scholarly journals Challenging healthcare discrimination

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Stigma By Association ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
Education And Society

SummaryStigma-discrimination against people with mental health problems is more prevalent and damaging than the weaker ‘stigma by association’ experienced by mental healthcare professionals. Not only are patients reluctant to seek psychiatric help, but they are shunned by society and discriminated against by general healthcare services when they do. Other clinicians see psychiatric services as a last resort and government funding of these services is disproportionately low. Psychiatrists must engage in anti-stigma activities. I suggest ways in which, both in the clinical arena and in the wider context of education and society, psychiatrists can challenge clinicians' and the public's value judgements of psychiatric patients.

scholarly journals Interventions to promote psychiatric patients’ compliance to mental health treatment: A systematic review

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mosidi B. Serobatse ◽  
Emmerentia Du Plessis ◽  
Magdalena P. Koen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Health Treatment

Background: Non-compliance to treatment remains one of the greatest challenges in mental healthcare services, and how to improve this remains a problem.Aim: The aim of this study was to critically synthesise the best available evidence from literature regarding interventions to promote psychiatric patients’ compliance to mental health treatment. The interventions can be made available for mental health professionals to use in clinical practice.Method: A systematic review was chosen as a design to identify primary studies that answered the following research question: What is the current evidence on interventions to promote psychiatric patients’ compliance to mental health treatment? Selected electronic databases were thoroughly searched. Studies were critically appraised and identifid as answeringthe research questions. Evidence extraction, analysis and synthesis were then conducted by means of evidence class rating and grading of strength prescribed in the American Dietetic Association’s manual.Results: The systematic review identifid several interventions that can improve patients’ compliance in mental health treatment, for example adherence therapy and motivational interviewing techniques during in-hospital stay.Conclusions: Conclusions were drawn and recommendations formulated for nursing practice, education and research.Agtergrond: Geen-samewerking met behandeling bly steeds een van die grootste uitdagings in geestesgesondheidsorgdienste, en genoegsame kennis oor hoe om dit te verbeter, is steeds ’n probleem.Doelwit: Die doel van hierdie studie was om die beskikbare bewyse vanuit literatuur aangaande intervensies ter bevordering van psigiatriese pasiënte se samewerking met geestesgesondheidsbehandeling krities te sintetiseer. Hierdie intervensies kan aan professionele gesondheidsorgpersoneel beskikbaar gestel word ter bevordering van psigiatriese pasiënte se samewerking met geestesgesondheidsbehandeling.Metode: ’n Sistematiese literatuuroorsig is gekies as die ontwerp om primêre studieste identifieer wat die volgende navorsingsvraag beantwoord: Wat is die huidige kennis ten opsigte van intervensies wat psigiatriese pasiënte se samewerking met geestesgesondheidsbehandeling bevorder?Resultate: Studies is ingesluit vir kritiese gehalte-beoordeling ten opsigte van metodologie, en is uiteindelik geïdentifieer as bronne van bewyse wat die literatuuroorsigvraag toepaslik beantwoord. Bewysonttrekking, -analise en -sintese is gedoen deur middel van die beoordeling van bewysklas en -gradering van bewyssterkte, soos voorgeskryf in die American Dietetic Association se handleiding. Die sistemiese literatuuroorsig het aangedui datdaar heelparty intervensies is wat psigiatriese pasiënte se samewerking met behandeling kan verbeter, byvoorbeeld samewerkingsterapie en motiveringsonderhoudstegnieke.Gevolgtrekking: Gevolgtrekkings is gemaak en aanbevelings is geformuleer vir die verpleegpraktyk, verpleegonderrig en navorsing in verpleging.

scholarly journals Depressive Symptoms, Help-Seeking, and Barriers to Mental Healthcare Among Healthcare Professionals in Lithuania

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Daniel Rogoža ◽  
Robertas Strumila ◽  
Eglė Klivickaitė ◽  
Edgaras Diržius ◽  
Neringa Čėnaitė
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Patient Health

Background: Previous research suggests that healthcare professionals (HCPs) experience high levels of work-related psychological distress, including depressive symptoms. Due to the stigma of mental health problems and other barriers, HCPs are likely to be hesitant to seek appropriate mental healthcare. We aimed to explore these phenomena among HCPs in Lithuania.Methods: A web survey inquiring about depressive symptoms, help-seeking, and barriers to mental healthcare was conducted. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). 601 complete questionnaires were included in the analyses. The barriers to help-seeking were identified using the inductive content analysis approach. Descriptive, non-parametric, and robust statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software.Results: Most of the respondents have reported depression-like symptoms over the lifetime, although only about a third of them sought professional help. Of those, roughly half preferred a private specialist. The stigma and neglect of mental health problems were the most common barriers to help-seeking. Around half of the HCPs believed that seeking mental healthcare can imperil their occupational license. About a quarter of the HCPs screened positive for clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Statistically significant differences in the PHQ-9 score were found between categories of healthcare specialty, marital status, religious beliefs, workplace, and years of work as a HCP. Fewer years of work and younger age were associated with the higher PHQ-9 score.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that HCPs in Lithuania may be inclined not to seek appropriate mental healthcare and experience poor mental health, although stronger evidence is needed to verify these findings. 

Hard routes of mental health in Portugal: what can we offer to an adolescent with serious mental illness and multiple social risk factors?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. e229120
Author(s):  
Rita Goncalves ◽  
Mafalda Marques ◽  
Teresa Cartaxo ◽  
Vera Santos
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Social Risk Factors

Worldwide, millions of children and adolescents are suffering due to a lack of efficient mental healthcare. Although some progress has been made to address the mental health problems in this age group, currently, even developed countries fail in providing psychiatric patients with the best practice care. We present a case of a Portuguese adolescent with a first episode of psychosis in whom multiple social and environmental risk factors were identified as triggers to his clinical presentation, as well as fundamental determinants of prognosis in the short and long term. In this case, we demonstrate how social determinants, including poverty, family dysfunction and difficulties in accessing appropriate mental healthcare, strongly influence the development, maintenance and prognosis in early psychosis during adolescence. Furthermore, we consider the implications of an absence of community-based mental healthcare and rehabilitation services and reasons for why this may complicate the management and limit opportunities to this patient population.

Attitudes Towards Psychiatry Among Physiotherapy Students in Poland – pilot Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S616-S616
Author(s):  
A.R. Szczegielniak ◽  
J. Szczegielniak
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Physical Therapy ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Physical Therapists ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Physiotherapy Students

Poor knowledge regarding mental health in general population in Poland, along with media coverage limited to repetition of harmful stereotypes towards patients treated at psychiatric wards and reinforcement of discriminative attitudes, results in an unfair evaluation and stigmatization of mental healthcare services. As a consequence, psychiatry, in comparison to many other medical fields, is unpopular among physiotherapy students, even though there is a compulsory subject in the university curriculum that covers, in theory, all the important knowledge that healthcare worker should possess in this regards. Young physical therapists are not taught about specific needs of the psychiatric patients. After graduation, they are lacking all basic skills on how to communicate with the patient. Being devoid of a direct contact with people suffering from mental disorders, physical therapists do not feel comfortable placed in the mental healthcare facilities. The aim of the study was to assess the extent of a basic psychiatric knowledge and general attitudes towards mentally ill of the physiotherapy students. The group consisted of 147 students. The pilot study has been limited to those studying physical therapy within borders of the Opole voivodship. Authors’ questionnaire has been developed in order to reach the aim and answers were gathered between January and June 2016. The results will be used to develop questionnaire suitable to share with physiotherapy students within the whole country and, consequently, formulate recommendations on necessary changes that must be introduced to the physical therapy curriculum in Poland by Polish Society of Physiotherapy (Psychiatry Section).Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Prioritising patient care: The different views of clinicians and managers

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 746-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Skirbekk ◽  
Marit Helene Hem ◽  
Per Nortvedt
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Patient Flow ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Healthcare Management ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Executive Managers ◽  
The Individual

Background: There is little research comparing clinicians’ and managers’ views on priority settings in the healthcare services. During research on two different qualitative research projects on healthcare prioritisations, we found a striking difference on how hospital executive managers and clinical healthcare professionals talked about and understood prioritisations. Aim: The purpose of this study is to explore how healthcare professionals in mental healthcare and somatic medicine prioritise their care, to compare different ways of setting priorities among managers and clinicians and to explore how moral dilemmas are balanced and reconciled. Research design and participants: We conducted qualitative observations, interviews and focus groups with medical doctors, nurses and other clinical members of the interdisciplinary team in both somatic medical and mental health wards in hospitals in Norway. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Ethical considerations: Basic ethical principles for research ethics were followed. The respondents signed an informed consent for participation. They were assured anonymity and confidentiality. The studies were approved by relevant ethics committees in line with the Helsinki Convention. Findings: Our findings showed a widening gap between the views of clinicians on one hand and managers on the other. Clinicians experienced a threat to their autonomy, to their professional ideals and to their desire to perform their job in a professional way. Prioritisations were a cause of constant concern and problematic decisions. Even though several managers understood and empathised with the clinicians, the ideals of patient flow and keeping budgets balanced were perceived as more important. Discussion: We discuss our findings in light of the moral challenges of patient-centred individual healthcare versus demands of distributive justice from healthcare management. Conclusion: The clinicians’ ideals of autonomy and good medical and nursing care for the individual patients were perceived as endangered.

scholarly journals Absconding from a psychiatric hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa: Are we seeing a decrease since the implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act?

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feroza Arbee ◽  
Ugasvaree Subramaney
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Impact Risk ◽  
General Populations

Background: Absconding from psychiatric facilities, the aetiology and impact of which have major socio-economic implications, has a multifactorial aetiological basis. Absconding patients are at higher risk of self-harm, violence, non-adherence, relapses, substance use and negative media attention. Most health professionals associate absconding with the escape of potentially dangerous psychiatric patients. Absconding causes fear and uncertainty, and portrays psychiatric services negatively. Identification of potential absconders would assist with risk assessment and prevention.Aim: The aim of this study was to formulate an absconding rate as well as a descriptive profile of absconders since the inception of democracy and deinstitutionalisation.Setting: The study was conducted at Sterkfontein Hospital, a specialised psychiatric hospital outside Johannesburg.Methods: A retrospective record review of absconders from Sterkfontein Hospital in Johannesburg over 1 year was conducted.Results: The absconding rate was 7.83%. The characteristics of the typical absconder included single, unemployed male, early 30s, known to psychiatric services, diagnosed with schizophrenia and co-morbid substance use. An absconder is more likely to be a forensic patient not returning from official leave of absence.Conclusion: The absconding rate has decreased to less than half that of a previous study, and is within international norms. While the descriptive profile is of limited value, it does appear that psychiatric patients are being treated in a less restrictive manner resulting in fewer absconders and a change in the method of absconding. The implications for clinical practice are firstly that a clearer definition of the term absconding is needed as this will impact risk assessment and management. It is recommended that future studies separate forensic and general populations. Lastly, the formulation and use of a risk assessment tool may be of value.

Providing Care for Migrants and Refugees

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S35-S35
Author(s):  
M. Schouler-Ocak
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Common Mental Health Problems ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

With growing globalisation and an increasing number of people on the move across boundaries, it has become vital that service providers, policy makers and mental health professionals are aware of the different needs of the patients they are responsible. One of the most fundamental barriers for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in accessing health services are inadequate legal entitlement and, mechanisms for ensuring that they are well known and respected in practice. Access to the healthcare system is impeded by language and cultural communication problems. Qualified language and cultural mediators are not widely available, and moreover, are not regularly asked to attend. This can lead to misunderstandings, misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment, with serious consequences for the afflicted. The language barrier represents one of the main barriers to access to the healthcare system for people who do not speak the local language; indeed, language is the main working tool of psychiatry and psychotherapy, without which successful communication is impossible. Additionally, the lack of health literacy among the staff of institutions, which provide care for refugees and asylum seekers means that there is a lack of knowledge about the main symptoms of common mental health problems among these groups. The healthcare services, which are currently available, are not well prepared for these increasing specific groups. In dealing with ethnic minorities, including asylum seekers and refugees, mental healthcare professionals need to be culturally competent.In this talk, main models for providing mental health care for migrants and refugees will be presented and discussed.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Self-casting and alter-casting: Healthcare professionals’ boundary work in response to peer workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212110485
Author(s):  
Margaretha Järvinen ◽  
Malene Lue Kessing
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Recovery Model ◽  
Recovery Orientation ◽  
Professional Boundary

Within mental health services, the recovery model has been a guiding philosophy over the past decades. This model stresses ‘person-centred care’ and focuses on assisting service users to live a meaningful and hopeful life even if their illness has not been cured. As part of the recovery orientation, ‘peer workers’ (PWs), i.e. people with lived experiences of mental illness, are increasingly employed within mental health services. In this article, the authors explore how these changes open up frontiers and set in motion boundary work and identity discussions among healthcare professionals. Empirically, the article draws on qualitative data – interviews with healthcare professionals and observations of meetings – collected in mental healthcare services in Denmark. Theoretically, the article combines literature on professional boundary work with theories on ‘self-casting’, ‘alter-casting’ and ‘othering’. Analysing two sets of demarcations – those between healthcare professionals and PWs, and those between professionals and patients – the study shows how the recovery model leads to defensive boundary work as well as an opening up of boundaries.

Normality, subjectivity and mental health: A genealogy of Danish psychiatry, 1938–2017

2019 ◽  
pp. 136345931987410
Author(s):  
Malene Broch Clemmensen ◽  
Simo Køppe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
The Subject

The increasing prevalence of mental disorders together with the uncertain validity of psychopathological diagnostics challenges psychiatry as the primary home of studying, diagnosing and treating mental health problems and developing mental healthcare. This marks an emerging paradigmatical shift towards ‘alternative’ mental health perspectives. With the ambition of attending authoritatively in definitory practices, contemporary scholars of psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy call for an interdisciplinary approach to mental health, with a predominant focus on the subject. We argue that a paradigmatical shift of mental health requires structural–historical considerations of the foundations upon which subjectivity has been and still is manifested through psychiatry. On this basis, we critically investigate fluctuating psychiatric discourses on subjectivity, normality and pathology. We conducted a genealogical analysis of 13 psychiatric sources (1938–2017) focusing on ‘Psychopathy’ as a fluctuating diagnosis. We elucidate how subject concepts in psychiatry develop in parallel to subject concepts in society and culture, exemplified through convincing similarities between psychopathic symptoms and neoliberal ideals. Considerations like these, offer scholars valuable bases for mental health research and debate, and also valuable insights to healthcare professionals.

scholarly journals Attitudes towards mental disorders and emotional empathy in mental health and other healthcare professionals

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Gateshill ◽  
Kate Kucharska-Pietura ◽  
John Wattis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Emotional Empathy ◽  
Significant Difference

Aims and methodTo compare attitudes towards mental disorders in professionals working in mental health and professionals working in different areas of medicine. Levels of emotional empathy in both groups were also investigated. In total, 58 mental healthcare professionals and 60 non-mental healthcare professionals completed our attitudes towards mental disorders questionnaire and Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale.ResultsThe results reveal generally positive attitudes towards people with mental disorders in both groups. Non-mental healthcare professionals regarded people with a mental disorder as significantly more dangerous and unpredictable than did mental healthcare professionals. There was no statistically significant difference in emotional empathy between the two groups. Both groups cited illicit drug use as one of the most significant causes of mental disorder.Clinical implicationsMental healthcare professionals and non-mental healthcare professionals show broadly similar attitudes and a similar degree of empathy towards people with a mental disorder. However, non-mental healthcare professionals regard people with mental health problems as significantly more dangerous and unpredictable. There is scope for further research including examining the effects of educational interventions.

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