No abstract

Immigrant women who are forced to adapt to a new cultural context often live in low income situations, have informal jobs, and experience social inclusion difficulties; these women frequently have mental health and social relationship problems. We conducted an experimental investigation with a group of vulnerable immigrant women who were receiving support from public social services. Our goal was to analyze the effectiveness of a bio-psychosocial therapy system with text messages to personal mobile phones. We grouped women by different degrees of depression. We studied psychosocial characteristics from personalized interviews and developed message banks to advise healthy habits and accompany moods. We programmed a remote delivery system, and for 26 days, each woman (n = 44) received four of our messages. We analyzed changes in mood and depression at the beginning and at the end of therapy and observed positive changes. The analysis of the initial and final (Personal Health Questionnaire) PHQ−9 quartile intervals shows that text messages significantly improve the mood and depression symptoms of immigrant women when the initial PHQ−9 value is greater than 5 (moderate depression).

We present the results of the use of a cognitive behavioral therapeutic intervention tool to improve the mental, physical, and social health of a group of long-term unemployed women in Spain. Method: We sent automated text messages (SMS) to the mobile phones of long-term unemployed women selected at random from public social services. During a 28-day intervention period, women received four daily automated text messages on her mobile phone on a predetermined hourly schedule. We measured depression symptoms at the start and end of the intervention and we analyzed qualitative data to determine the acceptability of a remote SMS program. Results: Depression symptoms using the Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), went from an average of 13.8 at baseline to 4.9 at the end of 28 days (p = 0.89). One hundred percent of the women reported that they liked receiving the text messages and most found them helpful.

Interdisciplinary relationships between Geography and Psychotherapy are an opportunity for innovation. Indeed, scientific works found on bibliographic databases and concerning this theme are scarce. Geographical sub-fields, such as the Geography of Emotions or Psychoanalytical Geography have started to emerge, theorizing about and interpreting feelings, emotions, moods, sufferings, of the chronically ill or diversified social groups and sites. But a less theoretical and more practical approach, in the sense of proposing, predicting and intervening, is lacking; as well as research into the possibilities offered by communication technologies and mobile phones. In the present work, we present the results of a review of the most relevant scientific works published internationally; we reflect on the contributions of Geography and mobile phones to psychosocial therapies and define the orientation and questions that should be posed in future research, from the point of view of geography and regarding psychotherapy. We conclude that the production of georeferenced data via mobile phones concerning the daily lives of people opens great possibilities for cognitive behavioural therapy and mental health. They allow for the development of personalized mood maps that locate the places where a person experiences greater or lesser stress on a daily basis; they allow for a cartography of emotions, a cognitive cartography of the places we access physically or through the Internet, of our feelings and psychosocial experiences. They open the door to the possibility of offering personalized psychotherapy treatments focusing on the ecological-environmental analysis of the places frequented by the person on a daily basis.

< En la sociedad industrial los políticos tenían que dominar el lenguaje de la TV pues interesaba más la intensidad de la reacción que la duración del mensaje; debían emplear frases contundentes. En la Sociedad de la Información, con las tecnologías de la comunicación (Tic), esto cambia considerablemente pues la sociedad gana pluralismo y hay más voces que se hacen oír. Aparecen los Blogs como una forma de emitir opinión e información, que podemos considerar como una forma de expresión alternativa (aportan visiones diferentes de las noticias, ignoradas por los grandes medios). Los activistas, partidos políticos, instituciones y ciudadanos encuentran en las Webs, Blogs o Wikis un instrumento para insistir y crear opinión. Las Tic y las herramientas colaborativas de la Web 2.0 generan un mayor interés social en la política, un mayor compromiso e implicación de los individuos y la desaparición de los intermediarios políticos. En estas páginas se muestra una reflexión sobre los impactos de las Tic en la política a nivel teórico, y los resultados de un análisis cualitativo de casos a partir de la observación del uso que hacen de las Tic la plataforma ciudadana “Nunca Máis”, el gobierno autónomo de la Xunta de Galicia, el Parlamento de Galicia y el partido político Bloque Nacionalista Galego.