Community mental health care has evolved as a discipline over the past 50 years, and within the past 20 years, there have been major developments across the world. The Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health is the most comprehensive and authoritative review published in the field, written by an international and interdisciplinary team.
Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.
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.
Community Mental Health is a significant interdisciplinary resource for students, practitioners, or policy planners, engaged in the evaluation and development of programs in the human services. Jessica and Sam Rosenberg have carefully pulled together a book containing twenty-two original chapters by leading scholars, consumers, and practitioners in the community mental health field. Together, they offer a wealth of knowledge on the substantial challenges facing contemporary community mental health today. Packed full with information for both students and practitioners of social work, psycholog.
Community Mental Health Engagement with Racially Diverse Populations summarizes research on reducing mental health disparities in underserved populations through community engagement programs. It discusses the efficacy of such programs with specific populations of people of color and cultures, for specific disorders, and via specific communities. It identifies how and why community engagement works with these populations, how best to set up new community programs, the steps and stakeholders to success, and includes case studies showing successes and the challenges involved. - Identifies how and why these programs achieve success through patient engagement - Explores efficacy with specific ethnicities and cultures - Discusses efficacy of programs through schools, churches, non-profits, and more - Includes case studies with their successes and challenges - Provides guidelines on the development and implementation of community programs
Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.
Mental health concerns are the most serious and prevalent health problems among students in higher education. Increasingly effective psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments have facilitated matriculation for students with histories of anxiety, mood, personality, eating and substance abuse disorders. This phenomenon has been accompanied by a striking increase in the number of previously undiagnosed students requesting treatment. College and university mental health programs struggle to care for larger numbers of students, necessitating greater interdisciplinary collaboration in treatment, research, outreach, and educational services. This book fills an important gap in the literature and provides a comprehensive resource for nearly every aspect of college mental health. It includes a strong emphasis on the training and education of graduate and professional students for future work in this field. Chapters are devoted to the significant ethical and legal issues related to treatment and associated administrative and policy challenges. Scholarly chapters on the promise of community mental health and public health approaches are especially innovative. There is also a chapter on international issues in college mental health which will be helpful to those students studying abroad. Mental Health Care in the College Community is written by acknowledged experts from mental health, college and university administration, legal and educational disciplines, all with extensive administrative and clinical experience in higher education settings. This book is clearly written and well illustrated with abundant tables, charts, and figures. This text will become essential reading for college mental health clinicians, graduate students in the mental health disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, counselling, nursing, and social work), student affairs deans and their staff, and even presidents or provosts of universities and colleges.
This is the first truly interdisciplinary book that examines how professionals work together within community mental health. It takes into account the key concepts of community mental health and combines them with current technology to develop an effective formula that redefines the community mental health practice.
