Issues In Mental Health Care Research Articles

Bush, Kerry Take Stand On Key Mental Health Issues

Bush, Kerry Take Stand On Key Mental Health Issues

Media coverage of mental health care in the UK, USA and Australia

Aims and Method We aimed to assess the contents and tone of articles on mental health care in the UK print media by comparing them with reporting in the USA and Australia. Two broadsheets from each country were analysed using the Internet for a random 4 months over a 1-year period. The number of articles, their content and the views expressed in them were identified and compared. Results A total of 118 articles on mental health care issues were found. The predominant tone of the articles in all three countries was negative, though there were slightly more positive articles in the USA and Australian media. Positive articles highlighted in the UK media covered mostly medical conferences and research findings. Clinical Implications Efforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illnesses in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, operate against a background of predominantly negative coverage of mental health care issues in broadsheets. The coverage in the UK may tend to be even less positive than in the USA and Australia. Medical conferences and research findings can, however, be used to promote positive views of mental health care in the media.

Media coverage of mental health care in the UK, USA and Australia

Aims and MethodWe aimed to assess the contents and tone of articles on mental health care in the UK print media by comparing them with reporting in the USA and Australia. Two broadsheets from each country were analysed using the Internet for a random 4 months over a 1-year period. The number of articles, their content and the views expressed in them were identified and compared.ResultsA total of 118 articles on mental health care issues were found. The predominant tone of the articles in all three countries was negative, though there were slightly more positive articles in the USA and Australian media. Positive articles highlighted in the UK media covered mostly medical conferences and research findings.Clinical ImplicationsEfforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illnesses in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, operate against a background of predominantly negative coverage of mental health care issues in broadsheets. The coverage in the UK may tend to be even less positive than in the USA and Australia. Medical conferences and research findings can, however, be used to promote positive views of mental health care in the media.

Beyond the disability: recognizing mental health issues among persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Current societal changes mean increased possibilities for individuals with I/DD to participate in work, family, and community life. However, as individuals with I/DD have at least the same prevalence of mental health disorders as the general population and possibly an increased susceptibility to some mental health disorders, their ability to participate in work, housing, and social opportunities is hampered. It is important to improve nursing education about the specific issues of mental health care of individuals with I/DD. An important area for nursing research and education are improved clinical and practice guidelines. Research on medications and other therapies in mental health care of individuals with I/DD is limited and has methodological limitations. Nursing education and training are holistic, and nursing has the potential of positive impact on practice, education, and research that will improve the mental health care of individuals with I/DD.

‘Beyond the Barricade’?

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Letter to the EditorFull Access‘Beyond the Barricade’?David Stengel, D.O.David StengelSearch for more papers by this author, D.O.Published Online:3 May 2002https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.37.9.0037aI love the music from “Les Misérables,” and when the cast gathers on stage for the finale and sings, “Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?,” it is all I can do to keep from jumping to my feet and volunteering. Maybe it is time for our own crusade regarding mental health care issues—to speak out assertively and act proactively, as we’ve been preaching.I don’t think I deserve to be treated so disrespectfully by insurance carriers. I know that since resigning all my insurance contracts and opting out of Medicare two years ago, I’ve felt like a real psychiatrist again.My patients have been surprisingly understanding. We now contract directly regarding charges, and I am free to negotiate an appropriate fee schedule. The patients pay at time of service and receive a receipt/super bill to file for reimbursement. When their insurance companies fuss or delay, they get mad at them, not me.It is true that my income and patient volume have dropped, but I’ve found that I at least get paid for what I do, and I had been too busy anyway. I’m now 55, and it feels good to slow down a little.How about you psychiatrists out there—“Do you hear the people sing? . . . Is there a world you long to see?”Coeur D’Alene, Idaho ISSUES NewArchived

Mental health consultant to law enforcement: Secret Service development of a Mental Health Liaison Program.

The Mental Health Liaison Program developed and used by the Secret Service is presented as a model for comprehensive, multidimensional interactions between law enforcement and mental health systems, with particular focus on assessing and preventing violent behavior. The structure of the program pairs consultants--psychologists and psychiatrists--with Secret Service field offices to provide (a) consultation regarding risk assessment and case management of individuals who threaten or display inappropriate interest in the President or other protectees; (b) training for agents on risk assessment, mental illness, and mental health care issues; and (c) liaison activities between the Secret Service and the mental health community. Practical benefits to the Secret Service are discussed to encourage more systematic use of broad based psychological and psychiatric consultation to law enforcement, with a goal of enhanced intersystem communication and collaboration. The need for program evaluation and outcome research is discussed in the context of applying the model to improve other mental health and law enforcement systems interactions.

Mental health consultation to law enforcement: Secret Service development of a Mental Health Liaison Program

The Mental Health Liaison Program developed and used by the Secret Service is presented as a model for comprehensive, multidimensional interactions between law enforcement and mental health systems, with particular focus on assessing and preventing violent behavior. The structure of the program pairs consultants—psychologists and psychiatrists—with Secret Service field offices to provide (a) consultation regarding risk assessment and case management of individuals who threaten or display inappropriate interest in the President or other protectees; (b) training for agents on risk assessment, mental illness, and mental health care issues; and (c) liaison activities between the Secret Service and the mental health community. Practical benefits to the Secret Service are discussed to encourage more systematic use of broad based psychological and psychiatric consultation to law enforcement, with a goal of enhanced intersystem communication and collaboration. The need for program evaluation and outcome research is discussed in the context of applying the model to improve other mental health and law enforcement systems interactions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book Review: Legal Issues in Mental Health Care

Book Review: Legal Issues in Mental Health Care

Mental Health Services in the Context of Health Insurance Reform

Health care reform offers opportunities to improve the care of persons with serious mental illness, but it also can lead to the disruption of innovative systems of care that have been developed in recent years through Medicaid and other public programs. The care of mentally ill persons must be organized to maximize possible trade-offs between inpatient and other community services in a way that will promote function and satisfactory adjustment. An indemnity approach emphasizes controls on demand; instead, better design of supply-side approaches is required, using incentives to integrate services through case management and other methods. Considerable capacity development is needed to integrate long-term care appropriately into the mainstream, but serious barriers include control of risk selection and the difficulties of fairly adjusting capitation rates for high-utilization patients. Issues in mental health care are paradigmatic of many other areas of medical care and reflect changing family and community organizations and new challenges in care and rehabilitation.

Opportunities in mental health services research.

Opportunities in mental health services research.

Spiritual issues in mental health care

Religious and spiritual issues in mental health are explored in the context of four conceptual models: the medical, the nursing, the humanistic, and the pastoral. This is done by looking at each model in terms of content, diagnostic focus, language and treatment goals, and primary qualities in the health provider.The models are illustrated by case studies gathered from a multidisciplinary setting. The discovery that each model can incorporate the religious and spiritual dimension in mental health care, but that each model does this in distinctive ways, is a key point.

Equity and Policy Issues in Mental Health Care of the Elderly: Dilemmas, Deinstitutionalization, and DRGs

While estimates of the incidence and prevalence of mental disorder in the elderly vary, the consensus is that the need for services will remain unmet in the foreseeable future and geriatric mental health programs will continue to be seriously underfunded. Because of this, older people in general are treated in more restrictive and less appropriate settings than are younger mentally disturbed persons. The coming of DRGs and R UGs, the new prospective methods of health care reimbursement, are likely to compound this potentially lethal situation. It has been suggested that the implementation of these systems will produce an underfunding of psychiatric care that will create strong incentives to limit further both in- and outpatient mental health services to older people. The manner in which this may occur is the main focus of the article. Alternative models to acute care and DRGs for mental health care of the elderly, and their respective assets and liabilities, are also presented.

Book Review: Medical, Moral and Legal Issues in Mental Health Care

Book Review: Medical, Moral and Legal Issues in Mental Health Care

Medical, Moral and Legal Issues in Mental Health Care

This book, a compilation of the papers presented at a symposium, contains 12 chapters on various medical, moral, and legal issues currently significant in the care of the mentally ill. A well-edited, easily read volume, it points out at many levels the problems facing the practicing psychiatrist in today's increasing complex system of mental health care provision. The range is extensive, as are the backgrounds of the contributors. What this volume provides in scope it lacks in depth, thus reflecting one difficulty of transposing a series of talks to the printed page. What is also missing from the book, of necessity, is the question-and-answer dialogue that occurred following the stimulating and provocative presentations. Highlighted between the general ethical and moral considerations and the practical exigencies of establishing and developing a new mental health act are the two focal concerns: informed consent and the right to treatment. Possibly the two longest

Medical, Moral, and Legal Issues in Mental Health Care: Presentations From the Taykr Manor Hospital Symposium

Psychiatrists, lawyers, clergymen, and psychologists were among the 350 individuals who attended a symposium on the medical, moral, and legal issues in mental health care held April 5-6 at Taylor Manor Hospital in Ellicott City, Maryland. The summaries that follow focus on the speakers' comments on the role of society in general, and psychiatrists and lawyers in particular, in protecting the rights of the mentally disabled. A book based on the full proceedings is being edited by Frank J. Ayd, Jr., M. D., director of the symposium. it will be published by Williams & Wilkins in Baltimore, and will be available this month.