When health means illness: analysing mental health discourses and practices in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Mental Health Service User ◽  
Promotion Campaigns

This chapter focuses on the area of mental health policy as an arena in which expert systems, in the form of biomedical discourses and psychiatry, have played a central role in constituting mental health ‘subjects’. The analysis focuses on the discourses emerging from recent mental health policy documents, including Ireland’s main mental health strategy, A Vision for Change. Drawing on Dean’s ideas about fields of visibility and valued knowledge, this chapter suggests that despite a broadening of understanding of mental health beyond medicalised discourses, seen most recently in health promotion campaigns and suicide prevention strategies, in practice, the focus remains on the mental health service user, and the provision of services for those who are mentally ‘ill’. Attempts to reconfigure mental health as something which affects ‘all of us’, and moves beyond mental ‘illness’ – which, it is argued, may have the potential to open up less stigmatising modes of understanding about mental health – are hampered by the continuing dominance of the biomedical frameworks of understanding.

scholarly journals The National Mental Health Strategy: Redefining Promotion and Prevention in Mental Health?

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Promotion ◽  
Health Prevention ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
National Mental Health

This paper explores policy documents published as part of the National Mental Health Strategy for ideas about mental health promotion and prevention, to determine the extent to which these documents adopt a primary health care approach. Discourse analysis was undertaken of key policy documents to discover the manner in which they discuss mental health promotion and prevention. Three points of departure are identified. The first of these is a focus on social and biological risk factors that manifest at an individual rather than at a social level, effectively drawing attention away from social inequalities. These documents also primarily target a population that is viewed as being "at risk" due to exposure to risk factors, shifting attention from strategies aimed at improving the health of the population as a whole. A final difference is found in the understanding of primary health care. Recent policy documents equate primary health care with the first level of service delivery in the community, primarily by general practitioners, shifting the focus of care from mental health promotion with the community to early intervention with those experiencing mental health problems. This is supported by the incorporation of a biomedical understanding into mental health prevention. While recent mental health policy documents re-assert the need for early intervention and health prevention, the form of mental health prevention espoused in these documents differs from that which informed the Declaration of Alma Alta, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and World Health Organization's Health for All strategy.

The National Mental Health Strategy: Is it Making Any Difference?

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 313-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Whiteford
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
National Mental Health ◽  
First Time

In April 1992, the Health Ministers of all Australian states, territories and the Commonwealth endorsed, for the first time, a National Mental Health Policy.

scholarly journals No More “Us” and “Them”: Integrating Recovery and Well-Being into a Conceptual Model for Mental Health Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Mulvale ◽  
Mary Bartram
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
History Of

To set the stage for this special edition on Responses to the Mental Health Strategy for Canada: Canadian and International Perspectives on Mobilizing Change, we discuss the role of ideas in the public policy literature and the influence of key ideas over the history of mental health policy. Drawing on academic and policy literature and feedback from a convenience sample of mental health policy makers, we integrate the concepts of recovery and well-being into a conceptual model that can be used by policy makers as a tool to realize the transformative ideas captured in the Mental Health Strategy for Canada.

scholarly journals What’s citizenship got to do with mental health? Rationale for inclusion of citizenship as part of a mental health strategy

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-161
Author(s):  
Gillian MacIntyre ◽  
Nicola Ann Cogan ◽  
Ailsa Elizabeth Stewart ◽  
Neil Quinn ◽  
Michael Rowe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Health Policy And Practice ◽  
Peer Researchers

Purpose People with lived experience of mental health problems (MHPs) are often marginalised and have difficulty achieving community inclusion. Citizenship, a relatively novel concept in mental health, provides a means of understanding what is necessary for marginalised individuals and groups to gain a sense of belonging within their communities. By exploring the “what, why, how and who” of citizenship, the purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for the inclusion of citizenship as part of a person-centred and holistic mental health strategy. Design/methodology/approach A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, with peer researchers, was adopted to develop a model of citizenship within a Scottish context. The aim of the model is to link the concept of citizenship with specific strategies that systems, agencies and individuals can use within mental health policy and practice to promote greater inclusion and participation. Concept mapping was used as part of a mixed-methods participatory methodology and data were then analysed using multivariate statistical methods of multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. Findings It is argued that using a CBPR approach, utilising concept mapping, encourages the development of a model of citizenship that is entirely grounded in the perspectives and lived experiences of people with MHPs. The need for adequate resources, preparatory work, training, research management and reflexive practice are key to the success of a CBPR approach with peer researchers. Originality/value Working with peer researchers and key stakeholder groups is central to a CBPR approach and the implementation of a model of citizenship within mental health policy and practice. Developing a model of citizenship derived specifically from the experiences of people with lived experience is likely to promote their inclusion. It provides a means of challenging the structural deficits and inequalities that cause distress and prevent people with lived experience of MHPs of recovering their citizenship.

scholarly journals Health Promotion among Mentally Ill People in Nepal

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Ghimire ◽  
M Dhungana ◽  
S Bhagat ◽  
S Parajuli
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Preventive Program ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Care Systems

Mental health is a neglected area and the activities to promote mental health are limited in Nepal. Exploration of various social determinants of mental health is needed prior to starting mental health promotion that do not only lie within health sector but also deeply rooted outside. Mental health promotional and preventive program needs to be locally relevant, culturally appropriate and cost effective, and require social and public health approaches. Provision of community mental health strategy to the door step of people can be an effective strategy to promote health among mentally ill population. Health sector needs to be coordinated and collaborated with other sectors to address the complex mental health problems. Consideration of cultural and religious aspect in health care systems is essential to ensure that every community are equally respected and are treated equally despite variation.J Psychiatric Association of Nepal Vol .3, No.2, 2014, pp-3-8DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jpan.v3i2.12378 

Assessing dangerousness: protecting the interests of patients

1997 ◽  
Vol 170 (S32) ◽  
pp. 28-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bingley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Seriously Mentally Ill ◽  
Care And Treatment ◽  
Competent Assessment

Peter Scott's (1975) characterisation of the concept of dangerousness as potentially dangerous in itself could not be more relevant than today. The principal focus of mental health policy over the last six years has been the care and treatment of seriously mentally ill people and mentally disordered offenders, and central to the successful care of the former and many of the latter is the competent assessment of the risk they pose: mostly to themselves, but occasionally to others.

scholarly journals Knowledge Mobilization and Mental Health Policy: Lessons from the Canadian Consensus Conference on the Mental Health of Emerging Adults

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Mulvale ◽  
Christina Roussakis ◽  
Christopher Canning ◽  
Despina Papadodoulos ◽  
Francine Knoops
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Consensus Conference ◽  
Knowledge Mobilization ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Consensus Conferences ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Building Process

This case study explores how the Consensus Conference on the Mental Health of Emerging Adults, hosted by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in 2015, can impact mental health policy and practice in Canada. The study draws on interviews from 14 delegates who attended the conference. Participants praised innovations such as the inclusion of an emerging adult panel that provided feedback on all discussions, and efforts to make the consensus-building process meaningful in the Canadian policy context. Findings suggest that consensus conferences are a promising way to operationalize the Mental Health Strategy for Canada through policy and practice changes.

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