Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
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Let's talk mental health: a booklet for people who are using mental health services
- Author:
- NORTHERN IRELAND. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
- Publisher:
- Northern Ireland. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 42p.
- Place of publication:
- Belfast
This booklet is for adults who are experiencing mental health difficulties. It offers guidance on what to expect from Mental Health Services and to show how users can become more involved in decisions about care and treatment. Contents include: why should you get actively involved?; coming into contact with Mental Health Professionals; your General Practitioner; specialist psychological therapies; admission to a mental health unit; discharge and aftercare; taking medications and medication safety; contacting mental health services in times of crisis; some terms used in mental health and what they mean; mutual respect; giving feedback and making complaints. Details useful organisations are also provided.
Star wards
- Editors:
- JANNER Marion, (ed.)
- Publisher:
- Bright
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 62p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
There's excellent, rarely publicised, practice across the country on acute mental health wards, with patients accessing high quality therapeutic, creative and recreational opportunities. Star Wards works with mental health trusts to enhance acute inpatients' daily experiences and treatment outcomes. Members of the Star Wards' network try to implement whichever of the 75 practical ideas are relevant to them, and our role is to support wards with information and resources. Members also generously share their own examples of great practice and also of challenges they face.
Star wards 2: the sequel
- Editors:
- JANNER Marion, PAGE Nick, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Bright
- Publication year:
- 2008
- Pagination:
- 114p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Star Wards 2 – The Sequel is a compendium and celebration of some of the fabulous work taking place across the country in mental health inpatient wards. From Qi Gong to comedy gigs, ward staff are providing patients with experiences which are not only therapeutic but also often fun.
It wouldn't happen today
- Author:
- KOROTANA Prabjit
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 5.10.06, 2006, pp.30-31.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
The author looks at the gains that have been made in treating mental health patients in the past 60 years and looks to the future.
Ward watch: Mind's campaign to improve hospital conditions for mental health patients
- Author:
- MIND
- Publisher:
- MIND
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 25p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This report reveals two extremes of hospital conditions: for some patients, the hospital environment has provided the treatment and support needed to help them recover; for others, poor accommodation and security, safety concerns, insufficient staffing levels and intense boredom have exacerbated existing difficulties and created new ones, subjecting patients to an environment that is inhumane where it should be therapeutic.
The role of psychology in enhancing dual diagnosis provision in substance misuse wards
- Authors:
- HILL Rob G., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Advances in Dual Diagnosis, 2(2), June 2009, pp.24-29.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
In this paper, the authors explore the role that psychology can play in enhancing dual diagnosis provision in substance misuse wards. In order to understand what can be achieved, they review: the nature of the client group presenting to substance misuse wards; the role and function of such wards; the role of clinical psychology within these wards; and specific issues relating to inpatient substance misuse treatment. They conclude by identifying some key elements that can enhance effective dual diagnosis working within inpatient substance misuse services.
Brief therapy in adult psychiatry: results from fifteen years of practice
- Author:
- MacDONALD Alaistair J.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Family Therapy, 27(1), February 2005, pp.65-75.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The authors report the outcomes from our solution-focused brief therapy outpatient clinic in adult mental health. A questionnaire was sent to clients and their family doctors one year after they ceased to attend. Seventy-five clients were referred, of whom fifty-three were seen and forty-one traced at follow-up. Thirty-one (76%) reported a good outcome, with an overall average of 5.02 sessions, 20% attending only one session. Combining these data with our previous studies, 170 referrals were received of whom 136 attended and 118 were traced. Good outcome was reported by eighty-three clients (70%) with a mean of 4.03 sessions per case. There was no significant difference between the groups in solving additional problems or seeking further professional help. New problems were significantly less common in the ‘good outcome’ group. Long-standing problems did less well. In all three studies there were no significant differences in outcome between socioeconomic groups.
Treating dangerous and severe personality disorder in high security: lessons from the Regional Psychiatric Centre, Saskatoon, Canada
- Authors:
- MADEN A., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (The), 15(3), September 2004, pp.375-390.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Describes the approach to risk reduction at the Centre, making legal and institutional comparisons with the new Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) Service to be established in high security hospitals in England and Wales. The Centre applies cognitive behavioural techniques to reduce recidivism, and current evidence suggests the same approach should form the core of the treatment regime in DSPD units. The key to success is the strict management of programme integrity, to deliver intensive treatment tailored to the individual's abilities and readiness to accept change. The Stages of Change model, derived from addictions, allows planning, monitoring and evaluation. It plays an important role in maintaining staff morale by providing an objective measure of success within a reasonable time frame. The service will require effective management and sophisticated information systems to support these developments. The Centre has the advantage of clear pathways through the service. Patients are able to return to an ordinary prison whenever they wish, and the average length of stay is about 2 years. The service will have to guard against beds becoming blocked by long-stay patients with no way out of the service. Long term hospital incarceration is an expensive and inefficient way of protecting the public, and a unit with a high proportion of long-stay patients would find it hard to sustain a therapeutic ethos, with a consequent threat to staff morale.
Child maltreatment prevalence and mental disorders outcomes among American Indian women in primary care
- Author:
- DURAN Bonnie
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 28(2), February 2004, pp.131-145.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
The aim was to examine (1) the prevalence, types, and severity of child abuse and neglect (CAN) and (2) the relationship between CAN and lifetime psychiatric disorders among American Indian women using primary care services. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 234 American Indian women, age 18–45 who presented for outpatient ambulatory services at a community-based Indian Health Service Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dependent measures included mood, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. CAN was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Approximately three-quarters of respondents (76.5%; 95% CI=70.4, 81.7) reported some type of childhood abuse or neglect; over 40% reported exposure to severe maltreatment. Severity of child maltreatment was associated in a dose response manner with lifetime diagnosis of mental disorders. After adjusting for social and demographic correlates, severe child maltreatment was strongly associated with lifetime PTSD (prevalence ratio [PR]=3.9; 95% CI=1.9, 8.0); and was moderately associated with lifetime substance use disorders (PR=2.3; 95% CI=1.6, 3.3); mood disorders (PR=2.1; 95% CI=1.4, 3.2); and with two or more disorders (PR=2.3; 95% CI=1.6, 3.4). CAN was common in our sample of American Indian women in primary care and was positively associated with lifetime psychiatric disorders outcomes. Screening for CAN and psychiatric disorders would enhance the treatment of patients seeking primary care services. Primary prevention of child maltreatment might reduce the high prevalence of mental disorders among American Indian women.
Electroshock: healing mental illness
- Author:
- FINK Max
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Publication year:
- 1999
- Pagination:
- 157p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Oxford
Psychiatrists unfamiliar with electroconvulsive treatment may be embarrassed to discover that concern about its risk is greatly exaggerated and that relapse after electroconvulsive treatment indicates a need for maintenance treatment, not a lack of efficacy. Even authorities on drug treatment are puzzled by the broad spectrum of efficacy of electroconvulsive treatment. For example, all antidepressants can cause mania, but only electroconvulsive treatment can treat it, and no antidepressant drug has been shown to be as effective as electroconvulsive treatment for treating schizophrenia. In bipolar disorder, electroconvulsive treatment is often effective when mood stabilizers fail. In treating catatonic states for which benzodiazepines are the best drug treatment, electroconvulsive treatment succeeds when these drugs fail. These findings do not fit with any data from the neurosciences on receptor mechanisms or second and third messengers. After briefly defining electroconvulsive treatment and outlining its uses, the author discusses the patient's experience. He then describes the risks and technical features of the treatment and the contraindications to it. There are chapters on each of the principal indications for electroconvulsive treatment: depression, mania, thought disorders, and movement disorders, which include catatonic states and parkinsonian rigidity. There is some speculation about the mechanism of action (which is unknown), a brief account of the fascinating origins of electroconvulsive treatment, and considerable discussion of how electroconvulsive treatment became controversial. Each of the clinical chapters contains detailed case reports, and some chapters also contain autobiographical accounts from the popular literature. These profiles reiterate the benefits of the treatment, the often tragic consequences of withholding it or using it inappropriately without consideration of the need for maintenance treatment, and the minimal medical risks and cognitive side effects with current practice. The discussion of informed consent for use in minors and incompetent patients is exemplary. Despite intensive pharmaceutical research, it now appears that the benefits of the new drugs for depression and schizophrenia are mostly decreased side effects and improved compliance; there is little increased efficacy in refractory conditions, which underscores the need for a trial of electroconvulsive treatment. Although new agents for bipolar disorder are more promising, the need for electroconvulsive treatment to treat refractory conditions remains.