This is an evidence-based practice site maintained by Rachel Parker, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and a senior mental health consultant and researcher.
All of the resources on this site draw upon evidence-based therapies, as well as from psychology, neuroscience and public health, and include a socio-ecological systems perspective. It is called The Well-being Doc, as it documents well-being activities for you to try out and taste for yourself.
CURRENT RESEARCH: For a selection of Rachel’s research outputs, please visit her Researchgate profile page from this link here.
CONSULTANCY WORK: Rachel’s consultancy projects help to strengthen capacity when specific societal needs arise, as well as translating research into practice. She builds community sustainability, resilience and well-being. By maximising opportunities for knowledge exchange, co-production and research, this generates positive impacts for societal benefit, helping to address the societal challenges we face together. A recent example is building capacity in youth mental health services in response to the increasing needs within the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resources on this site can help us to protect our well-being in challenging times.
The ongoing stressors that can occur within challenging times (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) create the potential for negative consequences upon our health and well-being.
This well-being site has been continuously updated since March 2020 to help provide psychosocial support in the ongoing periods of uncertainty and rapid changes taking place due to the pandemic situation (WHO 2016). Please look at the understanding stress page to gain more information about the dimensions of stress that may negatively impact us during these types of challenging times.
The resources on this site are designed to support us to protect our well-being, in order to build capacity and social capital for working with the complexities that will arise within these challenging times.
Evidence-based Psychological Therapies.
There are number of evidence-based psychological therapies (drawn from the third wave of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) that are designed to build individual-level psychosocial resilience to help us to protect our well-being in challenging times. These therapies include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and Meta-cognitive Therapy (Hayes and Hofmann 2017). The resources on this site draw upon these evidence-based therapies, as well as from psychology, neuroscience and public health, and include a socio-ecological systems perspective.
This site is maintained by Rachel Parker FRSPH, a senior mental health consultant and researcher based at DECIPHER, Cardiff University.
REFERENCES:
Crane, R.2017. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy. London and New York. Routledge.
Fisher, P. 2009. Metacognitive Therapy. London and New York. Routledge.
Flaxman, P.E., Blackledge, J.T. and Bond, F.W. 2011. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. London and New York. Routledge.
Hayes, S.C. and Hofmann, S.G .2017. The third wave of cognitive behaviour therapy and the rise of processed-based care. World Psychiatry, 16 (3), pp.245-246.
IASC Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. 2020. Interim Briefing Note Addressing Mental Health and Psychosocial Aspects of COVID-19 Outbreak. New York. OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).
Kabat-Zinn, J. 1994. Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York, NY. Hyperion.
Keng, S., Smoski, M.J and Robins, C.J. 2011. Effects of Mindfulness on psychological health: a review of empirical studies. Clin Psychol Rev, 31 (6), pp. 1041-1056.
Swales, M.A. and Heard, H.L. 2017. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. London and New York. Routledge.
World Health Organization. 2016. Guidance for managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks. Geneva. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. 2020. Supporting the mental health and well-being of the health and care workforce. Geneva. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. 2021.Towards developing WHO’s agenda on well-being. Geneva. World Health Organization.
The Well-being Doc :) 