Race Culture And Ethnicity In Secure Psychiatric Practice

The contributors to this wide-ranging volume are experts from a range of psychiatric, criminal justice, legal and ethical backgrounds, and, uniquely, include patients who recount their own experience of forensic care settings. They examine and explore the central theoretic issues, such as culture, power, difference and participation, and relate them to examples of current practice, and to the improvement of future service provision. They identify techniques and approaches which will improve care and treatment. Race, Culture and Ethnicity in Secure Psychiatric Practice: Working with Difference. provides essential information and analysis which exposes society's view of minorities and the influence these views may have on care professionals working in psychiatric and criminal justice systems. It suggests practical steps for improvement to ensure a more equitable and culturally sensitive service provision.

People from ethnic minorities are overrepresented in secure psychiatric care, and have been reported to receive differential treatment from staff. It has been suggested that these people (especially Afro-Caribbean groups) suffer from prejudicial legal, criminal justice and psychiatric system. This text questions whether Western, white-oriented practice and systems of belief can, or should, be applied to service users from other cultural, racial, ethical or spiritual backgrounds.

Forensic psychiatry is the discipline which distinguishes the 'mad' from the 'bad', but are its values inherently racist? Why are individuals from non-Western backgrounds over-represented statistically in those diagnosed with schizophrenia and other serious illnesses? The authors argue that the values on which psychiatry is based are firmly rooted in ethnocentric Western culture, with profound implications for individual diagnosis and systems of care. Through detailed exploration of the history of psychiatry, current clinical issues and present public policy, this powerful book traces the growth of a system in which non-conformity to the prevailing cultural norms risks alienation and diagnosis of mental disorder.

As psychiatry has developed it has proved to be susceptible to the influence of contemporary social and political mores. With its origins in nineteenth-century Europe, psychiatry evolved as an ethnocentric body of knowledge, the vehicle of implicit and overt racism. Originally published in 1988 this author, however, saw no reason why the contemporary psychiatrist should not challenge this ethnocentrism. He provides a critical account of the development of psychiatry in relation to its cultural context and then examined contemporary practice of the time in the light of this development. Throughout, the book is informed by an awareness of issues of race and culture and of their difficult interactions, the author emphasising both the frequency of racist attitudes and the very real cultural distinctions in our society, distinctions that can be used to mask what are actually racist sentiments. What emerges is not just a plea for an anti-racist, culture sensitive psychiatry, but a blueprint for how this can be brought about. He argued that the shift towards community work and social psychiatry could reorientate the profession by confronting it with its social setting and responsibilities. This book represented a significant contribution to this literature for all mental health professionals and social scientists with an interest in this field at the time; the author has gone on to write many more.

A thought-provoking handbook for practitioners, students and trainers in the mental health field. Addresses controversial issues and offers revealing insights and intelligent suggestions for all those involved with mental health.

This handbook presents a thorough examination of the intricate interplay of race, ethnicity, and culture in mental health – historical origins, subsequent transformations, and the discourses generated from past and present mental health and wellness practices. The text demonstrates how socio-cultural identities including race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and age intersect with clinical work in a range of settings. Case vignettes and recommendations for best practice help ground each in a clinical focus, guiding practitioners and educators to actively increase their understanding of non-Western and indigenous healing techniques, as well as their awareness of contemporary mental health theories as a product of Western culture with a particular historical and cultural perspective. The international contributors also discuss ways in which global mental health practices transcend racial, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and political boundaries. The Routledge International Handbook of Race, Culture and Mental Health is an essential resource for students, researchers, and professionals alike as it addresses the complexity of mental health issues from a critical, global perspective.