Mental Health At The Crossroads

This book is a challenge to the enduring status and domination of bio-medical approaches in mental health services. Contributors from four continents argue that this domination, along with modernization and multidisciplinary work, will not improve people's lives unless social and psychological perspectives are appreciated and integrated. This implies new forms of relationships and social arrangements. Mental Health at the Crossroads: the Promise of the Psychosocial Approach is a timely analysis of the psychosocial approach as it resonates across the discipline divide, considering the past and future development. It is written from the perspectives of service users and carers, managers, practitioners, educators, researchers and policy makers, illustrated with case studies from Australia, Brazil, Italy, UK and the USA. This book presents an alternative approach to conventional thinking in mental health, providing a fascinating and valuable resource for those seeking new perspectives, grounded in theory with practice examples, in order to influence the current agenda and change practice.

The word 'mental' often brings many stray feelings whenever it enters the thought process. The word has often been associated with mental illness and the mental hospitals, or a serious mental illness like schizophrenia. On the contrary, the World Health Organization (WHO), when it came into being, very clearly defined health as not just absence of illness, but a state of physical, mental and social well-being. Mental health is one aspect of health which we often neglect. We, though, may also ignore physical health and indulge in unhealthy habits, mental health gets much lower priority. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has brought a focus on mental health with the recognition of the stress and mental health issues faced by most of the population including those who were infected, their family members and health care professionals, effects of lockdown, quarantine and social distancing. This book is an attempt to familiarize the general population, the community, family members of those with mental illness, social scientists and the health professionals about the basic principles of mental health. It covers mental health issues across different populations, introduces to early signs of mental illness, rights of persons with mental illness and many other issues. About the Editors: Rakesh K Chadda is Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry & Chief, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Pratap Sharan is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Mamta Sood is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Koushik Sinha Deb is Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction -- Does psychiatry have a future? -- Is behavior therapy a fad or new direction in psychiatry? -- Does psychotherapy change the outcome in schizophrenia? -- Is marihuana hazardous to your health? -- Do emotional problems of the child always have the origin in the family? -- Should psychiatric patients ever be hospitalized involuntarily? -- Should homosexuals adopt children? -- When (if ever) should sex-change operations be performed? -- Should psychiatric patients be given genetic counseling? -- Community mental health: slogan or new directions? -- Should the psychiatrist have a role in criminal justice systems? -- Should psychiatrists be medically trained?

Reviewing epidemiological and demographic trends internationally, this book provides an overview of major health trends, summarises the current state of the world's health, and reviews recent estimates of the global burden of disease.

The field of academic psychiatry is in crisis, everywhere. It is not merely a health crisis of resource scarcity or distribution, competing claims and practice models, or level of development from one country to another, but a deeper, more fundamental crisis about the very definition and the theoretical basis of psychiatry. The kinds of questions that represent this crisis include whether psychiatry is a social science (like psychology or anthropology), whether it is better understood as part of the humanities (like philosophy, history, and literature), or if the future of psychiatry is best assured as a branch of medicine (based on genetics and neuroscience)? In fact, the question often debated since the beginning of modern psychiatry concerns the biomedical model so that part of psychiatry’s perpetual self-questioning is to what extent it is or is not a branch of medicine. This unique and bold volume offers a representative and critical survey of the history of modern psychiatry with deeply informed transdisciplinary readings of the literature and practices of the field by two professors of psychiatry who are active in practice and engaged in research and have dual training in scientific psychiatry and philosophy. In alternating chapters presenting contrasting arguments for the future of psychiatry, the two authors conclude with a dialogue between them to flesh out the theoretical, research, and practical implications of psychiatry’s current crisis, outlining areas of divergence, consensus, and fruitful collaborations to revision psychiatry today. The volume is scrupulously documented but written in accessible language with capsule summaries of key areas of theory, research, and practice for the student and practitioner alike in the social and human sciences and in medicine, psychiatry, and the neurosciences.

Featuring chapters by an international group of scholars and academics, Rural Youth at the Crossroads discusses the challenges and contexts facing youth from rural communities in countries with legacies of socialism undergoing social, political, and economic transition. The chapters employ a variety of sources and approaches to examine rural youth outcomes, and the well-being and sustainability of rural areas. The book focuses particularly on career and educational goals, the often contradictory relations between rural schools and communities, majority-minoritized group relations, community engagement, and political attitudes. Individual chapters examine these questions and dynamics within Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Vietnam. In total the volume represents a unique and timely comparative discussion of the relationship between youth and rural development within transitional societies, and the challenges and opportunities for enhancing the well-being and sustainability of rural communities. Aimed at informing strategies to revitalize rural social space, this book is targeted towards social scientists with interest in sociology and rural sociology, demography, education, youth development, community/regional development, rurality, public policy, and identity formation in transitional contexts. As such, this book will have international appeal to researchers, educators, and policymakers in transitional countries, and to those interested in these topics, regions, and communities.

Over the course of the last decade, political and mental entities at large have embraced global mental health: the idea that psychiatric health is vital to improved quality of life. Physicians globally have implemented guidelines recommended by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2007, thereby breaking down barriers to care and improving quality of life in areas where these practices have been implemented. Programs for training and education have expanded as a result. Clinicians benefit more from both local resources in some regions as well as in international collaboration and technological advancements. Even amidst all of these positive outcomes, clinicians still face some stumbling blocks. With worldwide statistics estimating that 450 million people struggle with mental, neuropsychiatric, and neurological disorders—25 percent of the world’s non-communicable disease burden—rising to these challenges prove to be no small feat, even in wealthy Western nations. Various articles and books have been published on global mental health, but few of them thoroughly cover the clinical, research, innovative, and social implications as they pertain to psychiatry; often, only one of these aspects is covered. A comprehensive text that can keep pace with the rapidly evolving literature grows more and more valuable each day as clinicians struggle to piece together the changes around the world that leave open the possibility for improved outcomes in care. This book seeks to boldly rectify this situation by identifying innovative models of service delivery, training, education, research funding, and payment systems that have proven to be exemplary in implementation and scalability or have potential for scalability. Chapters describe specific barriers and challenges, illuminating effective strategies for improved outcomes. This text is the first peer-reviewed resource to gather prestigious physicians in global mental health from around the world and disseminate their expertise in the medical community at large in a format that is updateable, making it a truly cutting-edge resource in a world constantly changed by medical, scientific, and technological advances. Innovations in Global Mental Health is the ultimate resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, primary care physicians, hospitalists, policy makers, and all medical professionals at the forefront of global mental health and its implications for the future.