情绪和心理健康对整体健康至关重要,但是很少有研究表明如何在听力学环境中处理情感和心理问题。这项研究调查了听力学家自我报告的临床行为,以响应听力学客户提出的情绪和心理问题和/或症状。
83名澳大利亚听力学家的样本完成了一项调查,其中包括展示患有听力损失并经历与抑郁或悲伤一致的症状的老年人的小插曲。内容分析用于探索:(1)当客户在听力学环境中出现情绪和心理问题和/或症状时,听力学家自我报告的通常反应;(2)听力学家识别和描述心理症状的能力;(3)听力学家自我报告的与客户转诊心理支持相关的临床行为。
当被要求描述他们对小插曲的反应时,超过一半的听力学家描述了解决客户与心理健康相关问题的行动。听力学家描述了他们将如何提供心理支持,他们描述了对听力学康复计划的修改,包括在康复过程中涉及重要的其他人,建议在听力学设置之外提供额外支持(例如全科医生或心理学家),并提供情感支持和咨询。提示时,大多数参与者承认这两个抑郁症患者患有精神健康状况;然而,48%的参与者表示对照病例也患有精神健康状况。当直接询问时,大多数听力学家表示,他们将参考这三个小插曲以寻求专家支持;然而,在公开回应项目中,不到三分之一的人将转诊至全科医生,不到5%的人将转诊至精神卫生专业人员描述为他们的正常行动方案.据报告,有25个不同的职业/人员是转诊的潜在来源。
这些发现支持需要对听力学家进行进一步的培训和/或资源,以使他们能够适当地检测,描述和参考客户在听力学环境中提出的情感和心理问题和/或症状。
Emotional and psychological well-being are essential to overall health, but there is little research showing how to approach emotional and psychological concerns in the audiological setting. This study investigated audiologists\' self-reported clinical behaviors in response to emotional and psychological concerns and/or symptoms raised by
audiology clients.
A sample of 83 Australia-based audiologists completed a survey including vignettes presenting older adults with hearing loss and experiencing symptoms consistent with either depression or grief. Content analysis was used to explore: (1) audiologists\' self-reported usual response when clients present with emotional and psychological concerns and/or symptoms in the audiological setting; (2) audiologists\' ability to identify and describe psychological symptoms; and (3) audiologists\' self-reported clinical behaviors relating to client referral for psychological support.
When asked to describe their usual clinical course of action in response to the vignettes, over one half the audiologists described actions that address the clients concerns related to psychological well-being. Where audiologists described how they would provide psychological support, they described modifications to the audiological rehabilitation program including involving significant others in the rehabilitation process, recommending additional support outside of the
audiology setting (such as General Practitioner or psychologists), and providing emotional support and counseling. When prompted, the majority of participants recognized the two cases with depression as having a mental health condition; however, 48% of participants indicated the control
case as also having a mental health condition. When asked directly, the majority of audiologists indicated that they would refer the three vignettes for specialist support; however, less than one third described referral to a General Practitioner and less than 5% described referral to a mental health professional as their normal course of action in the open response item. Twenty-five different professions/people were reported as potential sources for referral.
These findings support the need for further training and/or resources for audiologists to enable them to appropriately detect, describe and refer for emotional and psychological concerns and/or symptoms raised by clients\' in the
audiology setting.