Implications of Recent Advances in Mental Health Interventions

Abstract

As summarized in the previous chapters, one admittedly extreme advance relevant to the conduct and delivery of mental health interventions in this century is the administration of homework assignments interspersed with rare, infrequent face-to-face talk-based sessions. The purpose of the sessions would be to check on the immediate outcome obtained by doing homework after completing each assignment or practice exercise, as in the technique developed, among others, by Lambert and Whipple (2008). This checking could be performed online, once the correct identity of participants is confirmed. Instead of face-to-face talk-based sessions interspersed with homework assignments, the valued and expensive presence and talk of a professional could become contingent on participants completing homework assignments (L’Abate, 2007d, 2008b; Omer, 1985). This is standard operating procedure in medical practice, and there is no rational or empirical reason why the same practice should not be pursued in mental health intervention, except for the guild interests of most mental health disciplines.