Turning Mental Health into Social Action

Turning Mental Health into Social Action PDF Author: Bernard Guerin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100009474X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
This book offers a refreshing new approach to mental health by showing how ‘mental health’ behaviours, lived experiences, and our interventions arise from our social worlds and not from our neurophysiology gone wrong. It is part of a trilogy which offers a new way of doing psychology focusing on people’s social and societal environments as determining their behaviour, rather than internal and individualistic attributions. ‘Mental health’ behaviours are carefully analysed as ordinary behaviours which have become exaggerated and chronic because of the bad life situations people are forced to endure, especially as children. This shifts mental health treatments away from the dominance of psychology and psychiatry to show that social action is needed because many of these bad life situations are produced by our modern society itself. By providing new ways for readers to rethink everything they thought they knew about mental health issues and how to change them, Bernard Guerin also explores how by changing our environmental contexts (our local, societal, and discursive worlds), we can improve mental health interventions. This book reframes ‘mental health’ into a much wider social context to show how societal structures restrict our opportunities and pathways to produce bad life situations, and how we can also learn from those who manage to deal with the very same bad life situations through crime, bullying, exploitation, and dropping out of mainstream society, rather than through the ‘mental health’ behaviours. By merging psychology and psychiatry into the social sciences, Guerin seeks to better understand how humans operate in their social, cultural, economic, patriarchal, discursive, and societal worlds, rather than being isolated inside their heads with a ‘faulty brain’, and this will provide fascinating reading for academics and students in psychology and the social sciences, and for counsellors and therapists.

Turning Mental Health into Social Action

Turning Mental Health into Social Action PDF Author: Bernard Guerin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100009474X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a refreshing new approach to mental health by showing how ‘mental health’ behaviours, lived experiences, and our interventions arise from our social worlds and not from our neurophysiology gone wrong. It is part of a trilogy which offers a new way of doing psychology focusing on people’s social and societal environments as determining their behaviour, rather than internal and individualistic attributions. ‘Mental health’ behaviours are carefully analysed as ordinary behaviours which have become exaggerated and chronic because of the bad life situations people are forced to endure, especially as children. This shifts mental health treatments away from the dominance of psychology and psychiatry to show that social action is needed because many of these bad life situations are produced by our modern society itself. By providing new ways for readers to rethink everything they thought they knew about mental health issues and how to change them, Bernard Guerin also explores how by changing our environmental contexts (our local, societal, and discursive worlds), we can improve mental health interventions. This book reframes ‘mental health’ into a much wider social context to show how societal structures restrict our opportunities and pathways to produce bad life situations, and how we can also learn from those who manage to deal with the very same bad life situations through crime, bullying, exploitation, and dropping out of mainstream society, rather than through the ‘mental health’ behaviours. By merging psychology and psychiatry into the social sciences, Guerin seeks to better understand how humans operate in their social, cultural, economic, patriarchal, discursive, and societal worlds, rather than being isolated inside their heads with a ‘faulty brain’, and this will provide fascinating reading for academics and students in psychology and the social sciences, and for counsellors and therapists.

The Social Determinants of Mental Health

The Social Determinants of Mental Health PDF Author: Michael T. Compton
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
ISBN: 1585625175
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The Social Determinants of Mental Health aims to fill the gap that exists in the psychiatric, scholarly, and policy-related literature on the social determinants of mental health: those factors stemming from where we learn, play, live, work, and age that impact our overall mental health and well-being. The editors and an impressive roster of chapter authors from diverse scholarly backgrounds provide detailed information on topics such as discrimination and social exclusion; adverse early life experiences; poor education; unemployment, underemployment, and job insecurity; income inequality, poverty, and neighborhood deprivation; food insecurity; poor housing quality and housing instability; adverse features of the built environment; and poor access to mental health care. This thought-provoking book offers many beneficial features for clinicians and public health professionals: Clinical vignettes are included, designed to make the content accessible to readers who are primarily clinicians and also to demonstrate the practical, individual-level applicability of the subject matter for those who typically work at the public health, population, and/or policy level. Policy implications are discussed throughout, designed to make the content accessible to readers who work primarily at the public health or population level and also to demonstrate the policy relevance of the subject matter for those who typically work at the clinical level. All chapters include five to six key points that focus on the most important content, helping to both prepare the reader with a brief overview of the chapter's main points and reinforce the "take-away" messages afterward. In addition to the main body of the book, which focuses on selected individual social determinants of mental health, the volume includes an in-depth overview that summarizes the editors' and their colleagues' conceptualization, as well as a final chapter coauthored by Dr. David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States, that serves as a "Call to Action," offering specific actions that can be taken by both clinicians and policymakers to address the social determinants of mental health. The editors have succeeded in the difficult task of balancing the individual/clinical/patient perspective and the population/public health/community point of view, while underscoring the need for both groups to work in a unified way to address the inequities in twenty-first century America. The Social Determinants of Mental Health gives readers the tools to understand and act to improve mental health and reduce risk for mental illnesses for individuals and communities. Students preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will also benefit from this book, as the MCAT in 2015 will test applicants' knowledge of social determinants of health. The social determinants of mental health are not distinct from the social determinants of physical health, although they deserve special emphasis given the prevalence and burden of poor mental health.

Social Work and Mental Health

Social Work and Mental Health PDF Author: Sylvia I. Mignon, MSW, PhD
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
ISBN: 0826164439
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Clear, comprehensive, and accessible, this textbook presents an overview of the contemporary American mental health system and its impact on clients and social workers. The failure of the system to provide quality care for the mentally ill is explored, including issues and policies that social workers face in accessing mental health care for their clients, while also discussing the ways in which social workers can improve the overall functioning of the system and promote the development and expansion of policy and practice innovations. This is the first textbook to examine the lack of understanding of the roots of mental illness, the challenges in classification of mental disorders for social workers, and difficult behavioral manifestations of mental illness. By looking at the flaws and disparities in the provision of mental health services, especially in relation to the criminal justice system and homelessness and mental illness, social work students will be able to apply policy and practice to improve mental health care in their everyday work. A focus on the lived experiences of the mentally ill and their families, along with the experiences of social workers, adds a unique, real-world perspective. Key Features: Delivers a clear and accessible overview and critique of social work in the broader context of mental health care in the US Reviews historical and current mental health policies, laws, and treatments, and assesses their impact on social services for the mentally ill Investigates racial and ethnic disparities in mental health provision Incorporates the experiences of people with mental illness as well as those of social workers Offers recommendations for future social work development of mental health policies and services Includes Instructors Manual with PowerPoint slides, chapter summaries and objectives, and discussion questions Addresses CSWE core competency requirements

The Mental Hygiene Movement

The Mental Hygiene Movement PDF Author: Clifford Whittingham Beers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mental illness
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health

A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health PDF Author: Teresa L. Scheid
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521491940
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 735

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Book Description
The second edition of A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health provides a comprehensive review of the sociology of mental health. Chapters by leading scholars and researchers present an overview of historical, social and institutional frameworks. Part I examines social factors that shape psychiatric diagnosis and the measurement of mental health and illness, theories that explain the definition and treatment of mental disorders and cultural variability. Part II investigates effects of social context, considering class, gender, race and age, and the critical role played by stress, marriage, work and social support. Part III focuses on the organization, delivery and evaluation of mental health services, including the criminalization of mental illness, the challenges posed by HIV, and the importance of stigma. This is a key research reference source that will be useful to both undergraduates and graduate students studying mental health and illness from any number of disciplines.

Contextualising Eating Disorders

Contextualising Eating Disorders PDF Author: Bernard Guerin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040040551
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
This book rethinks the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders by putting the spotlight on their social and societal contexts, examining how these behaviours are shaped by the difficult life conditions of those suffering. Drawing on the lived experiences of nine women, this book uses in-depth case studies and interviews to discuss eating disorders with a Social Contextual Analysis framework. It prioritises the women’s own voices about their life conditions and recovery to explore the behaviour of unusual eating patterns. The book identifies common social properties across the nine women, which will become essential context when considering treatment and therapy for unusual eating. Through this more compassionate approach, readers are presented with a detailed example of new ways to analyse and treat the behaviours of mental health and therapy outside of a DSM diagnosis. Contextualising Eating Disorders is unique in its focus on giving priority to women’s voices and the social contexts behind unusual eating and will be highly relevant for all professionals working with those with unusual eating patterns, as well as students and academics in the fields of social psychology and mental health. This book will also benefit those who themselves are suffering from unusual eating patterns they might not understand.

Safeguarding in Social Work Practice

Safeguarding in Social Work Practice PDF Author: Charlotte Chisnell
Publisher: Learning Matters
ISBN: 1473967775
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Safeguarding is a serious and complex area of social work practice and for all students, demonstrating an understanding of important safeguarding theory, law, policy and skills for practice is essential. Students need to understand what safeguarding is and means across the life course, and this new text brings together common themes and knowledge in safeguarding across children, young people and adult social work to do just that. This approach will encourage students to approach the subject from a holistic perspective, helping them develop their understanding of core themes and transferable skills for practice.

Conducting Contextual Research

Conducting Contextual Research PDF Author: Bernard Guerin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040041086
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This innovative book proposes an entirely new approach to social research, presenting practical ways to discover people’s life contexts in order to understand why they do what they do, which is essential for any forms of research that need to understand people. Taking a novel approach that goes beyond traditional categorisations of qualitative and quantitative research, the book starts by discussing the real basis of all research methods in social relationships, before detailing the methods for finding out about a person’s life contexts in very practical terms, accompanied by suggested questions, advice, and research tricks to help you progress. The various life contexts are then worked through chapter by chapter. Drawing on the rich and varied research experiences of all the authors, examples are given throughout, with later chapters focusing on specific research areas. Conducting Contextual Research is essential reading for postgraduate students and professionals in the fields of counselling, psychology and social work, and will be useful to anyone conducting research or inquiries to understand human behaviour, including academic researchers, detectives, intelligence operators, social workers, government service researchers, social policy analysts, and biographers.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Social Work

Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Social Work PDF Author: Jacqueline Corcoran
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197653561
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
The aim of Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Social Work is to provide a comprehensive text, taking on assessment (biopsychosocial-cultural/spiritual risk and resilience; DSM; standardized assessment scales); goal-setting; and intervention, including medication, evidence-based interventions and the process of evidence-based practice with children and adolescents. The social work context is integrated throughout by: 1) considering the complexities of multiple system levels involved with the occurrence of mental disorders and youth adjustment and recovery; and 2) professional ethics and demeanor when working with impoverished, diverse, and vulnerable youth populations in inter-disciplinary settings.

The Skilled Communicator in Social Work

The Skilled Communicator in Social Work PDF Author: Karen Healy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350313734
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
A vital part of a social worker's role is to build strong relationships based on confidence and trust, with people across all stages of the life course and from a broad range of backgrounds, in what can be extremely challenging circumstances. In this, her latest collaboration with Palgrave, bestselling social work author Karen Healy turns her attention to the key topic of communication and the importance of developing into a skilled communicator across all areas of professional practice. Split into two distinct sections, the text provides a thorough exploration of: - The foundations of effective communication in social work practice, focusing on the basic knowledge and skills that are essential to forming working alliances with service users in a broad range of practice situations; and - The specialised communication skills required to work with people with specific capacities and needs – from children, young people and older adults to people from diverse cultures and linguistic groups, those who experience trouble with verbal communication and those with mental health challenges. With helpful learning features such as practice exercises and chapter summary questions to enable you to review and reflect on what you have learned, this is an essential resource for social work students new to this complex area of practice.