Stories on mental health

Features
- The art of well-being
  
  Can the creative arts prevent or cure mental illness? Despite increasing interest there is still very little evidence available, say Jamie Cowling and Emily Keaney
- The politics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
  
  Why is it that the diagnosis of ADHD among boys has risen so dramatically in Western societies? Sami Timimi suggests that the answer is as likely to be cultural and political as medical
- Gambling with our health
  
  Government moves to loosen controls on gambling will have knock-on effects for public health, warns Mark Griffiths
- LETS make a difference
  
  The jump from unemployment to work can be stressful for anyone who has had mental health problems. Anita Aggarwal describes a scheme that allows people to exchange their services and skills as and when they feel able to participate
- Why a few tips won’t go far
  
  Recent anti-smoking campaigns ignore the psychological nature of smoking, say Catherine Sykes and David Marks
- Policies in need of treatment
  
  Instead of playing on popular stereotypes of mental illness, New Labour should promote a right to adequate treatment, says Cliff Prior
- All the lonely people
  
  Mind has published the results of the largest ever UK inquiry into social exclusion and mental health. It found that people with mental ill-health are excluded from virtually every aspect of society – but it also found potentially successful ways of promoting inclusion. Sara Dunn reports
- Joined-up thinking
  
  The division in psychiatry between care and control is being legally formalised by New Labour. Phil Thomas and Joanna Moncrieff explain why the coercive medical model should be rejected
- Light at the end of the tunnel?
  
  Fifteen years after a congress dedicated to the rights of people with mental illnesses, Mo Hutchison looks at how much progress has been made towards meeting its demands
- Still singing the same old blues
  
  While much has changed, many aspects of hospital psychiatric care remain depressingly familiar 30 years later. Mo Hutchison offers an insider’s view
- Chaos and containment in community care
  
  Politicians and policymakers need to understand the experiences of front-line community care workers rather than constantly redesigning the system they work in, argue Angela Foster and Vega Zagier Roberts
- Good therapy requires good communication
  
  Sally Cook reports on the National Centre for Mental Health and Deafness, a pioneering and culturally-specific mental health service
- Blooming good health
  
  Nottingham’s Ecoworks Project is an inspiring example of how mental health service users can move from passivity to activity. Nigel Lee reports
- Taking a chance with our health
  
  Could the National Lottery and scratchcards lead to widespread pathological gambling? Mark Griffiths examines the evidence
- Caught in a contradiction
  
  The conflicting pressures of national policies and local fundholders have created a ‘double bind’ for mental health care services, says Frank Ledwith
- Learning to say what you want
  
  As another asylum approaches closure, Mandy Garner reports on the vital work of the MIND advocacy service
- Treatment for media madness
  
  People with schizophrenia have had enough of media misrepresentation. Nigel Rose reports on an innovative response
- Service user seeks trusting relationship
  
  The future of community psychiatric nursing is in the spotlight as the Department of Health’s mental health nursing review gets under way. Jo Lucas reports on the user’s view
- Schizophrenia: whose delusion?
  
  People diagnosed as schizophrenic are not helped by the images of hopelessness and pity portrayed by the media, politicians and even charities, says Nigel Rose
- Part of the problem, not the solution
  
  The inquiry into abuses at Ashworth has provoked calls for reform of the special hospitals. But the only way to avoid yet another scandal of abuse is to close the hospitals down, says David Pilgrim
- A burden of abuse
  
  Why do so many young women become homeless? Mandana Hendessi reports on the disturbing results of a recent survey
- Dangerous, disorderly and deviant — or just disabled?
  
  Policy towards people with a learning disability has been marked by deep ambivalence. David Barker looks back on the ‘colonies’ for the ‘mentally defective’
- Going though shock
  
  Can electroconvulsive therapy for depression be justified? Mary Bell gives a personal account
- But does the doctor know best?
  
  In the world of mental health care, must the psychiatrist always be king? Susie Green thinks not
- Putting the users in charge
  
  There is an alternative. Maureen Hutchison reports on community mental health centres
- Life on the outside
  
  Has the policy of closing the big psychiatric institutions led to poverty, homelessness and misery for former patients? Dylan Tomlinson sifts the myth from the reality
- Dealing war and madness
  
  Mandy Garner reports on the scars of war you can’t see
- Towards a more sensitive service
  
  Mental health services have not responded to the needs of a multiracial community, says Melba Wilson. Black people with mental health problems need a caring, not a controlling response
- ’...Do not adjust your mind...’
  
  In the 1960s one man, R D Laing, was responsible for knocking the psychiatric profession off its pedestal. David Ingleby explains
- Subject: psychiatry. Diagnosis: racist
  
  The psychiatric profession is failing to come to terms with Britain’s multiracial society, says S P Sashidharan, and a disproportionate number of black people are being kept in mental institutions, mostly under coercion
- Italy’s mad law
  
  Britain is in the throes of emptying its asylums in favour of ‘community care’. Bob Quick visited Italy recently and reflects on its 10 year experience of ‘Psichiatria Democratica’
Columns
- Let’s find a cure for war
  
  All terrorists should be eliminated
  Saddam Hussein is a terrorist
  Therefore Saddam Hussein should be eliminated.
- When is a principle not a principle? In this Bill.
- Some addictions are worth the pain
- Defend diversity against rampant individualism
- It’s time mental illness took a holiday
- A brief encounter with distrust
  
  Rosa Hudson, healthmatters’ doctor at large, reports from the front line
News
Reviews
- It helps to understand
  
  Schizophrenia: a very short introduction
  Christopher Frith and Eve Johnstone
  Oxford University Press, 2003. £6.99
- A policy labyrinth
  
  Out of the Maze: reaching and supporting Londoners with severe mental health
  problems
  Angela Greatley with Richard Ford
  Kings Fund/Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2002. £10.00
- Sensitive, honest and compelling
  
  Pure Madness: how fear drives the mental health system
  Jeremy Laurance
  Routledge, 2003
- Self and self-image
  
  THE ANOREXIC EXPERIENCE
  Marilyn Lawrence
  Women’s Press, 1995, £8.99
- Low points of college life
  
  STUDENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS: problems and responses
  Nicky Stanley and Jill Manthorpe (eds)
  Jessica Kingsley, 2002, £15.99
- Narrow focus, wide value
  
  MANAGING AGGRESSION
  Roy Braithwaite
  Routledge, 2001, £14.99
- Survival strategies
  
  DEALING WITH DEPRESSION
  Gerrilyn Smith and Kathy Nairne
  Women’s Press, 2001, £8.99
- Counselling and despair
  
  THE USE OF COUNSELLING SKILLS IN THE EMERGENCY SERVICES
  Angela Hetherington
  Open University Press, 2001
- The costs of mental illness
  
  THE ECONOMICS OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE
  Ruth Williams and D Doessel
  Ashgate, 2001, £45
- Eating and assertiveness
  
  CONQUERING ANOREXIA: the route to recovery
  Clare Lindsay
  Summersdale, 2000, £9.99
- Old, cold and more
  
  UNDERSTANDING OLDER HOMELESS PEOPLE
  Maureen Crane
  Open University Press, 1999
- Still good, second time
  
  A SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS (2nd edition)
  David Pilgrim and Anne Rogers
  Open University Press, 1999, £16.99
- Clear thinking on mental health
  
  THE SOCIAL NATURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
  Len Bowers
  Routledge, 1998, £50.00
- What to know if low
  
  DEALING WITH DEPRESSION
  Trevor Barnes, with the Samaritans
  Vermilion, 1996, £8.99
- Releasing the potential
  
  CROSSING BOUNDARIES: accessing community mental health services for prisoners on release
  Rachel Lart
  The Policy Press, 1997, £14.25
- Well-being and being women
  
  WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF FEMINIST THERAPY AND COUNSELLING
  Eileen McLeod
  Open University Press, 1994
- Research broken down
  
  FORBIDDEN NARRATIVES: critical autobiography as social science
  Kathryn Church
  Gordon and Breach, 1995
- Beyond the QALY
  
  QUALITY OF LIFE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
  Joseph Oliver, Peter Huxley, Keith Bridges, Hadi Mohamad
  Routledge, 1997, £14.99
- Wider discussion needed
  
  THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF INFERTILITY
  Chrissie Jones
  Next Step Publishing, 1995, £4.99
- Say one thing, do another
  
  Adolescent health: the role of individual differences
  Patrick Heaven
  Routledge, 1996, £14.99
- A book of revelations
  
  OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT: EXPERIENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
  Yorkshire Arts Circus with the Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, Sheffield University, 1996, £5.95
- A text to keep in mind
  
  Preventing Mental Illness
  Jennifer Newton
  Routledge, 1988 (reprinted 1989, 1990, 1993), £12.99
- Counsell meeting
  
  Counselling and Social Work
  J Brearley
  Counselling in Medical Settings
  P East
  Open University Press, 1995
- Understanding minds
  
  A Sociology Of Mental Health And Illness
  David Pilgrim and Anne Rogers
  Open University Press, 1993
- An unbearable lightness
  
  WOMANSIZE: THE TYRANNY OF SLENDERNESS
  Kim Chernin
  The Women’s Press, 1993, £7.99
- Ones who got away
  
  GETTING SOBER AND LOVING IT!
  Joan and Derek Taylor
  Vermillion, 1992, £6.99
- A more able label required
  
  HALLAS’ CARING FOR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HANDICAPS
  ed WI Fraser, RC MacGillivray and Ann M Green,
  Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991
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