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Threats to the physical safety and psychological well-being of mental health professionals present serious problems, according to 1,131 licensed mental health professionals in the state of Georgia. The professionals included clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. From a total of 6,431 surveys sent out, 1,131 (18%) were returned. The results revealed 2.696 separate accounts of 14,120 acts of physical or psychological assaults committed by 8,292 perpetrators. The results also showed that 61% of the respondents had been victimized in violent acts of a psychological or physical nature and that 29% had feared for their lives at least once during their professional careers. These data are consistent with other research that indicates that 6 out of 10 professionals will be assaulted during their professional careers.

The relationship between spirituality and health is an emerging area of study. However, spirituality assessment instruments with clinical utility for busy health care practices are lacking. The article describes research directed at developing and validating brief pictorial measures of spirituality as instruments to measure the relationship between reported spirituality and health. The instruments presented are patterned after the Dartmouth Medical School Primary Care Cooperative (COOP) charts. The charts also provide a nonthreatening way to enhance communication between patients and physicians in this important area.

Interns support the use of transcription as a method for feedback during supervision. Thirty of 45 master's level interns who experienced supervision with transcripts returned a transcription survey and indicated positive outcomes for this type of supervision. Positive characteristics included efficiency, concreteness (what was actually said), and ease in analyzing and constructing productive responses. The supervisor's reinforcement (written) was provided as often as was necessary. Negative aspects of using transcriptions included anxiety associated with the visual reminder of the lack of developed skills, loss of nonverbal behaviors, and less personal interaction between the supervisor and intern.

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