Minor Mayhem in Milwaukee

1982 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-371
Author(s):  
Mona Wasow

On June 10, 1982, a forum was presented in Milwaukee that dealt with the mental health commitment laws. There are terrible confusions among professionals today about what mental illness is, what competency means, what constitutes “dangerousness,” and how to apply civil rights in a truly meaningful way to those in desperate need of help. We are in need of some modifications of our mental health commitment laws, which are presently confounded with ideologies and ignorances about mental illness and “due process,” and often stand in the way of providing help for acutely mentally ill people. That these issues are complex is obvious, but if more energy were put into problem solving, and less into winning highly value-laden debates, we might come up with some solutions toward getting better care and treatment for the mentally ill.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
S. Adhikari ◽  
A. Jha

Introduction: Mental health is an integral component of overall health. Various factors along with stigma affect knowledge, perspectives and behavior of the people ultimately affecting help seeking and treatment. The patient and their caregivers are directly involved in overall management and outcome. Hence ascertaining those aspects among them is important and so are aims of this study. Material And Method: A cross sectional comparative study was carried out among 160 participants (80 patients and 80 caregivers) visiting neuropsychiatry outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. Data was collected through semi-structured proforma and Attitude towards mental illness questionnaire (modified). Data were analysed by using SPSS version 25 and Microsoft excel. Results: The socio-demographic profiles between both groups were similar. About 75% from both the groups had good knowledge about mental illness. Almost 60% from both groups had positive perception/attitude regarding mentally ill and mental illness with an only significant difference in relation to rights to mentally ill. More than 70% from both groups had positive attitude regarding help-seeking with only significant difference in view about people with mental illness seeking help from psychiatrist. About 50% from both groups had positive attitude regarding care and treatment. Conclusion: With good knowledge and positive attitude/perception regarding mental illness, self-stigma persisted regarding some domains. Despite positive attitudes for help-seeking, ambivalent views regarding care and treatment into both groups necessitate easy accessibility and upgrading of mental health services.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Rajni Suri ◽  
Anshu Suri ◽  
Neelam Kumari ◽  
Amool R. Singh ◽  
Manisha Kiran

The role of women is very crucial in our society. She cares for her parents, partner, children and other relatives. She performs all types of duties in family and also in the society without any expectations. Because of playing many roles, women often face many challenges in their life including both physical and mental. Mental health problems affect women and men equally, but some problems are more common among women including both physical and mental health problems. Aim of the study - The present study is aimed to describe and compare the clinical and socio-demographic correlates of female mentally ill patients. Methods and Materials: The study includes 180 female mentally ill patients based on cross sectional design and the sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi structured socio-demographic data sheet was prepared to collect relevant information as per the need of the study. Result: The present study reveals that the socio-demographic factors contribute a vital role in mental illness. Findings also showed that majority of patients had mental problems in the age range of 20-30 have high rate. Illiterate and primary level of education and daily wage working women as well as low and middle socio-economic status women are more prone to have mental illness. Other factors like marital status, type of family and religion etc also important factors for mental illness. Keywords: Socio demographic profile, female, psychiatric patient


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 373-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Hodgins ◽  
A. Cree ◽  
F. Khalid ◽  
K. Patel ◽  
R. Sainz-Fuentes ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundAntisocial behaviour is common among patients with severe mental illness (SMI) requiring hospitalisation.AimTo determine whether differential treatments and services are provided to patients with SMI who engage in antisocial behaviour.MethodA random sample of 161 inpatients with SMI were recruited from general adult wards and assessed at baseline and two years later. Information on symptoms, aggressive behaviour, substance misuse, and service use was obtained from patients and clinical files.ResultsPast antisocial behaviours were not associated with type or intensity of treatments and services. Severity of positive symptoms, aggressive behaviour, and illicit drug use were positively associated with the frequency of CMHT contact, but not with the type of CMHT, type of medication, or other treatments and benefits.ConclusionsWhile the frequency of meetings with CMHTs increased with the severity of antisocial behaviours, no specific treatments were provided to patients with SMI engaging in antisocial behaviours.


Author(s):  
Adrien Ordonneau

Consequences of capitalism’s crises and their manifestations in arts have deeply modified the way we can approach mental health. As Mark Fisher pointed out in 2009 with his book Capitalist Realism, neoliberalism is using mental illness as a way to keep existing. The capacity to think a way out of alienation is deeply linked with arts and popular culture. The article proposes to study the uncanny dialogue between arts and politics in relationships to people, and mental health. The theoretical framework will show how arts are trying to build a way out of alienation, since 2009. The article will illustrate this research with the study of many artistic practices, including our own. The findings will show how the ambiguous and uncanny relationships with the world is used by artists as a way out of alienation, despite the difficulties occurring with mental health in time of crisis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janna Hastings

Mental health presents one of the defining public health challenges of our time. Proponents of different conceptions of what mental illness is wage war for the hearts and minds of patients, practitioners, policy-makers, and the public. Debate and fragmentation around the nature of the entities that feature in the mental health domain divide resources and reduce progress. The way mental health is publicly discussed in the media has tangible effects, in terms of stigma, access to healthcare and resources, and private expectations of recovery. This book explores in detail the sorts of statements that are made about mental health in the media and public reporting of scientific research, grounding them in the wider context of the theoretical frameworks, assumptions and metaphors that they draw from. The author shows how a holistic understanding of the way that different aspects of mental illness are interrelated can be developed from evidence-based interpretation of the latest research findings. She offers some ideas about corrective, integrative approaches to discussing mental health-related matters publicly that may reduce the opposition between conceptualisations while still aiming to reduce stigma, shame and blame. In particular, she emphasises that discourse in the media needs to be anchored to an overview of all the research results across the field and argues that this could be achieved using new technological infrastructures. The author provides an integrative account of what mental health is, together with an improved understanding of the factors driving the persistence of oppositional accounts in the public discourse. The book will be of benefit to researchers, practitioners and students in the domain of mental health.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Darren Mills

<p>Recovery is a conceptual model that underpins New Zealand’s mental health service delivery in the 21st century. This thesis explores how recovery emerged historically as an influential philosophy and how representations of recovery have changed to meet the needs of different groups. An inquiry, based on Foucault’s genealogical method, investigates the historical and contemporary forces of power that have shaped the construction of mental illness, and the development of methods and techniques to support and manage persons labelled as mentally ill. The normalisation of knowledge developed during 19th century psychiatric practice provided a context for later critique and resistance from movements that highlighted the oppressive power of psychiatric discourse. Key to the critique were the antipsychiatry and service user movements, which provided the conditions for the possibility of the emergence of recovery as a dominant discourse. Since its emergence, recovery has moved through a number of representations as it was taken up by different groups. A significant shift in the 21st century has been the dominance of neo-liberal discourse based on consumerism, a rolling back of the state, and an emphasis on individual responsibility. The implications of this shift for users and providers of services and their effects on current representations of recovery conclude the inquiry.</p>


1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 694-695
Author(s):  
R.A. Oswald

“We have no credibility”. That was the response of a woman with a mental illness who put a complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman. Unlike many – not just patients but also a significant number of NHS staff – she had heard that the Ombudsman could carry out a completely independent investigation of complaints although she was not clear about the extent of his jurisdiction. Some people feel intimidated when trying to take on what they see as a powerful and defensive NHS and others experience a sense of despair that because of their illness their concerns have no validity. Those providing care and treatment generally do the best they can to attain high professional standards but delivery does not always match expectations and the outcome can be a complaint. Services for the mentally ill are not immune from shortcomings and, if local management fails to satisfy the complainant, the Ombudsman can step in.


Author(s):  
Samuel Teague ◽  
Peter Robinson

This chapter reflects on the importance of the historical narrative of mental illness, arguing that Western countries have sought new ways to confine the mentally ill in the post-asylum era, namely through the effects of stigma and medicalization. The walls are invisible, when once they were physical. The chapter outlines how health and illness can be understood as socially constructed illustrating how mental health has been constructed uniquely across cultures and over time. To understand this process more fully, it is necessary to consider the history of madness, a story of numerous social flashpoints. The trajectories of two primary mental health narratives are charted in this chapter. The authors argue that these narratives have played, and continue to play, an important role in the social construction of mental illness. These narratives are “confinement” and “individual responsibility.” Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Roy Porter, the authors describe how Western culture has come to consider the mentally ill as a distinct, abnormal other.


2021 ◽  
pp. 389-410
Author(s):  
Anjali Albuquerque ◽  
Neha P Chaudhary ◽  
Gowri G Aragam ◽  
Nina Vasan

Stanford Brainstorm, the world’s first lab for mental health innovation, taps into the combined potential of academia and industry—bridging medicine, technology, and entrepreneurship—to redesign the way the world views, diagnoses, and treats mental illness. Convergence science has facilitated Brainstorm’s emergence as a pivotal protagonist in the history of the mental health innovation field. In turn, Brainstorm has catalyzed innovation within mental health by applying convergent approaches to tackle the scope, immediacy, and impact of mental illness. Stanford Brainstorm’s thinking about mental health represents a shift in the discipline of psychiatry from a focus on one-to-one delivery to collaborative and sustainable solutions for millions.


Rural History ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (02) ◽  
pp. 161-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Carter ◽  
Jeff James ◽  
Steve King

AbstractThis article focuses on the way that staff and guardians in the rural Nottinghamshire workhouse of Southwell sought to exert control and containment over pauper inmates. Fusing together local and central records for the period 1834–71, including locally held punishment books and correspondence at The National Archives, Kew (TNA), we argue that the notional power of the workhouse authorities was heavily shaded. Most paupers most of the time did not find their behaviour heavily and clumsily controlled. Rather, staff focused their attention in terms of detecting and punishing disorderly behaviour on a small group of long-term and often mentally ill paupers whose actions might create enmities or spiral into larger conflicts and dissent in the workhouse setting. Both inmates and those under threat of workhouse admission would have seen or heard about punishment of ‘the usual characters’. This has important implications for how we understand the intent and experience of the New Poor Law up to the formation of the Local Government Board (LGB) in 1871.


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