Listen and learn: engaging young people, their families and schools in early intervention research
Recent policy guidelines highlight the importance of increasing the identification of young people at risk of developing mental health problems in order to prevent their transition to long-term problems, avoid crisis and remove the need for care through specialist mental health services or hospitalisation. Early awareness of the often insidious behavioural and cognitive changes associated with deteriorating mental well-being, however, is difficult, but it is vital if young people, their families and those who work with them are to be fully equipped with the skills to aid early help-seeking. Our early intervention research ...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Connor, C., on behalf of Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands (CLAHRC-WM) Youth Mental Health, Birchwood, Freemantle, Singh, Patterson, Palmer, Lavis, Leung Tags: Open access Original article Source Type: research
If psychosis were cancer: a speculative comparison
Recently, health policy in the UK has begun to engage with the concept of ‘parity of esteem’ between physical and mental healthcare. This has led one recent initiative to improve service provision for first episode psychosis, which aims to bring it into line with some of the principles underpinning good practice in cancer care. In this paper, we consider some of the metaphorical consequences of likening psychosis to cancer. While we find the comparison unhelpful for clinical purposes, we argue that it can be a helpful lens through which to examine service provision for psychosis in young people. Through this le...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Larkin, M., Boden, Z., Newton, E. Tags: Open access Original article Source Type: research
A crisis of meaning: can 'schizophrenia survive in the 21st century?
Both within clinical and wider societal discourses, the term ‘schizophrenia’ has achieved considerable potency as a signifier, privileging particular conceptual frames for understanding and responding to mental distress. However, its status has been subject to instability, as it has lacked indisputable biological correlates that would anchor its place within the canon of medical diagnosis. Informed by a semiotic perspective, this paper focuses on its recent history: how ‘schizophrenia’ has been claimed, appropriated and contested—and how this connects with its earlier history of signification....
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tew, J. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
'She sits all day in the attitude depicted in the photo: photography and the psychiatric patient in the late nineteenth century
This article uses published and case book photographs from c. 1885–1910 to examine the networks of communication between different stakeholders and discourses. (Source: Medical Humanities)
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Rawling, K. D. B. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Heritage and Stigma. Co-producing and communicating the histories of mental health and learning disability
University engagement with mental health services has traditionally been informed by the vocational and pedagogical links between the two sectors. However, a growth in the interest in public history and in the history of mental healthcare has offered new opportunities for those in the humanities to engage new audiences and to challenge perceptions about care in the past. The introduction of the ‘impact agenda’ and related funding streams has further encouraged academics to contribute to historical debates, and to those concerning current services. One such example of this is the Arts and Humanities Research Cou...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Ellis, R. Tags: Open access Original article Source Type: research
'Trapped in the labyrinth: exploring mental illness through devised theatrical performance
Mental health difficulties remain a major source of burden and distress for individuals, families, health and social care providers with stigma a key target for educational campaigns attempting to improve care pathways and access to support. Stigma is a multifaceted concept having a range of drivers including shame and is thought to act as a barrier to successful help seeking and engagement with support services. The current paper explores some of the salient themes that emerged from a British university drama project on the impact of symptoms and behaviours associated with a severe mental health condition on a young coupl...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Patterson, P., Sextou, P. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
The presentation of mental disturbance in modern Scottish literature
The subject of madness features throughout world literature, but the literature of modern Scotland appears to be especially preoccupied with it. This paper gives a brief overview of the ways in which madness is represented in modern Scottish literature and the different artistic functions it performs. It will consider the subject on a thematic basis. First, there are accounts by writers who have experienced mental turmoil themselves. Second, there is the theme of the ‘Narrative of personal crisis’ which depicts in fictional form an individual's journey through madness. Third, there is the theme of the ‘Go...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Beveridge, A. Tags: Editor's choice Original article Source Type: research
Introduction: historical contexts to communicating mental health
Contemporary discussions around language, stigma and care in mental health, the messages these elements transmit, and the means through which they have been conveyed, have a long and deep lineage. Recognition and exploration of this lineage can inform how we communicate about mental health going forward, as reflected by the 9 papers which make up this special issue. Our introduction provides some framework for the history of communicating mental health over the past 300 years. We will show that there have been diverse ways and means of describing, disseminating and discussing mental health, in relation both to therape...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Wynter, R., Smith, L. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Yes, I wear the Hijab. Yes, I am a Doctor.
No, I am not a patient. Yes, I can hear you. Yes, I can still use my stethoscope. Yes, I can speak English. Yes, I can speak Arabic - you're welcome. I am honoured that you were hoping I would call your name in the waiting room. How can I help? We are the same. Yes, I have changed this hijab and covered it with a surgical balaclava, I am sterile. No, I do not want to wear this sterile green drape over my head in theatre because you think I should. Oh well. Here goes. I'm from Sydney, thanks! Yes, I am Australian. Accept me. Yes, I am supposed to be in the drugs room. Here is my ID. Again. No, I will not take my hijab off f...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Abdou, R. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
My favorite person
I forget sometimes that you are not the person I once knew. And I say something the way I used to quick, without context, off the cuff things that the person I once knew would catch without fail and respond NOT with a ‘what?’ and a frown nor with a ‘I have no idea what you're talking about’ but with a wink and a smile, because you got it. You got me without the subtext. But that was then. And I sometimes forget that this is now. You are still my favorite person but now, I need to catch your attention before I speak To give reference to context – because you will have forgotten. I need to speak...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Dhaliwal, U. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
Flashes and curtains
Another morning comes,
to move forward through the unknown.
The joy of seeking a blank plot
rich in colors, shapes and lights.
Awake, I suppose.
Life...through my thick glasses,
busy, fast, steady,
seemingly usual.
But down the hallway was
an open door:
A sunny day and humid breeze,
ready to enjoy a brisk pause,
and a classy cup of coffee
on the sidewalk.
My hand grabbed the cup's handle
then froze...
For the saucer grasped my attention:
Ancient sophistication
thrown into folds of
carefully-sculpted geometric shapes...
I saw a theater of history
surrounding the saucer's white center.
Three black dots had appeared on it...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Mustafa, O. M. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
Vergissmeinnicht
What lies beyond this last breath,
But emptiness and regrets?
Those memories, hard to catch;
Those petals... still as my Death.
In the echoes of church bells,
So many tales yet to tell –
Of the times before I fell,
Of the times when all was well.
Triumph wilting at the Gate,
To rest gently as my Fate.
Daydreams, laughter of an Age...
To be forgotten today.
Competing interestsNone declared.
Provenance and peer reviewNot commissioned; internally peer reviewed. (Source: Medical Humanities)
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Mak, J. K. C. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
On Viewing a Portrait by Otto Dix
A broad schmiss across his cheek, full lips, pursed as if to suppress a smile, Dr. Hans Koch wears pince nez, a white coat, collar up, sleeves rolled to the elbows. Standing by a chair with metal stirrups, a white tiled room, instruments scattered on a nearby table, he waits – a tourniquet in one hand, glass syringe in the other, its long needle facing me. And I am twelve once again, as my father looks up, a syringe in his hand when I come in, back from a ball game, his black bag open on the kitchen table. "This is for you! There's a polio epidemic. You need gamma globulin, 5 cc in each butt." He took care of us all....
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Bronson, R. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
Grand Rounds: An Impossible Life
Survival. That's the name of the gene: Survival Motor Neuron. Ironic that we say her problem was Not enough "survival". But in a way A proteomic metaphor for her impossible life. Not possible, life without SMN, So she used some transcripts From the other copy And found a way to live. Not possible, a "normal life". Not possible, a regular class. But you don't need muscles to think So she found her way to Law School. Travel? Not possible said the railway, So she took their "not possible" To the Supreme Court And made it possible for everyone. Love? marriage? Not possible. Wrong. You don't need muscles to love. They found a w...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Pringle, C. E. Tags: Poetry and prose Source Type: research
Computation Error
Here from my perch On the exam room wall, I am uniquely positioned To document it all. My circuits buzz Beneath my shiny placard; The proud host of the newest Electronic medical record. Your eyes remain On the glow of my screen While your patient tries To be heard and seen. She seems to know That you exist in two places: Half-listening to her, Half-filling in blank spaces. In front of me you sit Rapidly clicking. At times she waits silent, The clock loudly ticking. Your patient struggles To meet your eyes, Which now glazed over, Strain at my font size. She asks a pointed question; You finally move to her, But my screen glo...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Childers, R. E. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
