapegoat.

Enmeshment was also used by John Bradshaw to describe a state of cross-generational bonding within a family, whereby a child (normally of the opposite sex) becomes a surrogate spouse for their mother or father.

The term is sometimes applied to engulfing co-dependent relationships, where an unhealthy symbiosis is in existence.

For the toxically enmeshed child, the adult’s carried feelings may be the only ones they know, outweighing and eclipsing their own.

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What is Dissociation (Psychology)?

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Introduction

Dissociation, as a concept that has been developed over time, is any of a wide array of experiences, ranging from a mild emotional detachment from the immediate surroundings, to a more severe disconnection from physical and emotional experiences. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality, rather than a loss of reality as in psychosis.

The phenomena are diagnosable under the DSM-5 as a group of disorders as well as a symptom of other disorders through various diagnostic tools. Its cause is believed to be related to neurobiological mechanisms, trauma, anxiety, and psychoactive drugs. Research has further related it to suggestibility and hypnosis, and it is inversely related to mindfulness, which is a potential treatment.

Brief History

French philosopher and psychologist Pierre Janet (1859-1947) is considered to be the author of the concept of dissociation. Contrary to some conceptions of dissociation, Janet did not believe that dissociation was a psychological defence.

Psychological defence mechanisms belong to Sigmund Freud‘s theory of psychoanalysis, not to Janetian psychology. Janet claimed that dissociation occurred only in persons who had a constitutional weakness of mental functioning that led to hysteria when they were stressed. Although it is true that many of Janet’s case histories described traumatic experiences, he never considered dissociation to be a defence against those experiences. Quite the opposite: Janet insisted that dissociation was a mental or cognitive deficit. Accordingly, he considered trauma to be one of many stressors that could worsen the already-impaired “mental deficiency” of a hysteric, thereby generating a cascade of hysterical (in today’s language, “dissociative”) symptoms.

Although there was great interest in dissociation during the last two decades of the nineteenth century (especially in France and England), this interest rapidly waned with the coming of the new century. Even Janet largely turned his attention to other matters.

There was a sharp peak in interest in dissociation in America from 1890 to 1910, especially in Boston as reflected in the work of William James, Boris Sidis, Morton Prince, and William McDougall. Nevertheless, even in America, interest in dissociation rapidly succumbed to the surging academic interest in psychoanalysis and behaviourism.

For most of the twentieth century, there was little interest in dissociation. Despite this, a review of 76 previously published cases from the 1790s to 1942 was published in 1944, describing clinical phenomena consistent with that seen by Janet and by therapists today. In 1971, Bowers and her colleagues presented a detailed, and still quite valid, treatment article. The authors of this article included leading thinkers of their time – John G. Watkins (who developed ego-state therapy) and Zygmunt A. Piotrowski (famed for his work on the Rorschach test). Further interest in dissociation was evoked when Ernest Hilgard (1977) published his neodissociation theory in the 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s an increasing number of clinicians and researchers wrote about dissociation, particularly multiple personality disorder.

Carl Jung described pathological manifestations of dissociation as special or extreme cases of the normal operation of the psyche. This structural dissociation, opposing tension, and hierarchy of basic attitudes and functions in normal individual consciousness is the basis of Jung’s Psychological Types. He theorised that dissociation is a natural necessity for consciousness to operate in one faculty unhampered by the demands of its opposite.

Attention to dissociation as a clinical feature has been growing in recent years as knowledge of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increased, due to interest in dissociative identity disorder (DID), and as neuroimaging research and population studies show its relevance.

Historically the psychopathological concept of dissociation has also another different root: the conceptualization of Eugen Bleuler that looks into dissociation related to schizophrenia.

Diagnosis

Refer to Dissociative disorder.

Dissociation is commonly displayed on a continuum. In mild cases, dissociation can be regarded as a coping mechanism or defence mechanism in seeking to master, minimise or tolerate stress – including boredom or conflict. At the non-pathological end of the continuum, dissociation describes common events such as daydreaming. Further along the continuum are non-pathological altered states of consciousness.

More pathological dissociation involves dissociative disorders, including dissociative fugue and depersonalisation disorder with or without alterations in personal identity or sense of self. These alterations can include: a sense that self or the world is unreal (depersonalisation and derealisation), a loss of memory (amnesia), forgetting identity or assuming a new self (fugue), and separate streams of consciousness, identity and self (dissociative identity disorder, formerly termed multiple personality disorder) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). Although some dissociative disruptions involve amnesia, other dissociative events do not. Dissociative disorders are typically experienced as startling, autonomous intrusions into the person’s usual ways of responding or functioning. Due to their unexpected and largely inexplicable nature, they tend to be quite unsettling.

Dissociative disorders are sometimes triggered by trauma, but may be preceded only by stress, psychoactive substances, or no identifiable trigger at all. The ICD-10 classifies conversion disorder as a dissociative disorder. The DSM groups all dissociative disorders into a single category and recognises dissociation as a symptom of acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder.

Misdiagnosis is common among people who display symptoms of dissociative disorders, with an average of seven years to receive proper diagnosis and treatment. Research is ongoing into aetiologies, symptomology, and valid and reliable diagnostic tools. In the general population, dissociative experiences that are not clinically significant are highly prevalent with 60% to 65% of the respondents indicating that they have had some dissociative experiences.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Diagnoses listed under the DSM-5 are dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia, depersonalisation/derealisation disorder, other specified dissociative disorder and unspecified dissociative disorder. The list of available dissociative disorders listed in the DSM-5 changed from the DSM-IV-TR, as the authors removed the diagnosis of dissociative fugue, classifying it instead as a subtype of dissociative amnesia. Furthermore, the authors recognised derealisation on the same diagnostic level of depersonalisation with the opportunity of differentiating between the two.

The DSM-IV-TR considers symptoms such as depersonalisation, derealisation and psychogenic amnesia to be core features of dissociative disorders. The DSM-5 carried these symptoms over and described symptoms as positive and negative. Positive symptoms include unwanted intrusions that alter continuity of subjective experiences, which account for the first two symptoms listed earlier with the addition of fragmentation of identity. Negative symptoms include loss of access to information and mental functions that are normally readily accessible, which describes amnesia.

Peritraumatic Dissociation

Peritraumatic dissociation is considered to be dissociation that is experienced during and immediately following a traumatic event. Research is on-going related to its development, its importance, and its relationship to trauma, dissociative disorders, and predicting the development of PTSD.

Measurements

Two of the most commonly used screening tools in the community are the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory. Meanwhile, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV – Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D) and its second iteration, the SCID-D-R, are both semi-structured interviews and are considered psychometrically strong diagnostic tools.

Other tools include the Office Mental Status Examination (OMSE), which is used clinically due to inherent subjectivity and lack of quantitative use. There is also the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule (DDSI), which lacks substantive clarity for differential diagnostics.

Peritraumatic dissociation is measured through the Peritraumatic Dissociative Scale.

Aetiology

Neurobiological Mechanism

Preliminary research suggests that dissociation-inducing events, drugs like ketamine, and seizures generate slow rhythmic activity (1-3 Hz) in layer 5 neurons of the posteromedial cortex in humans (retrosplenial cortex in mice). These slow oscillations disconnect other brain regions from interacting with the posteromedial cortex, which may explain the overall experience of dissociation.

Trauma

Dissociation has been described as one of a constellation of symptoms experienced by some victims of multiple forms of childhood trauma, including physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. This is supported by studies which suggest that dissociation is correlated with a history of trauma.

Dissociation appears to have a high specificity and a low sensitivity to having a self-reported history of trauma, which means that dissociation is much more common among those who are traumatised, yet at the same time there are many people who have suffered from trauma but who do not show dissociative symptoms.

Adult dissociation when combined with a history of child abuse and otherwise interpersonal violence-related PTSD has been shown to contribute to disturbances in parenting behaviour, such as exposure of young children to violent media. Such behaviour may contribute to cycles of familial violence and trauma.

Symptoms of dissociation resulting from trauma may include depersonalisation, psychological numbing, disengagement, or amnesia regarding the events of the abuse. It has been hypothesized that dissociation may provide a temporarily effective defence mechanism in cases of severe trauma; however, in the long term, dissociation is associated with decreased psychological functioning and adjustment.

Other symptoms sometimes found along with dissociation in victims of traumatic abuse (often referred to as “sequelae to abuse”) include anxiety, PTSD, low self-esteem, somatisation, depression, chronic pain, interpersonal dysfunction, substance abuse, self-harm and suicidal ideation or actions. These symptoms may lead the victim to present the symptoms as the source of the problem.

Child abuse, especially chronic abuse starting at early ages, has been related to high levels of dissociative symptoms in a clinical sample, including amnesia for abuse memories. It has also been seen that girls who suffered abuse during their childhood had higher reported dissociation scores than did boys who reported dissociation during their childhood. A non-clinical sample of adult women linked increased levels of dissociation to sexual abuse by a significantly older person prior to age 15, and dissociation has also been correlated with a history of childhood physical and sexual abuse. When sexual abuse is examined, the levels of dissociation were found to increase along with the severity of the abuse.

A 2012 review article supports the hypothesis that current or recent trauma may affect an individual’s assessment of the more distant past, changing the experience of the past and resulting in dissociative states.

Psychoactive substances

Refer to Dissociative Drug.

Psychoactive drugs can often induce a state of temporary dissociation. Substances with dissociative properties include ketamine, nitrous oxide, alcohol, tiletamine, amphetamine, dextromethorphan, MK-801, PCP, methoxetamine, salvia, muscimol, atropine, ibogaine, and minocycline.

Correlations

Hypnosis and Suggestibility

There is evidence to suggest that dissociation is correlated with hypnotic suggestibility, specifically with dissociative symptoms related to trauma. However, the relationship between dissociation and hypnotic suggestibility appears to be complex and indicates further research is necessary.

Aspects of hypnosis include absorption, dissociation, suggestibility, and willingness to receive behavioural instruction from others. Both hypnotic suggestibility and dissociation tend to be less mindful, and hypnosis is used as a treatment modality for dissociation, anxiety, chronic pain, trauma, and more. Difference between hypnosis and dissociation: one is suggested, imposed by self or other, meaning dissociation is generally more spontaneous altering of awareness.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation have shown an inverse relationship specifically with dissociation related to re-experiencing trauma due to the lack of present awareness inherent with dissociation. The re-experiencing episodes can include anything between illusions, distortions in perceived reality, and disconnectedness from the present moment. It is believed that the nature of dissociation as an avoidance coping or defence mechanism related to trauma inhibits resolution and integration.

Mindfulness and meditation also can alter the state of awareness to the present moment; however, unlike dissociation, it is clinically used to bring greater awareness to an individual’s present state of being. It achieves this through increased abilities to self-regulate attention, emotion, and physiological arousal, maintain continuity of consciousness, and adopt an approach to the present experience that is open and curious. In practice, non-judgmental awareness has displayed a positive relationship with lower symptoms of PTSD avoidance, which can relate to greater opportunities for success with exposure therapy and lowering PTSD symptoms of hypervigilance, re-experiencing, and overgeneralization of fears.

When using mindfulness and meditation with people expressing trauma symptoms, it is crucial to be aware of potential trauma triggers, such as the focus on the breath. Often, a meditation session will begin with focused attention and move into open monitoring. With severe trauma symptoms, it may be important to start the meditation training and an individual session at the peripheral awareness, such as the limbs. Moreover, trauma survivors often report feeling numb as a protection against trauma triggers and reminders, which are often painful, making it good practice to start all trainings at the limbs as a gradual exposure to body sensations. Doing so will also increase physical attachment to the present moment and the sense of grounding, thereby increasing tolerance to trauma reminders and decreasing the need and use of dissociation.

Treatment

When receiving treatment, patients are assessed to discover their level of functioning. Some patients might be higher functioning than others. This is taken into account when creating a patient’s potential treatment targets. To start off treatment, time is dedicated to increasing a patient’s mental level and adaptive actions in order to gain a balance in both their mental and behavioural action. Once this is achieved, the next goal is to work on removing or minimising the phobia made by traumatic memories, which is causing the patient to dissociate. The final step of treatment includes helping patients work through their grief in order to move forward and be able to engage in their own lives. This is done with the use of new coping skills attained through treatment. One coping skill that can improve dissociation is mindfulness due to the introduction of staying in present awareness while observing non-judgmentally and increasing the ability to regulate emotions. Specifically in adolescents, mindfulness has been shown to reduce dissociation after practicing mindfulness for three weeks.

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What is Clinical Neuroscience?

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Introduction

Clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of fundamental mechanisms that underlie diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system. It seeks to develop new ways of conceptualising and diagnosing such disorders and ultimately of developing novel treatments.

Background

A clinical neuroscientist is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in the field. Not all clinicians are clinical neuroscientists. Clinicians and scientists – including psychiatrists, neurologists, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, and other specialists – use basic research findings from neuroscience in general and clinical neuroscience in particular to develop diagnostic methods and ways to prevent and treat neurobiological disorders. Such disorders include addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, brain tumours, depression, Down syndrome, dyslexia, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, neurological AIDS, neurological trauma, pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, stroke and Tourette syndrome.

While neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry are the main medical specialties that use neuroscientific information, other specialties such as cognitive neuroscience, neuroradiology, neuropathology, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, anaesthesiology and rehabilitation medicine can contribute to the discipline. Integration of the neuroscience perspective alongside other traditions like psychotherapy, social psychiatry or social psychology will become increasingly important.

One Mind for Research

The “One Mind for Research” forum was a convention held in Boston, Massachusetts on 23 to 25 May 2011 that produced the blueprint document A Ten-Year Plan for Neuroscience: From Molecules to Brain Health. Leading neuroscience researchers and practitioners in the United States contributed to the creation of this document, in which 17 key areas of opportunities are listed under the Clinical Neuroscience section. These include the following:

  • Rethinking curricula to break down intellectual silos.
  • Training translational neuroscientists and clinical investigators.
  • Investigating biomarkers.
  • Improving psychiatric diagnosis.
  • Developing a “Framingham Study of Brain Disorders” (i.e. longitudinal cohort for central nervous system disease).
  • Identifying developmental risk factors and producing effective interventions.
  • Discovering new treatments for pain, including neuropathic pain.
  • Treating disorders of neural signalling and pathological synchrony.
  • Treating disorders of immunity or inflammation.
  • Treating metabolic and mitochondrial disorders.
  • Developing new treatments for depression.
  • Treating addictive disorders.
  • Improving treatment of schizophrenia.
  • Preventing and treating cerebrovascular disease.
  • Achieving personalized medicine.
  • Understanding shared mechanisms of neurodegeneration.
  • Advancing anaesthesia.

In particular, it advocates for better integrated and scientifically driven curricula for practitioners, and it recommends that such curricula be shared among neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists.

Given the various ethical, legal and societal implications for healthcare practitioners arising from advances in neuroscience, the University of Pennsylvania inaugurated the Penn Conference on Clinical Neuroscience and Society in July 2011.

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What is a Minister of Mental Health?

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Introduction

Ministers of Mental Health are specific Government Ministers with a responsibility over mental health.

Brief History

Not many countries have dedicated ministers for mental health, however a minister with another name may be responsible for it.

By Country

  • Australia;
    • Minister for Families and Social Services, whose responsibilities include mental health (Federal Government).
    • Minister for Mental Health (Australian Capital Territory).
    • Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women (New South Wales).
    • Minister for Health (Northern Territory), whose responsibilities include mental health.
    • Minister for Health and Ambulance Services (Queensland), whose responsibilities include mental health.
    • Minister for Health and Wellbeing (South Australia), whose responsibilities include mental health.
    • Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing (Tasmania).
    • Minister for Mental Health (Victoria).
    • Minister for Mental Health (Western Australia).
  • Canada:
    • Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.
  • Ireland:
    • Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People.

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What is the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Scotland)?

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Introduction

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, commonly referred to as the Health Secretary, is a cabinet position in the Scottish Government. The Cabinet Secretary is responsible for the Health and Social Care Directorates and NHS Scotland.

The Cabinet Secretary is assisted by the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport and Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care.

The current Cabinet Secretary is Humza Yousaf, who was appointed in May 2021 (as at May 2022).

Brief History

The position was created in 1999 as the Minister for Health and Community Care, with the advent of devolution and the institution of the Scottish Parliament, taking over some of the roles and functions of the former Scottish Office that existed prior to 1999. After the 2007 election the Ministerial position was renamed to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

After the 2011 election the full Ministerial title was Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy with the portfolio being expanded to include Cities Strategy which was part of the SNP manifesto to have a dedicated “Minister for Cities”; at the same time the responsibility for housing was removed and transferred to the new Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment. Responsibilities for the cities strategy and the delivery of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were later transferred to other members of the cabinet.

After the 2016 election, the name of the post was changed to simply Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport. In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, the post was retitled to Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.

Overview

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care include:

  • NHS Scotland and its performance, staff and pay.
  • Health care and social integration.
  • Patient services and patient safety.
  • Primary care.
  • Allied Healthcare services.
  • Carers, adult care and support.
  • Child and maternal health.
  • Medical records, health improvement and protection.

Public Bodies

The following public bodies report to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care:

  • NHS Scotland.
  • Care Inspectorate.
  • Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.
  • Scottish Social Services Council.
  • Sportscotland.

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