ABSTRACT
As non-profit psychosocial rehabilitation agencies take over providing many of the services once provided by governmental facilities in some locales, consultation to the staff of these agencies can be very productive. Using a revised community consultation model, the author lists some of the issues that are regularly raised by staff, and discusses the functions that this kind of consultation can fulfill in this important sector of community mental health services.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/rehabilitation , Patient Admission , Patient Care Team , Referral and Consultation , Socialization , Burnout, Professional/prevention & control , Burnout, Professional/psychology , Humans , Interprofessional Relations , Managed Care Programs , Mental Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
With explosive growth in prison populations, deteriorating conditions "inside," and a large number of mentally disordered felons, correctional mental health programs are inundated with demands for services. Based on the author's first-hand survey of state prisons, inmate responses to the harsh conditions are described and a link is suggested between childhood traumas of inmates and the traumas they experience in prison. Implications for correctional mental health services, as well as correctional policy in general, are offered.
Subject(s)
Mental Health Services/supply & distribution , Prisoners/psychology , Prisons , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Humans , Male , Rape/psychology , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/etiology , Stress, Psychological/psychologyABSTRACT
Was the sixties activist merely acting out unresolved Oedipal conflicts? Is the analyst who interprets the activist's neurotic conflicts actually "neutral"? Issues from the sixties debate are relevant to today's discussion of activism in public mental health. For instance, why, at a time of shrinking public service budgets and unprecedented suffering on the part of mental patients, have the providers and consumers of public mental health services not become more active in struggles to reorder our unfortunate social priorities? The discussion proceeds to an exploration of the therapeutic effect of activism.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Politics , Psychotherapy/trends , Cost Control/trends , Health Priorities/economics , Humans , Mental Disorders/economics , Mental Disorders/psychology , Mental Disorders/therapy , Mental Health Services/economics , Mental Health Services/trends , Patient Care Team , Power, Psychological , Psychoanalytic Interpretation , Psychoanalytic Therapy/economics , Psychoanalytic Therapy/trends , Psychotherapy/economics , Social Welfare/economics , Social Welfare/trends , United StatesABSTRACT
As resources dwindle, mental health practitioners are forced to treat more difficult cases in a briefer time frame. A clinical strategy is presented for accomplishing some of this aim, and a note of caution is offered about going along happily with the trend.
