Canada's mental health最新文献

The Richmond Mental Health Team of the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service produced a low-cost, 4-1/2 hour videotape course on schizophrenia using a multidisciplinary panel of team staff and an audience of patients, family members and community groups. The resource people interviewed were from the local area. An interview of a sample of recipients of the videotape course revealed that patient and family understanding of the illness, its treatment and the service delivery system had been elementary before the course. The program improved this understanding and reportedly reduced family conflict in certain areas. Professional consumers were generally pleased with the content and format of the video, but were dissatisfied with the technical quality. Although it was designed for use with patient and family groups in community mental health settings, professional recipients were using the videotape primarily to train staff and paraprofessionals. The manual that accompanied the videotape was seldom used. Given the cost effectiveness of using videotape to design psycho-educational programs, its potentially wide distribution, the staff development spin-offs and its community development applications, we encourage provincial and state services to produce their own videotape programs.

A study of the daily life experiences of people with chronic mental disabilities who were associated with three mental health services in Hamilton, Ontario, yielded both quantifiable data and narrative accounts of life in the community. In this article, the narrative accounts are reported and interpreted under the proposition that insider perspectives reveal useful insights for all involved in community mental health. The article highlights the fact that limited social opportunities and material poverty combine to give mentally disabled people the distinctive experience of having relatively unconstrained time but a highly constrained set of places in the city available to them.

The past few decades have witnessed the launching of many health education and promotion programs for women, including Odyssée, Nouveaux départs and Women and Stress (Stress au féminin). Women and Stress was developed jointly by the Union culturelle des Franco-ontariennes, mental health professionals and representatives of the target audience. Its purpose is to help women take charge of their own health and their own bodies. This 15-hour group program, intended for French-speaking women in Ontario, includes six workshops that identify the symptoms and sources of stress and teach effective stress management strategies. The program is original in that it was designed primarily to be delivered by non-professionals in the community. According to the results of an evaluation by 360 participants, the program was an immediate success: it attained its health education and promotion objectives, and fostered community control in the area of prevention and health promotion.

A national survey of psychiatric social workers in all Canadian hospitals with Psychiatric Residency Training Programs was conducted. Various professional activities and university appointments were considered. Comparisons were made among provinces to determine differences and similarities. The results indicate a large number of similarities. The major part of social workers' professional time is spent in client-centred activity, though some regional differences emerge as to the mode of activity emphasized (e.g. individual or systems). A secondary but clearly evident role was formal and informal teaching. While educational pursuits were requested of social workers, their activities were generally not recognized through academic appointments. Research appeared to be a low priority. The lack of academic recognition for teaching and the lack of research productivity were viewed as external and internal aspects of an identity issue that social work needs to address.

The potential of consumer participation in mental health services can be appreciated by drawing upon three "sources of understanding": listening to consumers and their perspectives, gaining insight from partnership models for change, and learning from consumer-directed organizations. Ways of structuring consumer participation to maximize empowerment and equality are noted.

Mutual aid is a powerful tool for individual and group change and an excellent means of promoting mental and physical health. This article examines the main factors that may hinder the development of self-help groups (SHGs) in rural and remote areas, specifically the Sudbury-Manitoulin region of Northern Ontario. It considers several issues common to rural areas, such as population distribution, geographic isolation, lack and inaccessibility of human and material resources, and local factors such as multiculturalism and multilingualism. One of the strategies considered for overcoming these obstacles is a model for a community mutual-aid organization based on a computerized network of mutual-aid services (central organization with regional units). The originality of the model lies in the recognition of computer technology and telecommunications as promising solutions to the problems of geographic, social and cultural isolation faced by remote and rural communities, solutions that may play a part in fully developing the potential for mutual aid in this type of community.

The article provides an overview of factors related to the participation of consumers of mental health services on boards and committees. Six primary barriers to effective consumer participation are addressed: incongruency between stated values and actual practice, tokenism, lack of representativeness, role strain, poor communication and economic factors. Strategies are proposed to increase the potential for effective implementation of consumer participation. The article concludes with a broad statement affirming interdependence and the potential for increasing the effectiveness of boards and committees and exerting a positive influence on the system.

One consumer shares a personal journey that enabled her to participate in the Canadian Mental Health Association. Committees, boards and other groups can encourage consumer participation by accepting and supporting these individuals. Consumers bring a personal, passionate knowledge of the problems and potential solutions. Partnership among consumers, professionals, family members, and community leaders increases effectiveness. Consumers who choose to identify themselves and participate face financial and emotional costs. Their anger with the system is a motive to create change. People who are taking risks need practical and emotional support. Other group members can help provide safety that makes consumer participation possible.

This article defines "user involvement" as any process in which users (in this instance, persons commonly referred to as "the chronically mentally ill") can exercise some control over decisions that affect their lives. The authors discuss the state of user involvement in the mental health field in Canada, using examples from the literature and from practice. They describe three categories of involvement: consumer control, coalitions/partnerships, and consumer participation. A focus on power reflects the authors' belief that the growth of user involvement depends on the rate at which power relationships change within the mental health field. Within several sectors of society, traditional responses to mental health issues are being re-thought. Increased user involvement is both a key factor in and an important outcome of the re-thinking process. However, important obstacles remain, notably lack of financial and attitudinal support for user involvement.