Changing Psychiatry or Changing Society? The Motion for the Rights of the "Mentally Ill" in Greece, 1980-1990.

In 1980, the first formal association of mental patients, their relatives, and mental health professionals was founded in Athens, Greece. The Motion for the Rights of the "Mentally Ill" proposed a total restructuring of mental health care and a novel conceptualization of mental illness. On the one hand, it demanded that the mental health system be based on open services, psychotherapy, and on patients' active participation in all decisions concerning their treatment and life. On the other hand, it conceptualized mental illness as a political issue that concerned all. Thus, the Motion viewed the promotion of the rights of the mentally ill as part of a broader project of cultivating conscious, active, and collective citizenship. This paper traces the Motion's history during the 1980s, showing that it was shaped by both the socio-political conditions of Greece in the post-dictatorship period, a time of intense politicization, and by the legacy of mental patient activism in the Western world during the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that, although the Motion had a limited long-term impact, it represented the mental patient movement in Greece as it furthered the latter's main features, most importantly its twofold endeavor to change not only the mental health system and the attitudes towards mental illness, but also society.

[Examining health professionals' knowledge and attitudes towards mental disorders]. / Egészségügyi szakdolgozók mentális zavarokkal kapcsolatos ismereteinek és a betegekkel szembeni attitudjének vizsgálata.

Introduction: The stigmatization of mental patients is a priority topic in both domestic and international research. In addition to social prejudices, people living with mental illness must also struggle with the stigmatizing attitude of health professionals. Aim: It was a survey of attitudes of nursing health care professionals towards psychiatric patients and mental illnesses. We also aimed to assess mental health knowledge among the nursing staff. In the light of the results, our aim was to make proposals for the reform of nursing education. Method: We performed the survey among members of the Hungarian Chamber of Health Care Professionals, in 4 sections (paramedics, emergency nurses, psychiatric nurses and adult nurses). We analyzed the results of the online quantitative survey with multiple variables descriptively. Results: 495 of the completed questionnaires were evaluable (n = 495). Psychiatric nurses are characterized by a less stigmatizing attitude towards rescue and emergency carers and other adult nurses. Less stigmatizing attitudes are characterized by BSc and MSc graduates than those who have secondary education. Almost half of all nurses (47%) in the study feel they have a lack of preparedness about mental illnesses. The rate is 49% for rescue and emergency workers, and 55% for members of the adult care section. There is also a relatively high proportion (28%) of psychiatric nurses, who consider their skills to be inadequate. At the same time, of course, this group replied in the highest proportion (37%) that his knowledge is adequate. Conclusion: Psychiatric education should be made more effective at all levels of nursing training. It would also be important to incorporate sensitizing and anti-stigma methods and to develope empathy. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(2): 56-66.

Fear of crime and related factors in relatives of individuals with mental disorders.

This study was conducted to investigate the fear of crime among relatives of individuals with mental disorders. The study was a cross-sectional epidemiological study. The sample consisted of 545 people. A questionnaire to collect data was developed by the researchers using the literature. 11.0% of the women and 19.4% of the men stated that their exposure to crime had decreased. Patients' relatives felt that the most disturbing behavior of other people towards their relatives was stigmatization (47.3%), while what made patients' relatives happiest was when other people talked and chatted to the patient (80.3%). The fear of crime in family members of individuals with mental disorders was found to be greater in women. The family members who participated in the study were found to fear their relatives being victims of crime due to stigmatization and social exclusion.

From asylum to action in Scotland: the emergence of the Scottish Union of Mental Patients, 1971-2.

By analysing a collection of documents authored by Thomas Ritchie, founder of the Scottish Union of Mental Patients (SUMP), this study recounts the emergence of mental patient unionism at Hartwood Hospital, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The discourse and action employed by Ritchie and SUMP are understood and situated in relation to intended audiences, social and material conditions of the asylum space, and transformations in cultures beyond the asylum, including nascent industrial strife, social liberalism, civil rights, the London 'underground' and counter-cultures.

Ethical and Legal Issues in the Compulsory Medical Service of Mental Patient from“Diagnosing Mental Disorder but Actually Not” / 中国医学伦理学

The event of “diagnosing mental disorder but actually not” violates patients′right of informed con-sent and refused to health , showing some problems of “diagnosing mental disorder but actually not” and mandatory admission process and psychiatric judicial authentication , and also have some ethical problems .Therefore, relevant departments should perfect the laws and regulation , establish a hospitalized psychiatric patients appeal , the appeal channels , at the same time , physicians should follow a correct understanding , respect patients rights , disinterest-ed, the ethical principles of self -supervision and also use constraints should be regulated .

Nosocomial Infection in Senile Psychiatry Department:Analysis of Target Detection and Risk Factors / 中华医院感染学杂志

OBJECTIVE To find out some risk factors of the aged mental patients′ nosocomial infection and supply theoryetical basis for the control measures of nosocomial infection.METHODS By using the target detecction, the nosocomial infection and the risk factors in the senile psychiatry department were investigated.RESULTS There were 878 cases of nosocomial infection.From them 48 cases were with nosocomial infection.The infection rate was 5.5%.The long stay in hospital,the aged and the complication of underlying diseases were the important risk factors.CONCLUSIONS There are many risk factors of nosocomial infection in the senile psychiatry department.Take measures in advance will effectively decrease the nosocomial infection.

Physical examination performed by psychiatrists.

UNLABELLED: Too little, too late? Physical examinations performed by trainee psychiatrists on newly admitted psychiatric patients. OBJECTIVES: To assess the comprehensiveness of the physical examination carried out by psychiatric trainees on acute in-patient units. To quantify delays in undertaking physical examination on psychiatric inpatients. METHOD: A prospective case note study of 60 consecutive admissions to acute psychiatric wards in North Staffordshire. Information regarding demography, details of physical examination and routine blood investigations was collected. RESULTS: The case notes of 60 inpatients were studied. Mean age was 38.7 years and the sex ratio equal. A delay in performing a physical occurred in 17 (28.8%) patients. No explanation for a delay was given in six (10.0%) cases. The mean time to physical examination from admission was 61.8 h (range 0-612 h). The standard of physical examination was variable. The central nervous system (CNS) was reported as 'grossly intact' in six (10.2%) cases with only 34 (57.6%) of patients having a comprehensive CNS examination. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric patients are not receiving a comprehensive physical examination. Whilst the patient's ability to co-operate may account for a delay in the examination, it is unlikely to be the reason for the CNS being examined in just half the patients. Opportunities to reduce the physical morbidity associated with mental illness may be being lost. (MJ Psych Clin Pract 2004; 8: 57-60).

Mental incapacity: some proposals for legislative reform.

While the decision of the House of Lords in Re F in [1990] clarified somewhat the law concerning the treatment of the mentally incapacitated adult, many uncertainties remained. This paper explores proposals discussed in a recent government green paper for reform of the law in an area involving many difficult ethical dilemmas.

A Tentative Study of the Countermeasures and Management of College Students with Mental Illness / 中国医学伦理学

Mental illness is prone to occur during adolescence,thus it is one major threat to the health of college students.However,it remains to be a serious medical problem and heated research subject to effectively treat mental-disordered students in students' management affairs.This article carries out a systematic case analysis of mental-disordered students in Shandong University at Weihai from 1996-2008,and puts forwards concrete approaches and countermeasures of prevention and treatment for those specific students.It concludes that an early diagnosis of the illness,retaining of school rolls during medical treatment,good management of medical records,prevention of potential accidental injuries,and promising employment prospect prove to be conducive for the treatment and prevention of college students' mental illness.

Re H (Mental Patients: Diagnosis).

KIE: England's High Court of Justice, Family Division, dismissed a health authority's application for a judicial declaration that a proposed diagnostic procedure on a mentally ill woman incapable of consent was lawful, because such a declaration "might be an unfortunate signal to others in the future that it was appropriate, as a matter of good medical practice, for the implementation of such procedures to be delayed pending the outcome of a costly application to the court." H, age 25, suffered from schizophrenia. Doctors suspected that she had a brain tumor and wanted to give her a diagnostic CT brain scan. H would require heavy sedation under general anesthesia and an injection of the contrast medium. H hated needles, would likely be non-cooperative, and lacked any capacity for informed consent. Her parents strongly supported the procedure as did the Official Solicitor, who represented H as guardian ad litem. The Official Solicitor, however, opposed a judicial application as inappropriate, because the doctors had already decided that the brain scan was in H's best interest. The court found no distinction between therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. In this circumstance the court agreed with the Official Solicitor that a judicial declaration would not be appropriate. The court found that the proposed brain scan was clearly in H's best interests. Accordingly, as the court quoted from Re F (Sterilisation: Mental Patient), "a doctor can lawfully operate on, or give other treatment to, adult patients who are incapable, for one reason or another, of consenting to his doing so, provided that the operation or other treatment is in the best interests of such patients."^ieng