In a world where mental health has traditionally been marginalized, this book presents itself as a necessary revolution. It explores how our societies have failed to understand and address mental health issues and offers a transformative vision for the future. Through current research, moving stories, and deep analysis, the author leads us to question established norms and consider a more humane and effective approach. This book not only informs but also inspires action and change, advocating for a mental health system that is inclusive, accessible, and compassionate. It is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the current state of mental health and how we can collectively improve it.
Doubts about the reality of mental illness and the benefits of psychiatric treatment helped foment a revolution in the law's attitude toward mental disorders over the last 25 years. Legal reformers pushed for laws to make it more difficult to hospitalize and treat people with mental illness, and easier to punish them when they committed criminal acts. Advocates of reform promised vast changes in how our society deals with the mentally ill; opponents warily predicted chaos and mass suffering. Now, with the tide of reform ebbing, Paul Appelbaum examines what these changes have wrought. The message emerging from his careful review is a surprising one: less has changed than almost anyone predicted. When the law gets in the way of commonsense beliefs about the need to treat serious mental illness, it is often put aside. Judges, lawyers, mental health professionals, family members, and the general public collaborate in fashioning an extra-legal process to accomplish what they think is fair for persons with mental illness. Appelbaum demonstrates this thesis in analyses of four of the most important reforms in mental health law over the past two decades: involuntary hospitalization, liability of professionals for violent acts committed by their patients, the right to refuse treatment, and the insanity defense. This timely and important work will inform and enlighten the debate about mental health law and its implications and consequences. The book will be essential for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, lawyers, and all those concerned with our policies toward people with mental illness.
A Manifesto for Mental Health presents a radically new and distinctive outlook that critically examines the dominant ‘disease-model’ of mental health care. Incorporating the latest findings from both biological neuroscience and research into the social determinants of psychological problems, Peter Kinderman offers a contemporary, biopsychosocial, alternative. He warns that the way we care for people with mental health problems is creating a hidden human rights emergency and he proposes a new vision for the future of health organisations across the globe. The book highlights persuasive evidence that our mental health and wellbeing depend largely on the society in which we live, on the things happen to us, and on how we learn to make sense of and respond to those events. Kinderman proposes a rejection of invalid diagnostic labels, practical help rather than medication, and a recognition that distress is usually an understandable human response to life's challenges. Offering a serious critique of establishment thinking, A Manifesto for Mental Health provides a well-crafted demonstration of how, with scientific rigour and empathy, a revolution in mental health care is not only highly desirable, it is also entirely achievable.
The story of one woman’s unique, four-year-long quest to banish melancholy and depression, find happiness and fulfillment, cultivate wellness, and ultimately create her best self—lessons anyone can use to pursue a healthier and more satisfied life. When Maria Borelius turned fifty-two, she hit menopause and her physical health began to decline. Feeling tired, sad, and depressed, she suffered from physical pain, including a lingering back ache. Fearful that this was a glimpse of what the future would be, she embarked on a personal odyssey, an exploratory journey that introduced her to a whole new style of living that would transform her body, mind, and soul – an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. Maria began with science. She traveled the globe to meet medical and fitness experts in Canada, the United States, Denmark, India, and Sweden. She studied history, exploring the health secrets of ancient civilizations and religious sects with unexpected long life-spans. What she discovered helped her turn back her clock and find renewed energy, enthusiasm, and joy. She changed her eating habits, making plants the center of her diet. She got her body moving to strengthen her muscles and stimulate her mind. She also opened herself to the possibilities of the world around her, cultivating a sense of awe and wonder and an appreciation for glorious sunsets and more of the priceless beauty life offers. Health Revolution is the fascinating chronicle of one woman’s quest for knowledge and her desire to foster physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Filled with inspiring and calming imagery and illustrations, this energizing motivational guide includes concrete and doable tips and recipes for everyone who wants to experience a stronger, happier, and more youthful version of themselves.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated our fragility as a species. Humanity was attacked by a previously unknown virus that spread very rapidly, thanks to a speed of population mobility never before seen in human history. It succeeded in creating the complete upset of the global socio-economic system. Such an event gives us an important stimulus to re-evaluate health in the context of a circular system that encompasses humans and the environment in which we live. The key challenge we face is the discovery of novel paths to crisis resolution. Can we abandon the often cherished, but now rather obsolete, tendency to specialize in a restricted subject area? Can we re-discover the ability to become permeable to ideas that reach us from other disciplines and embrace a thinking-out-of-the-box approach? This book encourages the reader to consider this challenge via the telling of stories, both great and small. Stories that, although sometimes overlooked, have defined the course of our history and thus open the door to a new pathway of progress. In some ways, COVID-19 may have shown the direction nature expects us to take. Ilaria Capua suggests to us that, today more than ever, we are the responsible actors in the circle of life, guardians of our planet and defenders of its health. As one entity of circular nature.
The Health Revolution: Give Yourself the Healthcare You Deserve by Jade Wimberley, licensed naturopathic doctor, is a combination holistic health, self-help book and inspirational manifesto. This back-to-basics primer reveals the challenges patients face with the current healthcare system and empowers them to awaken their healthiest selves-physically, emotionally and mentally. The Health Revolution provides medical history, eight simple guidelines to living one's best life, and practical chapter-end Health Resolutions aimed to restore confidence in knowing what's best for one's self and one's body. Health is not about taking a pill. Health is about understanding why we feel the way we do and making educated choices to truly heal. The Health Revolution book is a gentle nudge from a naturopathic doctor who wants readers to know the innate natural power of the body, honor it and ignite a comprehensive Health Revolution. Together, we can change the way we do health in America!
