Humanising Psychiatry And Mental Health Care

This book explores, in depth, the link between modern psychiatric practice and the person-centred approach. It promotes an open dialogue between traditional rivals – counsellors and psychiatrists within the NHS – to assist greater understanding and improve practice. Easy to read and comprehend, it explains complex issues in a clear and accessible manner. The author is a full-time psychiatrist and qualified counsellor who offers a unique perspective drawing on personal experience. Humanising Psychiatry and Mental Health Care will be of significant interest and help to all mental health professionals including psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses, social care workers, occupational therapists, psychologists, person-centred counsellors and therapists. Health and social care policy makers and shapers, including patient groups, will also find it helpful and informative.

Humanising Mental Health Care in Australia is a unique and innovative contribution to the healthcare literature that outlines the trauma-informed approaches necessary to provide a more compassionate model of care for those who suffer with mental illness. The impact of abuse and trauma is frequently overlooked in this population, to the detriment of both individual and society. This work highlights the importance of recognising such a history and responding humanely. The book explores the trauma-informed perspective across four sections. The first outlines theory, constructs and effects of abuse and trauma. The second section addresses the effects of abuse and trauma on specific populations. The third section outlines a diverse range of individual treatment approaches. The final section takes a broader perspective, examining the importance of culture and training as well as the organisation and delivery of services. Written in an accessible style by a diverse group of national and international experts, Humanising Mental Health Care in Australia is an invaluable resource for mental health clinicians, the community managed and primary health sectors, policy makers and researchers, and will be a helpful reference for people who have experienced trauma and those who care for them.

There is increasing development and use of care pathways and a growing demand for guidance and advice on how to develop them. This practical guide meets this demand. It reflects the latest experience and incorporates best practice with contributions from highly experienced members of the National Pathways Association. It links well with the coming National Service Frameworks and National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidance. Case studies legal questions and common difficulties are all included and examined. Developing Care Pathways is in two parts: the handbook which defines and describes pathways and the roles of healthcare professionals involved with them and the tool kit which provides a detailed step-by-step guide to developing a care pathway. This work is essential reading for managers and clinicians in organisations developing care pathways throughout secondary and primary care.

The long-awaited final installment of the Biocognitive Model Series "Humanizing Psychiatists" is the third of a series directed at developing the Biocognitive Model of Psychiatry as the replacement for the three nineteenth century models of mental disorder, psychoanalysis, behaviorism and biological psychiatry. In this volume, the author continues to explore the logical status of theories used in psychiatry. He shows that Dennett's functionalism and Searle's biological naturalism cannot be used as the basis for a theory for biological psychiatry. He argues that phenomenology is a valuable technique but can never form a genuine theory. in addition, he shows how orthodox psychiatry uses its publishing industry to suppress criticism of itself, which is a gross breach of scientific ethics. He then shows how his Biocognitive Model of Mind can be applied to clinical practice with dramatic results. Praise for Niall McLaren's Biocognitive Model of Mind "This book is a tour de force. It demonstrates a tremendous amount of erudition, intelligence and application in the writer. It advances an interesting and plausible mechanism for many forms of human distress. It is an important work that deserves to take its place among the classics in books about psychiatry." --Robert Rich, PhD, AnxietyAndDepression-Help.com "Dr. McLaren brilliantly wields the sword of philosophy to refute the modern theories of psychiatry with an analysis that is sharp and deadly. His own proposed novel theory could be the dawn of a new revolution in the medicine of mental illness." --Andrew R. Kaufman, MD Chief Resident of Emergency Psychiatry Duke University Medical Center About the Author Niall McLaren, M.D. is a psychiatrist practicing in Darwin, in the far north of Australia. He has long had an interest in the philosophical and logical status of theories used in psychiatry.His work is radical in the extreme but he sees no option if psychiatry is to move beyond its present status as an ideology and finally into the realm of the sciences. For more information please visit www.NiallMcLaren.com

One of the paradoxes about psychiatry is that we have never known more about and better treated mental disorders, yet there exists so much unease about the practice of mental healthcare. Patients feel still stigmatized, psychiatrists are struggling with their roles in a rapidly changing system of healthcare, there is lack of consensus about what mental disorders are and what the focus of psychiatry should be. Person-Centred Care in Psychiatry: Self Relational, Contextual and Normative Perspectives offers a distinctive approach to two important linked conceptual issues in psychiatry: the relation between self, context, and psychopathology; and the intrinsic normativity of psychiatry as a practice. Divided in two parts, this book shows how the clinical conception of psychopathology and psychiatry as normative practice are intrinsically connected, and how the normative practice model can be conceived as a natural extension of the analysis of the web of relations that sustain illness behaviour as well as professional role fulfilment. Person-Centred Care in Psychiatry brings these topics together for the first time against the backdrop of unease about scientistic tendencies within psychiatry in an interconnected discussion that will be of interest to academics and professionals with an interest in the philosophy of psychology, psychiatry and mental health-care.

This book presents an authoritative overview of the emerging field of person-centered psychiatry. This perspective, articulating science and humanism, arose within the World Psychiatric Association and aims to shift the focus of psychiatry from organ and disease to the whole person within their individual context. It is part of a broader person-centered perspective in medicine that is being advanced by the International College of Person-Centered Medicine through the annual Geneva Conferences held since 2008 in collaboration with the World Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the International Council of Nurses, the International Federation of Social Workers, and the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, among 30 other international health institutions. In this book, experts in the field cover all aspects of person-centered psychiatry, the conceptual keystones of which include ethical commitment; a holistic approach; a relationship focus; cultural sensitivity; individualized care; establishment of common ground among clinicians, patients, and families for joint diagnostic understanding and shared clinical decision-making; people-centered organization of services; and person-centered health education and research.

In mental health, as in other medical disciplines, the role of the professional is changing. The availability of information, enhanced roles of other healthcare professionals and changes in training have altered the doctor-patient relationship and left professionals accountable to the needs of clients, politicians, policy makers and funding agencies. This book seeks to redefine the professional role of the specialist mental health worker by bringing perspectives from leading experts from both developed and developing countries, and also from a wide range of professionals in the field of law, medical ethics, education and medical leadership. Uniquely, it also looks at the views of patients and next-generation psychiatrists. It will be of interest to those involved in providing mental healthcare as well as those responsible for health policy initiatives and training.

... Is a unique collection of authoritative briefings from over 90 countries around the world. Each chapter covers a particular country's demographics, mental health resources, undergraduate education, postgraduate training in psychiatry, research activities, mental health legislation, and policy and development strategies.