FINAL Psych 101 Chapter 15

Programs designed to inoculate people against adverse health habits by exposing them to mild versions of persuasive communications that try to engage them in a poor health practice and giving them techniques that they can use to respond effectively to these efforts

Models that pool and coordinate the medical and psychological expertise in a well-defined area of medical practice so as to make all available technology and expertise available to a patient; the pain management program is one example of a comprehensive intervention model

Effort to reduce or hold down health care costs

Formal evaluation of the effectiveness of an intervention relative to its cost and the cost of alternative interventions

Conscientious, explicit, judicious use of the best scientific evidence for making decisions about the care of individual patients; the criterion for adopting medical standards

Formal documentation of the success of an intervention

Health psychology research and practice have identified the complexity of poor health habits and the ways to best modify them. Health promotion priorities for the future include modification of the most consequential risk factors, incorporation of the most potent and effective elements of behavior-change programs into cost-effective interventions, and the continuing search for the best venues for intervention

Health psychology interventions will continue to focus on people at risk for particular disorders, on preventing poor health habits from developing, and on developing effective health promotion interventions with the elderly. Health promotion efforts must address not only mortality but also the reduction of morbidity and the importance of enhancing overall quality of life.

As medicine develops a health promotion orientation, the potential for collaborative interventions between health psychologists and medical practitioners through the media, the community, and the physician's office may come to be more fully realized

An effective health promotion program must involve not only health behavior change but also social change that makes high-quality health care available to all elements of the population, especially those low in SES

Research on stress will continue to focus on vulnerable populations and on trends in the economy and culture that increase the stress on particular subpopulations, such as women, children, the elderly, and the poor

In the future, many important advances in stress research will come from research examining the biopsychosocial pathways by which stress adversely affects health

To appropriate use of health services is an important target for the future, to reduce the improper use of services, initiation of malpractice litigation, and failure to adhere appropriately to medication and lifestyle recommendations

The management of chronic and terminal illness will increasingly focus on quality of life and appropriate ways to measure it. Ethical issues involving assisted suicide, living wills, the patient's right to die, family decision making in death and dying, and euthanasia will continue to be prominent

A target for future work is identification of the health and lifestyle issues that will be created by the aging of the population. Anticipating medical disorders and developing interventions to offset their potential adverse effects should be targets for research now