For the past decade and more, American psychiatry has been at sea on the adventurous if uncontrolled odyssey of community psychiatry. The voyage has often coursed through uncharted oceans, and for many the purpose and destination of the journey have been obscure. Even among those whose sights are clearer, there is growing concern that the ship will be becalmed by inadequate funding or run aground on the shoals of bureaucratic anarchy. For all of these voyagers this volume should come as a welcome compass. The authors' review of their subject is encyclopedic. They have not only traced the origins of modem concepts and studies back to their historical roots, but have drawn their material widely from the work of investigators throughout the world to illustrate current trends and prob lems. The novice will find their discussion of epidemiology a clearly written and useful introduction to one of the scientific foundations of social psychiatry, and novice and expert alike can profit from their thoughtful and critical assessment of basic terms and concepts, including illuminating chapters on stress, genetics, psychophysiologic disorders, and cultural psychiatry. The volume ends on a personal note as the authors present their views of the current state of social psychiatry and suggest ways in which its theoretical structure might be strengthened. Too often the plight of the individual is overlooked in the concern with impersonal numbers and surveys that preoccupy epidemiologists and social scientists.
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.
This is the definitive textbook on global mental health, an emerging priority discipline within global health, which places priority on improving mental health and achieving equity in mental health for all people worldwide.
Culture and Mental Health takes a critical look at theresearch pertaining to common psychological disorders, examininghow mental health can be studied from and vary according todifferent cultural perspectives. Introduces students to the main topics and issues in the areaof mental health using culture as the focus Emphasizes issues that pertain to conceptualization,perception, health-seeking behaviors, assessment, diagnosis, andtreatment in the context of cultural variations Reviews and actively encourages the reader to consider issuesrelated to reliability, validity and standardization of commonlyused psychological assessment instruments among different culturalgroups Highlights the widely used DSM-IV-TR categorization ofculture-bound syndromes
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
How do we understand mental health problems in their social context? A former BMA Medical Book of the Year award winner, this book provides a sociological analysis of major areas of mental health and illness. The book considers contemporary and historical aspects of sociology, social psychiatry, policy and therapeutic law to help students develop an in-depth and critical approach to this complex subject.New developments for the fifth edition include: Brand new chapter on prisons, criminal justice and mental health Expanded coverage of stigma, class and social networks Updated material on the Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act and the Deprivation of Liberty A classic in its field, this well established textbook offers a rich and well-crafted overview of mental health and illness unrivalled by competitors and is essential reading for students and professionals studying a range of medical sociology and health-related courses. It is also highly suitable for trainee mental health workers in the fields of social work, nursing, clinical psychology and psychiatry. "Rogers and Pilgrim go from strength to strength! This fifth edition of their classic text is not only a sociology but also a psychology, a philosophy, a history and a polity. It combines rigorous scholarship with radical argument to produce incisive perspectives on the major contemporary questions concerning mental health and illness. The authors admirably balance judicious presentation of the range of available understandings with clear articulation of their own positions on key issues. This book is essential reading for everyone involved in mental health work." Christopher Dowrick, Professor of Primary Medical Care, University of Liverpool, UK "Pilgrim and Rogers have for the last twenty years given us the key text in the sociology of mental health and illness. Each edition has captured the multi-layered and ever changing landscape of theory and practice around psychiatry and mental health, providing an essential tool for teachers and researchers, and much loved by students for the dexterity in combining scope and accessibility. This latest volume, with its focus on community mental health, user movements criminal justice and the need for inter-agency working, alongside the more classical sociological critiques around social theories and social inequalities, demonstrates more than ever that sociological perspectives are crucial in the understanding and explanation of mental and emotional healthcare and practice, hence its audience extends across the related disciplines to everyone who is involved in this highly controversial and socially relevant arena." Gillian Bendelow, School of Law Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, UK "From the classic bedrock studies to contemporary sociological perspectives on the current controversy over which scientific organizations will define diagnosis, Rogers and Pilgrim provide a comprehensive, readable and elegant overview of how social factors shape the onset and response to mental health and mental illness. Their sociological vision embraces historical, professional and socio-cultural context and processes as they shape the lives of those in the community and those who provide care; the organizations mandated to deliver services and those that have ended up becoming unsuitable substitutes; and the successful and unsuccessful efforts to improve the lives through science, challenge and law." Bernice Pescosolido, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Indiana University, USA
Discusses the classification process for mental illness, examing the difficulty that practioners have of separating normal reactions to everyday stresses from true mental disorders, which involve recurring patterns of symptoms and behaviors.
