Modern Mental Health

This book offers an alternative and thought-provoking perspective to the conventional and orthodox understanding of mental health and how to help those suffering with mental illness. It will appeal to social workers in mental health contexts as well as students on post qualifying courses and the Masters Degree in Social Work. 

The World Health Organisation recently confirmed that mental Illness was set to become the biggest threat to human well-being in the twenty first century. Mental illness accounts for more disability adjusted life years lost per year than any other health condition in the UK. No other health condition matches mental ill health in the combined extent of prevalence, persistence and breadth of impact.

Modern Mental Health offers an alternative and thought-provoking perspective to the conventional and orthodox understanding of mental health and how to help those suffering with mental illness. The individual contributors to this book share a passion for needs-informed person-centred care for those people affected by mental ill- health and a deep scepticism about the way help and support is organised and provided to the 1 in 4 people in the population who at some time will suffer mental health problems. The chapters include a diverse and rich mixture of stark personal testimony, reflective narrative, case studies in user-informed care, alternative models of intervention and support, rigorous empirical research and a forensic analysis of mental health law-making. Although the overarching philosophy of this book is critical of contemporary psychiatric care, each chapter offers an individual perspective on an aspect of provision.

This book will appeal to social workers in mental health contexts as well as students on post qualifying courses and the Masters Degree in Social Work. Doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors and nurses will also find much of value.

Part One - The Human in the System

Chapter 1: A Survivors Story

Chapter 2: Service User Insights Into Recovery In Personality Disorder

Chapter 3: Exploring Shared Decision Making For Psychiatric Medication Management

Chapter 4: The Recovery Concept: the importance of the recovery story

Part Two - The Importance of Context in Psychiatry

Chapter 5: The Part Can Never Be Well, Unless The Whole Is Well

Chapter 6: Being Disturbed: The Impact of Severe Personality Disorder on Professional Carers

Chapter 7: The Psychiatric Stockholm Syndrome: The Emergence of Traumatic Bonding in Mental Health In-Patient Settings

Part Three - Contemporary Developments and Reflections

Chapter 8: Culture and Meaning in Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Chapter 9: Racism and Mental Health

Chapter 10: The Mirage of Mental Health Law Reform