Home
Welcome to What Causes Mental Illness
- Details
- Category: How do we find answers?
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 13:00
- Written by Administrator
- Hits: 81860
"Mental illness", 'Mental Health' and Mental Health Services are becoming more common topics of discussion in Australia, where I live and work.
What is Mental Illness?
Where do Mental Illnesses come from?
How can we respond to Mental Ilnesses?
To plan together as a community we in Australia must share some sort of common understanding of some important questions about Mental Illnesses, Mental Health, and Mental Health Services, of the latest knowledge on-
-
What we know about 'mental illnesses' as brain diseases, literal physical 'illnesses'?
-
Is the only response possible to a Mental Illness simply medicine to restore a chemical balance ?
-
What additional ways might we describe this experience; trauma, psychological disorder, spiritual crisis, coping mechanism?
-
What implications this might have for individuals and for mental health services ?
-
What do people experiencing it think it is?
-
What happens now in our Mental Health Services, in the community and in psychiatric wards in public hospitals?
-
Do people 'recover' or get better from Mental Illness?
Deaths in Care or 'Adverse Events '?
The Age Newspaper here in Victoria has higlighted two tragic issues.
First, the deaths of patients in psychiatric care and secondly what seem like efforts taken by those organisations to shroud those deaths in secrecy.
"Each case involves allegations that serious failings by senior mental health staff may have contributed towards their unexpected deaths. Evidence also suggests that the health services involved allegedly covered up or failed to collect important information about the deaths, possibly preventing a proper examination of their cause."
The events that gave rise to these reports are terrible, and the loss to families and to us all is awful. But as the Age points out, it seems such things have been happenning for years.
They have been unremarked as much more than a circular each year from the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist; tragic individually but not intrinsically significant or meaningful on a wider level; a result of the level of illness of the people in the system, just 'something that happens', the price of doing business in the
"mental health .area ............one of the most difficult for health professionals".
As the article and much other evidence shows It's not real easy for families or patients either.
The Age for the first time is putting a human face on these 'statistics', is asking if there are systemic, cultural, institutional preventable reasons for these death
with each other, and come to a common understanding. This works best if you can make clear statements, connected to specific verifiable evidence.
'Everyone knows...' or "There's heaps of evidence that..." or 'If you weren't an idiot you'd agree with me that ...." may be true, but it's not going to persuade unless you quote the evidence, source it with a link or reference and let others evaluate it and the source.
Of course, for lived experience, those that live it are the source, but for the Experienced, a caution.
This is a shared place, and some of the people here won't know what you know; so don't share more than you feel safe to share .
And everyone, Experienced, Trained, Students, Friends or Everyone Else, please, remember your audience and the site's purpose of education, and try to understand where people are coming from when they comment about or question things that seem obvious and self-evident to you..
|
Important Notes 1) When we discuss Mental Illness as literal or metaphorical, we are talking about the comparative utility of a specific 'disease' model of understanding certain expereince when contrasted with other models. It is not for a second saying that those experiences or the challenges, confusion, struggles and learning that arise from them are 'phony', unimportant or 'unreal''. Nor is it saying that no people working within that disease model(or any model) strive to the best of their abilities to assist those in their care. Nor do I seek to deny the experience of some of the people who receive that care, who credit it for improving -or saving- their lives. However, there are people - the 'Experienced' , their loved ones and also the 'Trained', who have noticed - and reported - limitations of the model and even more importantly, opportunities for improvement and better lives for some fellow citizens are not being taken up.
2) I don't necessarily agree with or endorse every opinion or statement quoted or linked to on this site. (Actually, I am SURE I don't agree with every opinion and statement). I am trying however to provide a forum for discussion, and for people interested in our subjects to hear those different perspectives and the evidence, and make up their own minds. I do have some very broad guidelines about how we act towards each other on this site- see Rules?. If you feel something you see here does not fit into those guidelines,please let me know.
3) The site is intended to provide general information on the subject of Mental Illnesses, and related topics. The information is provided to advance the community's understanding and debate on the topic of 'What Causes Mental Illness'.
None of the information is meant to replace individual trained medical advice about any individual's health or mental health.
The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this site or drawing inferences therefrom.
None of the original or quoted material is meant to be taken as rendering medical, health, or any other kind of professional services. Or so my legal people tell me.
|
Want to see all the Mental Health Quotes?
Do you have a favourite quote to contribute?