Background: Teaching is recognized as a highly challenging profession. Experience of chronic stress is a risk factor for poor mental and physical well-being, and burnout. There is limited knowledge regarding optimal interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Objective: To undertake a scoping review of the literature in the last five years to determine various psychological interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Method: The PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews was followed. Relevant search terms were used to determine different interventions adopted to reduce teachers’ stress and burnout. Articles published between 2018 and 2022 were identified using five bibliographic databases. Relevant articles were extracted, reviewed, collated, and thematically analyzed, and findings s were summarized. Results: Forty studies conducted in Asia, North America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa, met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen kinds of burnout and stress-reduction interventions were identified. The most popularly studied intervention were Mindfulness-Based Interventions alone or in combination with yoga or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), followed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). Mindfulness-Based Interventions led to decreased overall Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) and emotional exhaustion subscale scores. REBT, primarily used with special education teachers, especially in Africa, has also shown positive results. Other interventions reporting positive outcomes include Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction (IBSR), the Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program (SMART), Cyclic Meditation, Group Sandplay, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Autogenic Training, Sport-Based Physical Activity, Emotional Intelligence Ability Models and Christian Prayer and Prayer-Reflection. Conclusions: Stress and burnout can have a negative impact on teachers and, very often, on the students they teach. Implementing suitable school-based interventions is necessary to improve teachers’ stress-coping ability, reduce the likelihood of burnout and improve general well-being. Policymakers, governments, school boards and administrators should prioritize the implementation of school-based awareness and intervention programs.

In order to examine the impact of disasters on adolescent mental health, this study compared population mental health survey data from two communities in Alberta, Canada: Fort McMurray, which experienced a major natural disaster, and Red Deer, which did not. Data from 3070 grade 7–12 students from Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada (collected in 2017, 18 months after the 2016 wildfire) was compared with data from 2796 grade 7–12 students from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada (collected in 2014). The same measurement scales were used for both surveys. Both of these cities have populations of approximately 100,000, and both cities are located in Alberta, Canada. For this reason, Red Deer is an appropriate non-disaster impacted community to compare to the disaster impacted community of Fort McMurray. The results of this comparison demonstrate that mental health symptoms were statistically significantly elevated in the Fort McMurray population when compared to the control population in Red Deer. This occurred for scores consistent with a diagnosis of depression (31% vs. 17%), moderately severe depression (17% vs. 9%), suicidal thinking (16% vs. 4%), and tobacco use (13% vs. 10%). Consistent with there being major mental health impacts from the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, self-esteem scores and quality of life scores were also statistically significantly lower in Fort McMurray. While the rates of anxiety disorder were similar (15% vs. 16%), the mean scores on the anxiety scale were slightly higher, with this difference reaching statistical significance. There were no statistical differences in the rates or scores for alcohol or substance use. Our results are consistent with previous findings showing a significant negative impact of disasters on many aspects of adolescent mental, with a particular increase in symptoms related to depression and suicidal thinking. These findings highlight first, the need to identify adolescents most at risk of developing psychiatric symptoms after experiencing the trauma of disaster and second, the importance and necessity of implementing short and long term mental health intervention programs specifically aimed at adolescents, in order to help mitigate the negative effects of disasters on their mental health.

Patient care frequently focuses on physical aspects of disease management, with variable attention given to spiritual needs. And yet, patients indicate that spiritual suffering adds to distress associated with illness. Spirituality, broadly defined as that which gives meaning and purpose to a person’s life and connectedness to the significant or sacred, often becomes a central issue for patients. Growing evidence demonstrates that spirituality is important in patient care. Yet healthcare professionals (HCPs) do not always feel prepared to engage with patients about spiritual issues. In this project, HCPs attended an educational session focused on using the FICA Spiritual History Tool to integrate spirituality into patient care. Later, they incorporated the tool when caring for patients participating in the study. This research (1) explored the value of including spiritual history taking in clinical practice; (2) identified facilitators and barriers to incorporating spirituality into person-centred care; and (3) determined ways in which HCPs can effectively utilize spiritual history taking. Data were collected using focus groups and chart reviews. Findings indicate positive impacts at organizational, clinical/unit, professional/personal and patient levels when HCPs include spirituality in patient care. Recommendations are offered.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Enhancing humanities in medical education is a pressing concern in China. Similar to other countries, medical education in China evolved over the past century to emphasize bioscience and technology in treating illness and disease. Increasing recognition of the limitations of biomedical technology led to emergence of the medical humanities in the West in the latter half of the 20th century, an interdisciplinary area that has continued to expand and grow. In China and elsewhere, activity in this area developed somewhat later. Ongoing patient-doctor disputes and decline in public trust in the medical profession in China has led many to advocate for enhanced emphasis on humanism and medical humanities. In 2017, the Chinese government introduced new healthcare reforms which included an education and training plan that promotes medical humanities teaching. Global developments have led to a wide variety of models and approaches that may be considered in cultivating medical humanities and humanism in China. With the support of China Medical University in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, PRC, Professor Wei visited the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta through the 2019/20 academic year. This article provides an overview of a wide array of medical humanities teaching and learning opportunities associated with the undergraduate medical education program at the University of Alberta. Professor Wei reflects on possibilities for medical humanities in medical education in China given all she learned and experienced as a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, which may be of interest to others who are also developing new approaches to introducing medical humanities as part of their health professions education program. Additional reflections regarding possibilities for global medical humanities are also offered.

RRH: Rural and Remote Health. Published article number: 8341 - The landscape of non-psychotic psychiatric illness in rural Canada: a narrative review