scholarly journals Two heads are better than one: Australian tobacco control experts’ and mental health change champions’ consensus on addressing the problem of high smoking rates among people with mental illness

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Della Rowley ◽  
Sharon Lawn ◽  
John Coveney
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Tobacco Control ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Smoking Reduction ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Government Services ◽  
People With Mental Illness

Objective The aims of the present study were to explore the beliefs of Australian experts in tobacco control and change champions working in mental health and tobacco cessation, and to identify measures for addressing the problem of high smoking rates for people with mental illness. Methods Qualitative interviews were undertaken to explore participants’ views, and the Delphi technique was used to achieve consensus on ways in which the problem would be best addressed. Results This consensus centred on the need for leadership within the mental health system. The problem was reconceptualised from being solely the responsibility of the mental health sector into an issue that requires the combined resources of a partnership and shared leadership between government and non-government services, public health leaders, policy makers and people with mental illness and their families. Conclusions Collaboration would raise the priority of the issue, reduce the debilitating effect of stigma and discrimination within the mental health sector and would place smoking reduction firmly on the political and public agenda. A recovery-orientated focus would increase the skill base and be inclusive of workers, families and carers of people with mental illness who face smoking issues on a daily basis. Reconceptualising this as an issue that would benefit from cooperation and partnerships would disrupt the notion that the problem is solely the responsibility of the mental health sector. What is known about the topic? Rates of smoking have remained high for people with mental illness despite population-wide public health strategies successfully reducing smoking rates in the general population. For people with mental illness, the benefits of quitting smoking for both their mental and physical health are overshadowed by concerns about the complexity of their needs. There is a lack of knowledge about how smoking cessation support can be improved to increase success rates in smokers with mental illness. What does this paper add? The present study is the first to bring a cross-sector lens of public health and mental health ‘experts’ together to discuss the reasons for the high rates of smoking among people with mental illness and to obtain their shared agreement on solutions. This Australian-specific study analyses participants’ responses to the problem representation and reveals what the issue is considered to be, where action should occur and how the problem should be resolved. What are the implications for practitioners? For the Australian context, there is a need for leadership and a consistent smoke-free message about the benefits of not smoking. Staff working in mental health require training in providing brief interventions, motivational interviewing and pharmacological support. Joining together as a partnership of government and non-government services, including public health leaders and policy makers, and involving people with mental illness and their families, would benefit all concerned.

Advancing research in adult secure mental health services in England

2021 ◽  
pp. 002580242110669
Author(s):  
Howard Ryland ◽  
Louise Davies ◽  
Jeremy Kenney-Herbert ◽  
Michael Kingham ◽  
Mayura Deshpande
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Learning Disability ◽  
Personality Disorders ◽  
Forensic Mental Health ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Low Volume

Forensic mental health services in high income countries are typically high cost and low volume, providing care to people with mental illness, personality disorders, learning disability and autism deemed to pose a risk to others. Research into how forensic mental health services work as a whole system is limited. Such research is urgently needed to guide policy makers and ensure that services operate effectively.

Mental Hospitals and the Carceral State

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-43
Author(s):  
Anne E. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Conscientious Objectors ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Reforms ◽  
National Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Foundation

This chapter explores how in the 1940s, mental hospitals comprised land, buildings, and workforces used by the states to feed and house hundreds of thousands of people. Conscientious objectors who did service work at mental hospitals in lieu of military conscription founded the National Mental Health Foundation. They also collaborated with journalists to craft exposés about concentration camp–like conditions in hospitals. The author and former patient Mary Jane Ward published her book The Snake Pit, in which she argued against the loss of freedom that people with mental illness experienced. Policy makers responded to this anti-institutionalism by implementing mental health reforms that made hospitals larger and more therapeutic, and kept involuntary commitments intact. These initiatives made up the early stages of deinstitutionalization.

scholarly journals BARRIERS TO ACCESSING MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Strümpher ◽  
R.M. Van Rooyen ◽  
K. Topper ◽  
L.M.C. Andersson ◽  
I. Schierenback
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Professional Nurses

The aim of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions of professional nurses concerning barriers to care for people with mental illness in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study was based on a qualitative, explorative and descriptive design.  A total of nine professional nurses working in primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities were purposively selected. Unstructured interviews were conducted to collect data. Participants’ responses were captured on an audio recorder and later transcribed verbatim.Participants’ responses were then analysed thematically. Two main themes and their related sub-themes were identified. The first theme concerns the perceptions of professional nurses regarding the societal barriers that may hinder people with mental illness from accessing and utilising mental health services. These barriers include socioeconomic hardships, lack of knowledge and insight, lack of family support, embedded cultural beliefs and practices and stigma. The second theme highlights the barriers that professional nurses perceive within the health care system that influence access and utilisation of mental health services. These barriers include inadequate support from stakeholders and leaders in the mental health sector and lack of financial, human and infrastructure resources. Professional nurses made recommendations to improve mental health care. Those of high priority included enhanced mental health literacy among members of the public and a need for mental health stakeholders and leaders to increase their support of the mental health sector in an effort to improve access to mental health care.

scholarly journals Time Waits for No One: Longitudinal Study on the Effects of an Anti-Stigma Seminar on the Psychology Student Population

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5441
Author(s):  
Luca Pingani ◽  
Sara Evans-Lacko ◽  
Sandra Coriani ◽  
Silvia Ferrari ◽  
Maria Filosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Student Population ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
T1 And T2 ◽  
One Year ◽  
Intended Behaviour

The primary aim is to describe the changes in the knowledge of mental health conditions, the attitudes toward the mentally ill, and the intended behaviour towards people with mental illness among the entire student population of the third year of a degree course in Psychology. A total of 570 students attended a seminar on stigma towards mental illness and were invited to complete an online survey which collected data on sociodemographic characteristics and three validated questionnaires evaluating different aspects of stigma at three different time points (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at one year follow up). A total of 253 students (44.39%) completed the questionnaires at t0, t1, and t2. The mean age of the sample was 23.7 (SD = ±5.89), and 86.96% (n = 220) were females. Between t0 and t1, a statistically significant improvement was observed for all three outcomes, while the intended behaviour outcome was no longer significant between t1 and t2 (Z = −0.70; p = 0.48). Females and who participated live at the seminar maintained a significant knowledge of mental illness and a better attitude toward community mental health care. The effects of the seminar focused on reducing stigma tended to diminish over time at one year follow-up, particular in relation to intended behaviour.

scholarly journals Lay Beliefs about Treatments for People with Mental Illness and Their Implications for Antistigma Strategies

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 745-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Lauber ◽  
Nordt Carlos ◽  
Rössler Wulf
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Mental Health Literacy ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Evidence Based Treatments ◽  
Social Treatment ◽  
Nonmedical Treatment

Objective: First, to describe factors influencing the public's attitude toward treatment recommendations for people with mental illness; second, to identify coherent belief systems about the helpfulness of specific interventions; and third, to discuss how to ameliorate mental health literacy and antistigma strategies. Method: Participants of a representative telephone survey in the general population ( n = 1737) were presented with a vignette depicting a person with either schizophrenia or depression. From a list of suggestions, they were asked to recommend treatments for this person. We used a factor analysis to group these proposals and used the factors as the dependent variables in a multiple regression analysis. Results: Treatment suggestions are summarized in 4 groups, each characterizing a specific therapeutic approach: 1) psychopharmacological proposals (that is, psychotropic drugs), 2) therapeutic counselling (from a psychologist or psychiatrist or psychotherapy), 3) alternative suggestions (such as homeopathy), and 4) social advice (for example, from a social worker). Medical treatments were proposed by people who had a higher education, who had a positive attitude toward psychopharmacology, who correctly recognized the person depicted in the vignette as being ill, who were presented with the schizophrenia vignette, who kept social distance, and who had contact with mentally ill people. The variables could explain alternative and social treatment proposals only to a small extent. Conclusions: The public's beliefs about treatment for people with mental illness are organized into 4 coherent systems, 2 of which involve evidence-based treatments. Medical treatment proposals are influenced by adequate mental health literacy; however, they are also linked to more social distance toward people with mental illness. Additionally, efforts to better explain nonmedical treatment suggestions are needed. Implications for further antistigma strategies are discussed.

scholarly journals Changing Approaches to Mental Healthcare in the Caribbean Conferences on Mental Health, 1957-1969

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Toner ◽  
Clare Anderson ◽  
Shammane Joseph Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This paper examines discussions among physicians, psychologists, public health officials, religious leaders and others who participated in the Caribbean Conferences on Mental Health between 1957 and 1969. Their discussions demonstrate major changes in the understanding of causes, definitions and appropriate treatments of mental health conditions, compared to the late nineteenth century, which saw a wave of major reforms to the management of mental illness in public asylums. Although major shifts in professional understandings of mental health were evident in the mid-twentieth century, the Caribbean Conferences on Mental Health reveal that the problems hindering the implementation of these new approaches were largely similar to those that Guyana and other Caribbean countries continue to face today.

scholarly journals Review of smoking cessation treatments for people with mental illness

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Campion ◽  
Ken Checinski ◽  
Jo Nurse
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
General Population ◽  
Antipsychotic Medication ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Standard Treatment ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Quit Smoking ◽  
People With Mental Illness

This article reviews the current literature regarding treatments for smoking cessation in both the general population and in those with mental health problems. The gold-standard treatment for the general population is pharmacotherapy (nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion or varenicline) coupled with individual or group psychological support. This is also effective in helping people with mental illness to reduce or quit smoking, but care must be taken to avoid adverse medication interactions and to monitor antipsychotic medication in particular as cigarette consumption reduces.

scholarly journals Association between recognition and help-seeking preferences and stigma towards people with mental illness

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Picco ◽  
E. Abdin ◽  
S. Pang ◽  
J. A. Vaingankar ◽  
A. Jeyagurunathan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Confidence Intervals ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Perceived Stigma ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
The Relationship

Aims.The ability to recognise a mental illness has important implications as it can aid in timely and appropriate help-seeking, and ultimately improve outcomes for people with mental illness. This study aims to explore the association between recognition and help-seeking preferences and stigmatising attitudes, for alcohol abuse, dementia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia, using a vignette-based approach.Methods.This was a population-based, cross-sectional survey conducted among Singapore Residents (n = 3006) aged 18–65 years. All respondents were asked what they think is wrong with the person in the vignette and who they should seek help from. Respondents were also administered the Personal and Perceived sub scales of the Depression Stigma Scale and the Social Distance Scale. Weighted frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables. A series of multiple logistic and linear regression models were performed separately by vignette to generate odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the relationship between help-seeking preference, and recognition and beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals for the relationship between stigma and recognition.Results.Correct recognition was associated with less preference to seek help from family and friends for depression and schizophrenia. Recognition was also associated with increased odds of endorsing seeking help from a psychiatric hospital for dementia, depression and schizophrenia, while there was also an increased preference to seek help from a psychologist and psychiatrist for depression. Recognition was associated with less personal and perceived stigma for OCD and less personal stigma for schizophrenia, however, increased odds of social distancing for dementia.Conclusion.The ability to correctly recognise a mental illness was associated with less preference to seek help from informal sources, whilst increased preference to seek help from mental health professionals and services and less personal and perceived stigma. These findings re-emphasise the need to improve mental health literacy and reinforce the potential benefits recognition can have to individuals and the wider community in Singapore.

Private Matters and Public Health: Campbell Takes On Mental Illness at Home and in the Community

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osizwe Raena Jamila Harwell
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Friendship Network ◽  
Health Advocate ◽  
Life Trajectory ◽  
National Alliance

Chapter two provides an in-depth discussion of Bebe Moore Campbell’s activism as a mental health advocate from 1999-2006 based on interviews with colleagues, family, and friends. It narrates her personal struggle with a daughter who is bipolar and the proactive stance that she took to cope with this difficulty. The chapter reveals how her involvement in the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), her role as a national spokesperson, and her local activism sparked the birth of the NAMI-Urban LA chapter, serving black and Latino communities. Campbell and a group of black women concerned about their children with mental illness effectively addressed the practical needs of families of color by challenging stigma, lobbying for social policies, and providing information, support, and resources both locally and on a national stage. Considering gendered racial communities as the resource and landscape for much of Campbell’s work, it appears that she maintained a broad friendship circle beyond the Black Action Society and NAMI- Urban LA. Exploring this primarily female “embedded friendship network” further evidences Campbell’s commitment to community and family and broadens context of her activism, writing, and life trajectory.

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