scholarly journals CONFIRMATION BIAS & PSYCHOEDUCATION WITH RELATION TO MENTAL ILLNESS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 677-679
Author(s):  
Shambhavi Prathap ◽  
Jyoti Das
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Present Understanding

The article aims to review the present understanding of cognitive biases and how they play a role in the understanding of mental illnesses. The paper explores the effect of conformation bias in a collectivistic society and how psychoeducation can play a role in forwarding research backed and data-driven mental healthcare.

scholarly journals Fractured minds to flourishing minds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Youth Suicide ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Self Harm

<p>Youth suicide and self-harm are major public health concerns worldwide. The high rate of youth suicide and intentional self-harm in New Zealand, illustrates that there is a large amount of youth experiencing severe mental illness, as mental illness corresponds to suicidal/harmful behavior. Although more youth are seeking and receiving help, a large portion who are suffering are unwilling to engage in services, due to stigma surrounding mental health. Characteristics of the built environment can effect wellbeing and therefore architecture holds significant implications for the mental health of individuals.  Inpatient environments are an effective intervention for the treatment of a range of severe mental illnesses, however there is a definitive lack of acute inpatient facilities for youth in New Zealand. A shift in the way mental healthcare services are provided has meant that large psychiatric hospitals have been closed or downsized and compulsory inpatient treatment has given way to voluntary engagement with community mental health services. This has not eliminated the need for inpatient care and there still remains a need for these highly specialized environments. These current specialized environments are generally not designed to benefit the mental health and wellbeing of patients, but are just regarded as settings in which recovery takes place.  This thesis aims to explore how architecture can act therapeutically to support the wellbeing of individuals suffering mental illness. It looks at how architecture can retain the dignity of these patients, and challenge conventional norms of prior mental healthcare environments. This thesis aims to integrate Maori and Pacific models of health and wellbeing in order to allow improved care and treatment for Maori and Pacific groups. It responds to the lack and unsuccessful architectural responses for youth in New Zealand and in particular, the central region and aims to design a new mental health inpatient and outpatient facility specifically for youth suffering mental illness.</p>

The role of moral explanations and structural inequalities in experiences of mental illness stigma in Northern Minas Gerais, Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 136346152110550
Author(s):  
Patrícia Neves Guimarães ◽  
Duncan Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Minas Gerais ◽  
Psychosocial Treatment ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Mental Illness Stigma ◽  
Structured Interviews

The process of stigmatization within different cultural contexts has long been viewed as essential in understanding the course and outcomes of mental illness. However, little research has examined which cultural constructs and categories are used to explain mental illness, and how they contribute to the way people with mental illness experience stigma and social exclusion, as well as how these beliefs affect healthcare practices. This study examines meanings ascribed to mental illness and experiences of stigma among four groups in urban settings of Minas Gerais, Brazil: persons with mental illness; their families; members of the lay public; and health professionals working at an alternative community-based psychosocial treatment service or a local university hospital. Qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, were conducted with a purposive sample of 72 participants. Data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings suggest that stigma and discrimination are intrinsically rooted in a systemic process of social exclusion generated by meanings ascribed to mental illness and the structural vulnerabilities of the mental healthcare system. The findings further suggest that structural inequality is a powerful factor behind lay concepts of mental illness and that this is particularly harmful because it reinforces personal blame attributions instead of addressing the hidden structural forces that contribute to mental illness. The study highlights the subtle interrelations between cultural beliefs and structural vulnerabilities that should be addressed in mental health policy in order to diminish the effects of stigma on people with mental illnesses.

scholarly journals Letter from Australia: mental healthcare in Victoria

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Castle
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
The Past

SummaryMental health services in the state of Victoria, Australia, have undergone enormous change over the past 15 years, with the closure of all stand-alone psychiatric hospitals and a shift of resources and services into the community. Although successful overall, various areas cause concern, including pressure on acute beds, a paucity of alternative residential options, and suboptimal integration of government and non-government agencies concerned with the care of people with mental illnesses. Certain groups, notably those with complex symptom sets such as substance use and mental illness, intellectual disability and forensic problems, remain poorly catered for by the system. Finally, community stigma and lack of work inclusion for mentally ill individuals are ongoing challenges.

scholarly journals Fractured minds to flourishing minds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Youth Suicide ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Self Harm

<p>Youth suicide and self-harm are major public health concerns worldwide. The high rate of youth suicide and intentional self-harm in New Zealand, illustrates that there is a large amount of youth experiencing severe mental illness, as mental illness corresponds to suicidal/harmful behavior. Although more youth are seeking and receiving help, a large portion who are suffering are unwilling to engage in services, due to stigma surrounding mental health. Characteristics of the built environment can effect wellbeing and therefore architecture holds significant implications for the mental health of individuals.  Inpatient environments are an effective intervention for the treatment of a range of severe mental illnesses, however there is a definitive lack of acute inpatient facilities for youth in New Zealand. A shift in the way mental healthcare services are provided has meant that large psychiatric hospitals have been closed or downsized and compulsory inpatient treatment has given way to voluntary engagement with community mental health services. This has not eliminated the need for inpatient care and there still remains a need for these highly specialized environments. These current specialized environments are generally not designed to benefit the mental health and wellbeing of patients, but are just regarded as settings in which recovery takes place.  This thesis aims to explore how architecture can act therapeutically to support the wellbeing of individuals suffering mental illness. It looks at how architecture can retain the dignity of these patients, and challenge conventional norms of prior mental healthcare environments. This thesis aims to integrate Maori and Pacific models of health and wellbeing in order to allow improved care and treatment for Maori and Pacific groups. It responds to the lack and unsuccessful architectural responses for youth in New Zealand and in particular, the central region and aims to design a new mental health inpatient and outpatient facility specifically for youth suffering mental illness.</p>

scholarly journals Data Analytics in Mental Healthcare

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ayesha Kamran Ul haq ◽  
Amira Khattak ◽  
Noreen Jamil ◽  
M. Asif Naeem ◽  
Farhaan Mirza
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Mental Condition ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Extensive Growth

Worldwide, about 700 million people are estimated to suffer from mental illnesses. In recent years, due to the extensive growth rate in mental disorders, it is essential to better understand the inadequate outcomes from mental health problems. Mental health research is challenging given the perceived limitations of ethical principles such as the protection of autonomy, consent, threat, and damage. In this survey, we aimed to investigate studies where big data approaches were used in mental illness and treatment. Firstly, different types of mental illness, for instance, bipolar disorder, depression, and personality disorders, are discussed. The effects of mental health on user’s behavior such as suicide and drug addiction are highlighted. A description of the methodologies and tools is presented to predict the mental condition of the patient under the supervision of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

scholarly journals “I Am Not My Illness!”: Navigating the Mental Healthcare System in New Orleans

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Saira Mehmood ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Mental Illnesses

This research examines the experiences of individuals diagnosed with chronic mental illnesses and how they navigated the mental healthcare system in New Orleans, Louisiana. To realize the main research objective, I analyzed how individuals with chronic mental illnesses perceive mental illness and stigma; the services individuals use to address their mental health needs and the barriers they face in this process; who individuals disclose their mental illness to and under what contexts; and how individuals diagnosed with mental illness and their caregivers understand and embody recovery. Situated between medical anthropology and urban anthropology, it examines the challenges individuals diagnosed with chronic mental illness and caregivers encounter in utilizing mental health services. Using critical race theory and studies on whiteness, I analyze the intersectional identities of individuals to understand how various axes of identities such as race, gender, age, and religion affect how people utilize mental health services, conceptualize stigma, how this is related to disclosure, and what recovery means to them. While I use stigma scales to measure various types of stigma, I triangulate this data with observations from participant-observation and interviews to reconceptualize stigma in what Tyler and Slater (2018) argue for approaching the social and political dynamics of stigma and acknowledging history. I do this through the use of stigma syndemics. Central to this is the role of mental health professionals and other key stakeholders, and how they interact with individuals utilizing community mental health services. I examine how past experiences such as trauma and incarceration limit access to housing programs, employment, and how this affects recovery. Lastly, I argue that for effective advocacy on mental health to occur, synergistic activism through coalition building needs to transpire between all the entities that affect individuals who have mental illnesses.

Prescriptive Power: Biologism, Biopsychiatry and Drug-centred Psychopharmacology

Somatechnics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-309
Author(s):  
Francis Russell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
False Consciousness ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biological Ontology ◽  
Health Discourse

This paper looks to make a contribution to the critical project of psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, by elucidating her account of ‘drug-centred’ psychiatry, and its relation to critical and cultural theory. Moncrieff's ‘drug-centred’ approach to psychiatry challenges the dominant view of mental illness, and psychopharmacology, as necessitating a strictly biological ontology. Against the mainstream view that mental illnesses have biological causes, and that medications like ‘anti-depressants’ target specific biological abnormalities, Moncrieff looks to connect pharmacotherapy for mental illness to human experience, and to issues of social justice and emancipation. However, Moncrieff's project is complicated by her framing of psychopharmacological politics in classical Marxist notions of ideology and false consciousness. Accordingly, she articulates a political project that would open up psychiatry to the subjugated knowledge of mental health sufferers, whilst also characterising those sufferers as beholden to ideology, and as being effectively without knowledge. Accordingly, in order to contribute to Moncrieff's project, and to help introduce her work to a broader humanities readership, this paper elucidates her account of ‘drug-centred psychiatry’, whilst also connecting her critique of biopsychiatry to notions of biologism, biopolitics, and bio-citizenship. This is done in order to re-describe the subject of mental health discourse, so as to better reveal their capacities and agency. As a result, this paper contends that, once reframed, Moncrieff's work helps us to see value in attending to human experience when considering pharmacotherapy for mental illness.

Lived Experiences of Young People who Live with Mental Healthcare Users in Limpopo, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamakota Maggie Molepo ◽  
Faniswa Honest Mfidi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Young People ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Burden Sharing

Mental illness is more than just the diagnosis to an individual – it also has an impact on the social functioning of the family at large. When a parent or relative has a mental illness, all other family members are affected, even the children. The purpose of the study was to provide insight into the lived experiences of young people who live with mental healthcare users and the way in which their daily coping can be maximised. A qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological research was undertaken to explore and describe the lived experiences of young people who live with mental healthcare users in the Limpopo province, South Africa. Audiotaped, unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 young people who grew up and lived with a family member who is a mental healthcare user in their homes, until data saturation was reached. A content analysis was used to derive themes from the collected qualitative data. Four major themes emerged as features reflective of the young people’s daily living with mental healthcare user, namely psychological effects, added responsibilities, effects on school performances, and support systems. This study recommends that support networks for young people be established through multidisciplinary team involvement and collaboration and the provision of burden-sharing or a relief system during times of need. With the availability of healthy coping mechanisms and support systems, the daily living situations and coping of young people could be maximised, thereby improving their quality of life while living with their family members with mental illness.

Confirmation bias in decision making for fingerprints, DNA and eyewitness evidence cannot be explained by cognitive style or thinking dispositions.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Edgcumbe
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Criminal Case ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Thinking Dispositions ◽  
Evaluation Of Evidence ◽  
Facial Composite

Pre-existing beliefs about the background or guilt of a suspect can bias the subsequent evaluation of evidence for forensic examiners and lay people alike. This biasing effect, called the confirmation bias, has influenced legal proceedings in prominent court cases such as that of Brandon Mayfield. Today many forensic providers attempt to train their examiners against these cognitive biases. Nine hundred and forty-two participants read a fictional criminal case and received either neutral, incriminating or exonerating evidence (fingerprint, eyewitness, or DNA) before providing an initial rating of guilt. Participants then viewed ambiguous evidence (alibi, facial composite, handwriting sample or informant statement) before providing a final rating of guilt. Final guilt ratings were higher for all evidence conditions (neutral, incriminating or exonerating) following exposure to the ambiguous evidence. This provides evidence that the confirmation bias influences the evaluation of evidence.

Effective e-health design for those with, and without, mental health disorders: shallow navigation, concentrated contents, modest number of links, one screen area for links. (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Rotondi ◽  
Jonathan Grady ◽  
Barbara H. Hanusa ◽  
Michael R. Spring ◽  
Kaleab Z. Abebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Success Rate ◽  
Fractional Factorial ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Website Usability ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum ◽  
Health Applications

BACKGROUND E-health applications are an avenue to improve service responsiveness, convenience, and appeal, and tailor treatments to improve relevance, engagement, and use. It is critical to user engagement that the designs of e-health applications are intuitive to navigate. Limited research exists on designs that work for those with a severe mental illness, many of whom infrequently seek treatment, and tend to discontinuation medications and psychosocial treatments. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of 12 design elements (e.g., website depth, reading level, use of navigational lists) on the usability of e-health application websites for those with, and without, mental health disorders (including severe mental illness). METHODS A 212-4 fractional factorial experimental design was used to specify the designs of 256 e-health websites, which systematically varied the 12 design elements. The final destination contents of all websites were identical, only the navigational pages varied. Three subgroups of participants comprising 226 individuals, were used to test these websites (those with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, other mental illnesses, and no mental illness). Unique to this study was that the 12 design elements were manipulated systematically to allow assessment of combinations of design elements rather than only one element at a time. RESULTS The best and worst designs were identified for each of the three subgroups, and the sample overall. The depth of a website’s navigation, that is, the number of screens/pages users needed to navigate to find desired content, had the strongest influence on usability (ability to find information). The worst performing design for those with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders had an 8.6% success rate (ability to find information), the best had a 53.2% success rate. The navigational design made a 45% difference in usability. For the subgroup with other mental illnesses the design made a 52% difference, and for those with no mental illness a 50% difference in success rate. The websites with the highest usability all had several key similarities, as did the websites with the poorest usability. A unique finding is that the influences on usability of some design elements are variable. For these design elements, whether they had a positive or negative effect, and the size of its effect, could be influenced by the rest of the design environment, that is, the other elements in the design. This was not the case for navigational depth, a shallower hierarchy is better than a deeper hierarchy. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to identify evidence-based strategies for designing e-health applications that result in a high level of usability. Even for those with schizophrenia, or other severe mental illnesses, there are designs that are highly effective. The best designs have key similarities, but can also vary in some respects. Key words: schizophrenia, severe mental illness, e-health, design, website, usability, website design, website usability, fractional factorial design.

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