- Depression and Stress During the Holidays – En español
- When The Party’s Over
- Can Young Children Get Depressed?
- Women, Depression, and Cognitive Therapy
- Manage Your Depression With a Self-Help Kit
- Why You Might Have Trouble Sleeping
- Questions and Answers About Depression in Older Adults
- The Various Types and Symptoms of Depression - En español
- The Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder
Posts Tagged ‘ types ’
Depression Tip Sheets
Adoption and Foster Care – How Social Workers Help: Options for Success
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Introduction |
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An Ideal Candidate |
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Looking for “the Perfect Infant” |
In my role as supervisor of Resource Parent Training with the Child and Family Services Agency in the District of Columbia, I talk with and meet prospective foster and adoptive parents everyday. Once an individual who is interested in foster care or adoption submits an application at one of our Orientation sessions, I call them to schedule an office appointment. During this brief meeting, I explain the required paperwork and give them a folder of documents to work on prior to the pre-service training class they are planning to attend.
All applicants must complete a 30-hour program (the Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) as part of the licensing process; these classes are held twice a week for five weeks. We start a new class every month of the year except December and we offer different combinations of class times so applicants have many opportunities to enroll. Though time-consuming for both presenters and participants, these classes are fun and rewarding. As a supervisor, I no longer am required to teach, but I sometimes volunteer to train with a new social worker in my unit or pinch-hit when someone is unavoidably absent. I always enjoy the time I spend in the classroom.
An Ideal Candidate
Recently, I met with a woman who I’d describe as the ideal candidate to be a foster or adoptive parent for a child from the Washington, DC neglect system. After speaking with her, I felt rejuvenated and reaffirmed in my conviction that I’m in the right place doing the job I need to be doing. What was it about her that made me feel this way? A number of factors come to mind: She had been thinking about adoption and foster care for a long time and had been informally helping children in her community – through tutoring and being a welcoming neighbor for many years. She had indicated on her application that she was interested in adoption but as soon as I asked her whether she’d also consider being a foster parent, she said, “yes.” Her level of openness signaled to me immediately that she is likely to be very successful in working with our foster care system.
This applicant was also forthcoming about several challenges she had faced in her own life. In our pre-service training, we stress how important it is to be able to talk about our own losses as adults so that we can be a guide for children who are suffering from the trauma of abuse and neglect combined with the loss of their birth family. This applicant exhibited an immediate comfort level with sharing some of these aspects of her life. At the same time, the information she provided on her application in addition to areas we discussed clearly established that her home life and career are stable and that she is in a reasonably financially secure position. We don’t look for applicants with high incomes, but all too often people come to the agency hoping to be foster parents when their own houses are not in order.
This applicant also expressed a willingness to engage with school age and older children. She was even interested in sibling groups, adolescents and teens who she could mentor into adulthood, even though they may maintain ties with members of their birth families. She communicated a sound appreciation for the needs of the children and youth and was able to set their needs clearly ahead of her own. She expressed a desire to build a family of her own through adoption while at the same time being open to helping children in a variety of ways as she moved towards this goal.
Looking for "the Perfect Infant"
In contrast, I often speak with applicants who come with a narrow view of the type of child they are willing to consider parenting. Sadly, couples that have suffered infertility come to our agency hoping we can provide them with the perfect infant they have longed for or lost through miscarriage. When they hear that the majority of the babies committed to our system have been born drug-exposed or that we cannot guarantee that they will be available for adoption until we rule out any and all members of the birth family, these applicants can become deeply frustrated and hurt. I have to explain that this is one of the critical differences between a child welfare agency and an adoption agency: though we pursue adoption as a viable permanency goal whenever appropriate, our first mandate is to work with the birth family, except in extreme cases where reunification is not an option. I have witnessed a number of successful infant placements in my six years with the agency, as well as several painful disappointments.
I also speak with a number of well-meaning prospective foster/adoptive parents who feel that only a child under the age of five is “salvageable,” and that the older children are already “set in their ways.” I always tell prospective foster and adoptive families that I believe each family should pursue what feels right for them and never feel coerced into accepting a child into their home when the fit isn’t right, for whatever reason. But that being said, I also know the best rewards will come to those whose minds and hearts are the most open. I tell people too that having a child through whatever means – adoption, foster or kinship care, or biologically – takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I’m not sure I could do what successful foster and adoptive parents do everyday, but I know what it takes.
Related Articles:
Relationships – Your Options: Various Types of Counseling
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Introduction |
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Public Services |
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Employee Assistance Programs |
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Third Party Benefits |
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Private Counseling Services |
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What Matters Most to You |
Introduction
When personal distress reaches a level beyond acceptability counselling is seen as a viable option to address the problem. This article describes counselling options.
Public Services
Public agencies are usually supported by charitable donations or government programs or grants and operate on a not-for-profit basis. Service is provided on a fee-geared-to-income basis. This means services will be affordable. While some public services may offer brief crisis intervention services with quick access, more often there is an extensive waiting list causing delay in receiving service. Further, the user has no say in the counsellor assigned. The background and experience of the counsellor can vary but most will have between 2 to 10 years of experience. Services are confidential, but there may be many other persons in the waiting room you meet as you come and go.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
Employee Assistance Programs are counselling services contracted for by employers for their employees. These services are generally free to the employee and there may be a range in the total number of sessions available. As in public services, the actual service provider is assigned to the employee. Services are confidential and some service providers have policies to reduce the chance of people from the same company as one exits and another enters. If you require additional sessions beyond what is provided by the employer contract, you would pay for this yourself. It is important to know how many free sessions are offered and the cost of additional sessions if required. Most EAP counsellors usually have at least five years of counselling experience.
Third Party Benefits
Third Party Benefits are provided through an insurer. The insurer offers the policyholder set funds for service with some restrictions on the choice of counsellor. It is important to read your benefits card and phone your insurer before you access service to make sure it is covered and to learn about the restrictions. You will be responsible for costs beyond coverage. Matters of confidentiality will depend on the service provider.
Private Counseling Services
With private counselling services the user has full choice in who they see. However, you will have to pay directly for service. Fees generally range from $75.00 – $150.00 depending on the experience of the counsellor. Anyone can provide private counselling services, with or without credentials. Therefore it is important that the user always ask about the credentials, education and experience of the counsellor. When counsellors are in private practice, there may be no means of accountability if you are not satisfied with the service. Therefore it is also important to know if your counsellor is a member of a profession and is licensed or registered. If the counsellor is licensed or registered, then they have a system of accountability and you have recourse if you are unsatisfied with service. Counsellors in private practice are often able to see people sooner and many offer a very high level of confidentiality as they have the most control of their practice and setting.
What Matters Most to You?
The factors you must weigh in making a counselling decision include: cost, level of confidentiality, access to service and choice. Depending on the issue you may weigh these factors differently. Regardless of option, you have the right to ask about any counsellor's education, experience, approach to counselling and number of sessions usually required. Depending on your situation and the nature of the problem, either option may be appropriate. The choice is up to you.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Association of Social Workers or its members.
Related Articles:
Depression Tip Sheet – The Various Types and Symptoms of Depression
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Introduction | |
Causes of Depression |
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Symptoms | |
Misconceptions |
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Depression Through the Lifespan | |
Treatments |
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Types of Depression | |
Recovery |
Introduction
Depression is much more than simple unhappiness. Clinical depression, sometimes called major depression, is a “mood disorder” that is a significant mental health problem.
The main symptom of depression is a sad, despairing mood that:
- Is present most days and lasts most of the day
- Lasts for more than two weeks
- Impairs the person’s performance at work, at school or in social relationships.
Other symptoms may include:
- Changes in appetite and weight
- Sleep problems
- Loss of interest in work, hobbies, people or sex
- Withdrawal from family members and friends
- Feeling useless, hopeless, excessively guilty, pessimistic or low self-esteem
- Agitation or feeling slowed down
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Trouble concentrating, remembering and making decisions
- Crying easily, or feeling like crying but being not able to
- Thoughts of suicide (which should always be taken seriously)
- Loss of touch with reality, hearing voices (hallucinations) or having strange ideas (delusions).
Depression Through the Lifespan
Major depression can occur in 10 to 25 per cent of women — almost twice as many as men. Many hormonal factors may contribute to the increased rate of depression in women — particularly during times such as menstrual cycle changes, pregnancy and postpartum, miscarriage, pre-menopause, and menopause.
Men with depression typically have a higher rate of feeling irritable, angry, and discouraged. This can make it harder to recognize depression in men. The rate of completed suicide in men is four times that of women, though more women attempt it.
Some people have the mistaken idea that it is normal for older adults to feel depressed. Older adults often don’t want to discuss feeling hopeless, sad, a loss of interest in normally pleasurable activities, or prolonged grief after a loss.
A child who is depressed may pretend to be sick, refuse to go to school, cling to a parent, or worry that the parent may die. Older children may sulk, get into trouble at school, be negative or grouchy, and feel misunderstood. Because normal behaviors vary from one childhood stage to another, it can be difficult to tell whether a child is just going through a temporary “phase” or has depression.
Types of Depression
Different types of depression have different symptoms. These include:
- Seasonal Affective Disorder: Usually affected by the weather and time of the year.
- Postpartum Depression: About 13% of women will experience this type of depression following the birth of a child.
- Depression with Psychosis: Depression so severe that a person loses touch with reality and experiences hallucinations (hearing voices or seeing people or objects that are not really there) or delusions (beliefs that have no basis in reality).
- Dysthymia: Low mood with moderate symptoms of depression.
Causes of Depression
- Genetic or family history of depression, psychological or emotional vulnerability to depression.
- Biological factors such as imbalances in brain chemistry and in the endocrine/immune systems, or a major stress in the person’s life.
- Result of another illness that shares the same symptoms, such as lupus or hypothyroidism.
- A reaction to another illness, such as cancer or a heart attack.
- May be caused by an illness itself, such as a stroke, where neurological changes have occurred.
Misconceptions
- People should just get on with their lives.
- Clinical depression is not just unhappiness — it is a complex mood disorder caused by a variety of factors. Depression is not something that people can “get over” by their own effort.
- My life will never be normal again.Most people can and do return to function at the level they did before they became depressed.
Treatments for Depression
The most commonly used treatments, used individually or in combination, are
- Pharmacotherapy (medications)
- Psychoeducation
- Psychotherapy
- Group therapy
- Self-help organizations, run by clients of the mental health system and their families
Recovery
Clinical depression needs to be managed over a person’s lifetime. Depression, like disorders such as diabetes, can be effectively managed and controlled by combining a healthy lifestyle and treatments.
One should always seek out a mental health professional, such as a clinical social worker, to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of depression. A clinical social worker is one who is licensed by the state to diagnose and treat various types of mental illness. Social workers not only provide support, but also psychotherapy, group therapy, and will interface with psychiatrists to ensure a quality continuum of care. A social worker treats not only the client, but often provides support for the entire family. Such support is vital when working with a family member with depression or some other form of mental illness. Only with continued support from professionals, can depression be truly managed.
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About Depression
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Introduction |
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Types of Depression |
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The Cause? |
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Statistics |
Introduction
Most everyone gets a case of the blues from time to time; it’s all part of being human. But if you feel sad, anxious or empty, or experience feelings of hopelessness, guilt, or worthlessness that don’t go away for weeks at a stretch, you may be depressed. Clearly, depression has a variety of symptoms, yet the most prevalent is a feeling of deep sadness. Depression is a serious medical illness, not something you’ve made up in your head.
And if you are depressed, you are far from alone. In any given one-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million Americans suffer from some form of depression. Unfortunately, most people with a depressive illness do not seek treatment. Many are unaware that they can be successfully treated with a combination of therapies. Others may be ashamed or worry about the reaction of family, friends and co-workers.
Types of Depression
Just as there are different forms of an illness like heart disease, so too are there are different types of depression. And even within these types, people experience a range of symptoms that can vary in severity and persistence.
Major depression, for example, involves a combination of symptoms that interfere with your ability to carry on with normal living. It’s hard to stay focused at work or school; you may not be able to sleep, your appetite may dwindle or increase, and you may no longer enjoy things that used to be pleasurable.
A milder type of depression called dysthymia involves long-term symptoms that don’t disable you, but subtly keep you from feeling well.
Bipolar disorder, also called manic-depressive illness, is yet another type of depression. Not nearly as prevalent as other types, bipolar is characterized by dramatic mood swings – severe highs and lows.
The Cause?
Some people become depressed because of deficiencies in brain chemicals. Others with low self-esteem who can easily become overwhelmed by stress or who tend to be pessimistic seem to be more vulnerable than others to depression. Likewise, depression tends to run in families.
Statistics
- The majority of people with a depressive illness do NOT seek treatment, although most, even those who are severely depressed, can be helped.
- Women express depression about twice as often as men. In many cases, hormonal changes are to blame, particularly tied in with a woman’s menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause.
- Although men are less likely to suffer depression than women, 3 to 4 million men in the U.S. are impacted. Often, men’s depression is masked by alcohol or drugs or by working excessively.
- Depression is not a normal part of aging, though most people assume so. Older people, however, are often reluctant to discuss their feelings of sadness, hopelessness or loss of interest in normally pleasurable activities.
