Urban design and mental health

2019 ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Layla McCay
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Economic Disparities ◽  
Urban Mental Health ◽  
Good Mental Health ◽  
Guidelines And Recommendations ◽  
The City

Associations between the urban living environment and mental health are becoming increasingly apparent. People who live in the city often have increased pre-existing risk factors for mental illness. However, intrinsic features of the city’s built environment can further exacerbate people’s risk of mental ill health. Cities can increase people’s exposure to socio-economic disparities and discrimination, deliver sensory input overload, and erode many of the protective factors that are associated with maintaining good mental health. Cities have not yet fully explored and leveraged the role of urban planners and designers in promoting and supporting public mental health. However, opportunities abound. Urban mental health may be improved by designing cities to provide residents with regular access to green space, integrating physical activity opportunities, facilitating positive, natural social interactions, and fostering feelings of safety. Integrating pro-mental-health design features into urban guidelines and recommendations can contribute to public mental health promotion and strengthen cities.

Oxford Textbook of Public Mental Health

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Parenting Skills ◽  
Good Mental Health ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Managing Stress ◽  
Do So

In the next few years, the global burden of disease due to mental illness is likely to overtake that of cancer and heart disease. There is research evidence to suggest that nearly half of psychiatric disorders in adulthood start below the age of 15 and nearly three quarters do so before 24 years indicating specific periods of vulnerability. It is evident that mental health and physical health are strongly inter-connected and yet often the focus of public health is on physical health. Promotion of good mental health and education about prevention of mental illness can take many forms. From teaching parenting skills to learning about managing stress from an early age to early intervention can help reduce the burden of mental illness. Public mental health has come into its own as a speciality of psychiatry and thus of medicine only in the last two decades and that too only in some parts of the world. In spite of the evidence for prevention of mental illness and promotion of mental health is getting stronger by the day there appears to be some reluctance among clinicians to take on the role of educators and advocates for public mental health. A common reason is lack of training in the subject at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels as focus is on treatment rather than prevention. Positive mental health can lead to better outcomes at a number of levels. This book brings together evidence on various aspects of public mental health which can be used for advocacy and education.

Genetic influences across the age span

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-58
Author(s):  
Edward Shaw ◽  
Daniel J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Significance

Most psychiatric disorders have a genetic component. Mental illness tends to occur as a consequence of the dynamic interaction between genetic vulnerabilities and environmental risk factors. Future advances in public mental health should bear in mind the important role of genetics in determining mental health and well-being. Genetic research raises important ethical considerations. The challenges of discovering genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders are outlined, along with examples of recent discoveries from large-scale genetic epidemiological research. The focus is on an age span perspective, with consideration of the role of epigenetic processes during development. Discoveries in childhood (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), adulthood (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) and older-age (Alzheimer’s disease) are summarized. The public health significance of psychiatric genetics is considered within the context of ongoing global efforts to understand the causes of mental illness and how this might lead to new approaches to diagnosis, classification, and treatment.

Suicide risk assessment in a large public mental health service: do suicide risk classifications identify those at risk?

2021 ◽  
pp. 103985622098403
Author(s):  
Marianne Wyder ◽  
Manaan Kar Ray ◽  
Samara Russell ◽  
Kieran Kinsella ◽  
David Crompton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Suicide Risk Assessment ◽  
Public Mental Health Service ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools

Introduction: Risk assessment tools are routinely used to identify patients at high risk. There is increasing evidence that these tools may not be sufficiently accurate to determine the risk of suicide of people, particularly those being treated in community mental health settings. Methods: An outcome analysis for case serials of people who died by suicide between January 2014 and December 2016 and had contact with a public mental health service within 31 days prior to their death. Results: Of the 68 people who had contact, 70.5% had a formal risk assessment. Seventy-five per cent were classified as low risk of suicide. None were identified as being at high risk. While individual risk factors were identified, these did not allow to differentiate between patients classified as low or medium. Discussion: Risk categorisation contributes little to patient safety. Given the dynamic nature of suicide risk, a risk assessment should focus on modifiable risk factors and safety planning rather than risk prediction. Conclusion: The prediction value of suicide risk assessment tools is limited. The risk classifications of high, medium or low could become the basis of denying necessary treatment to many and delivering unnecessary treatment to some and should not be used for care allocation.

Comment: ‘Devining’ The Role of the Consultant Psychiatrist in a Public Mental Health Service

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 612-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Consultant Psychiatrist ◽  
Persistent Mental Illness ◽  
Public Mental Health Service ◽  
Key Players ◽  
Recovery Program

We admitted to ourselves, …and to our colleagues that we cannot treat people with severe and persistent mental illness as independent practitioners, and asked to be key players on the multidisciplinary team (Extract from A 12-Step Recovery Program for Psychiatrists [1]).

The plague in Moscow in 1771 and a new coronavirus infection: what they have in common

2021 ◽  
pp. 62-77
Author(s):  
Leonid Anatolievich Denisov ◽  
Mikhail Sergeevich Pakhomov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Coronavirus Infection ◽  
The City

The article is devoted to a historical event that occurred 250 years ago in Moscow. The authors draw analogies between the plague epidemic and the current situation associated with a new coronavirus infection, and note what unites these events. It shows the dedicated work of doctors in the conditions of complete ambiguity of the causes and spread of these infections, in the absence of effective treatment methods, what was the behavior of the population, how prevention measures were developed, and what is the role of the authorities of Moscow and St. Petersburg in the fight. How the state of medical science and the level of health care, referred to by economists as the non — material sphere, can affect the physical and mental health of the population and the economic situation of the city, country and the whole World.

Cross-cultural contact: psychosis and the city in modern life

2019 ◽  
pp. 152-169
Author(s):  
Shuo Zhang ◽  
Vishal Bhavsar ◽  
Dinesh Bhugra
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
Urban Mental Health ◽  
Rapid Industrialization ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
The City ◽  
Urban Places

In the modern globalized world with rapid industrialization and urbanization the city has once again become the focus of modern social, economic and political life. Urban spaces and places have been the focus of research by many disciplines, including epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, and urban studies. In this chapter, the authors outline the importance and the role of culture in urban mental health employing various historical, sociological, and epidemiological contexts. The authors point out that modern multicultural approaches in viewing the metropolis can be conceptualized as a global hub of migration. This therefore becomes a place where individuals encounter the other and various boundaries between spaces and residence, and between wellness and illness, intersect. Acculturation to the urban places may take some time and the authors propose that the psychological process of acculturation is a useful beginning in terms of unpicking and understanding the phenomenology of identity formation and cross-cultural contact. The chapter traces the historical development of the city in parallel to the literature on psychosis and the city in developed and developing contexts, before critically examining the role of culture in informing our explanatory and interpretive frameworks of psychosis epidemiology.

How to increase the role of social workers in suicide preventive interventions

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-195
Author(s):  
Joshua Levine ◽  
Leo Sher
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Preventive Interventions ◽  
Suicide Risk Factors ◽  
Suicidal Patients

AbstractObjective:Suicide is a serious public health issue that affects individuals, families and societies all over the world. International studies provide consistent evidence that the presence of psychiatrists in a region is associated with lesser suicide rates. However, many psychiatric patients including suicidal patients do not have access to psychiatrists. This indicates that mental health and non-mental health social workers need to be involved in suicide prevention efforts. This paper is the first comprehensive work that discusses how to increase the role of social workers in the area of suicide prevention.Methods:A review of the relevant literature.Results:Increasing the role of social workers in suicide prevention efforts may reduce suicide risk in groups and people at elevated risk for suicide, as well as the general population.Conclusion:Recommendations are provided for how the social work profession can improve upon suicide prevention while incorporating universal, selective and indicated suicide preventive interventions. Social work research efforts should focus on how to increase the role of social workers in suicide prevention and the management of suicidal patients. Social work education programmes should modify their curricula and increase their attention on suicide prevention. Mental health social workers need to educate the patient and their family on suicide risk factors. Furthermore, mental health and non-mental health social workers need to educate the general public on suicide risk factors.

The wider social system

2021 ◽  
pp. 238-281
Author(s):  
Robbie Duschinsky ◽  
Sarah Foster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social System ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Epistemic Trust ◽  
School Based ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Critics have alleged that in attempting to adapt to the individual-centric environment of contemporary health provision, mentalization-based therapy itself has been complicit with the atomization of society. Conversations with his colleague Peter Fuggle and Dickon Bevington at the Anna Freud Centre have also had a profound role in highlighting to Fonagy the importance of the wider social system around the individual. Pursuing these questions, this chapter begins by examining the growing attention to the social environment shown by Fonagy and colleagues, and especially their exploration of the role of friends and friendships for mentalization and epistemic trust. It will then examine the reflections and research by Fonagy and collaborators on public mental health. The researchers’ hopes regarding school-based prevention will be given particular attention, and the chapter will also show how this work has shaped Fonagy’s efforts as a policy influencer. Finally, the chapter will appraise the considerations offered by Fonagy and colleagues of the role of culture, in particular the issue of whether attention to cultural processes should be regarded as mentalizing, non-mentalizing or as not mentalizing, and whether organizations and societies can themselves be said to institutionalize cultures of mentalizing or non-mentalizing.

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