an article by Megan Woods, Sarah Dawkins and Angela Martin (University of Tasmania, Australia) and Rob Macklin (Independent Researcher, Australia) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 33 Issue 6 (December 2019)
Abstract
Workplace conditions and experiences powerfully influence mental health and individuals experiencing mental illness, including the extent to which people experiencing mental ill-health are ‘disabled’ by their work environments.
This article explains how examination of the social suffering experienced in workplaces by people with mental illness could enhance understanding of the inter-relationships between mental health and workplace conditions, including experiences and characteristics of the overarching labour process.
It examines how workplace perceptions and narratives around mental illness act as discursive resources to influence the social realities of people with mental ill-health. It applies Labour Process Theory to highlight how such discursive resources could be used by workers and employers to influence the power, agency and control in workplace environments and the labour process, and the implications such attempts might have for social suffering.
It concludes with an agenda for future research exploring these issues.
Showing posts with label mental_illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental_illness. Show all posts
Friday, 13 December 2019
Thursday, 31 October 2019
How Creating Balance in Your Gut Can Help Alleviate Anxiety
a post by Serena Poon for the World of Psychology blog
Most of us are pretty familiar with how anxiety feels in our body. When you have anxious thoughts, your body responds with a tightening in the stomach, nausea, gas, heartburn, and indigestion. The connection between your brain and your gastrointestinal tract goes the other way as well. If your digestive system is disrupted, it can send signals to your brain that may cause you to become anxious. This bidirectional connection is called the gut-brain axis.
We are still learning a lot about the digestive system’s effect on the body and the mind, but what is coming to light through scientific research is that your gut is truly a center of immunity, mental agility, and vitality. Taking the time to foster a healthy gut is a great way to improve digestive issues, emotional and mental ailments, and overall health.
Continue reading
Most of us are pretty familiar with how anxiety feels in our body. When you have anxious thoughts, your body responds with a tightening in the stomach, nausea, gas, heartburn, and indigestion. The connection between your brain and your gastrointestinal tract goes the other way as well. If your digestive system is disrupted, it can send signals to your brain that may cause you to become anxious. This bidirectional connection is called the gut-brain axis.
We are still learning a lot about the digestive system’s effect on the body and the mind, but what is coming to light through scientific research is that your gut is truly a center of immunity, mental agility, and vitality. Taking the time to foster a healthy gut is a great way to improve digestive issues, emotional and mental ailments, and overall health.
Continue reading
Monday, 2 September 2019
We Need to Stop Making Mental Illness Look Cool On Social Media
a post by Alyson Zetta Williams for i-D US
The trend of falsely portraying anxiety and depression threatens the already fragile well-being of more young people than ever before.
A quick search of #depressed on Instagram brings up over 12 million posts. Interspersed between black and white photos and gifs of crying cartoons are pictures of pretty girls smoking and the occasional sadboi-with-tattoo overlaid with text like "Help me" and "I want to go far away … forever."
These romanticized depictions of mental illness are what mental health professional Aditi Verma calls “beautiful suffering”: a meme-ified version of mental illness that reduces anxiety and depression to a temporary feeling capable of being depicted through dark edits and simplified text.
Continue reading
The trend of falsely portraying anxiety and depression threatens the already fragile well-being of more young people than ever before.
A quick search of #depressed on Instagram brings up over 12 million posts. Interspersed between black and white photos and gifs of crying cartoons are pictures of pretty girls smoking and the occasional sadboi-with-tattoo overlaid with text like "Help me" and "I want to go far away … forever."
These romanticized depictions of mental illness are what mental health professional Aditi Verma calls “beautiful suffering”: a meme-ified version of mental illness that reduces anxiety and depression to a temporary feeling capable of being depicted through dark edits and simplified text.
Continue reading
Thursday, 8 August 2019
‘‘They’re Going to Smoke Anyway’: A Qualitative Study of Community Mental Health Staff and Consumer Perspectives on the Role of Social and Living Environments in Tobacco Use and Cessation
an article by Laura Twyman (Tabacco Control Unit, Cancer Council NSW, Woolloomooloo, NSW, Australia; University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia), Carla Cowles (Human Capital Alliance, Potts Point, NSW, Australia), Scott C. Walsberger (Tabacco Control Unit, Cancer Council NSW, Woolloomooloo, NSW, Australia), Amanda L. Baker and Billie Bonevski (University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia) and the Tackling Tobacco Mental Health Advisory Group published by Frontiers in Psychiatry: Smoking and Schizophrenia research
Background
Addressing the high prevalence of tobacco use experienced by people with severe mental illness (SMI) requires consideration of the influence of wider cultural, socioeconomic and environmental factors. This qualitative study aimed to examine the impact of social and living environments on tobacco use and cessation by people with SMI accessing community managed mental health services. The perspectives of both staff and consumers with SMI were explored.
Methods
Semi-structured focus groups were undertaken with a purposive sample of community mental health staff and consumers from three sites in three major cities in NSW, Australia. Two sites provided outreach support, and one site provided residential support. Data were collected (2017–2018) until saturation was reached. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed, and thematic analysis was conducted.
Results
Thirty-one staff and 17 consumers participated separately in six focus groups. Themes identified by staff included a degree of fatalism, conceptualising tobacco use as choice rather than addiction and tensions between cessation support and broader models of care. Staff viewed smoke-free home and mental health service policies as effective at promoting quitting but contradictory to recovery-oriented models of care. Consumers identified smoking as an integral part of life and social networks, as a way of maintaining control and lack of social support to quit as key themes. While many consumers reported smoking inside the home, others described enforcing smoke-free rules.
Conclusion
Social and living environments played an integral role in tobacco use and cessation for both staff and consumers. The role of community managed mental health organisations in addressing tobacco use within social and living environments was not strongly supported by staff and sometimes seen as antithetical to recovery-oriented models of care. Potential ways to address this include education and training for prospective and current community mental health organisation staff highlighting the synergy between the recovery-oriented model and provision of preventive health support.
Full text (HTML) with access to (PDF 11pp) for download
Background
Addressing the high prevalence of tobacco use experienced by people with severe mental illness (SMI) requires consideration of the influence of wider cultural, socioeconomic and environmental factors. This qualitative study aimed to examine the impact of social and living environments on tobacco use and cessation by people with SMI accessing community managed mental health services. The perspectives of both staff and consumers with SMI were explored.
Methods
Semi-structured focus groups were undertaken with a purposive sample of community mental health staff and consumers from three sites in three major cities in NSW, Australia. Two sites provided outreach support, and one site provided residential support. Data were collected (2017–2018) until saturation was reached. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed, and thematic analysis was conducted.
Results
Thirty-one staff and 17 consumers participated separately in six focus groups. Themes identified by staff included a degree of fatalism, conceptualising tobacco use as choice rather than addiction and tensions between cessation support and broader models of care. Staff viewed smoke-free home and mental health service policies as effective at promoting quitting but contradictory to recovery-oriented models of care. Consumers identified smoking as an integral part of life and social networks, as a way of maintaining control and lack of social support to quit as key themes. While many consumers reported smoking inside the home, others described enforcing smoke-free rules.
Conclusion
Social and living environments played an integral role in tobacco use and cessation for both staff and consumers. The role of community managed mental health organisations in addressing tobacco use within social and living environments was not strongly supported by staff and sometimes seen as antithetical to recovery-oriented models of care. Potential ways to address this include education and training for prospective and current community mental health organisation staff highlighting the synergy between the recovery-oriented model and provision of preventive health support.
Full text (HTML) with access to (PDF 11pp) for download
Friday, 28 September 2018
25 ‘Harmless’ Comments That Actually Hurt People With Mental Illness
a post by Juliette Virzi for The Mighty [via World of Psychology’s Psychology Around the Net]
If you live with a mental illness, you might be familiar with some of the seemingly “harmless,” but incredibly hurtful things, people often say to those struggling with it.
Sometimes these “harmless” comments come in the form of a pointed question. (Have you taken your meds today?) Sometimes they come with a “solution” via personal anecdote. (Becky used to be depressed all the time, but once she lost weight, her depression totally went away.) Most often, they come from simply misunderstanding mental health struggles. And even though these “harmless” comments may come from a good place, they can often invalidate the struggles of someone living with a mental illness.
When someone with a mental illness opens up about their struggles, oftentimes they aren’t looking for your “solution,” “advice,” opinions, DIY healing guide, etc. — they may just be looking for someone to listen and be there.
We wanted to know what “harmless” comments people with mental illness have heard that actually hurt them, so we asked our mental health community to share one with us and explain what it feels like to hear it.
It’s important to remember what may seem “harmless” to one person may actually be hurtful to another. No matter what anyone says, your feelings are valid, and you deserve support.
Continue reading
If you live with a mental illness, you might be familiar with some of the seemingly “harmless,” but incredibly hurtful things, people often say to those struggling with it.
Sometimes these “harmless” comments come in the form of a pointed question. (Have you taken your meds today?) Sometimes they come with a “solution” via personal anecdote. (Becky used to be depressed all the time, but once she lost weight, her depression totally went away.) Most often, they come from simply misunderstanding mental health struggles. And even though these “harmless” comments may come from a good place, they can often invalidate the struggles of someone living with a mental illness.
When someone with a mental illness opens up about their struggles, oftentimes they aren’t looking for your “solution,” “advice,” opinions, DIY healing guide, etc. — they may just be looking for someone to listen and be there.
We wanted to know what “harmless” comments people with mental illness have heard that actually hurt them, so we asked our mental health community to share one with us and explain what it feels like to hear it.
It’s important to remember what may seem “harmless” to one person may actually be hurtful to another. No matter what anyone says, your feelings are valid, and you deserve support.
Continue reading
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Model can more naturally detect depression in conversations
a post by Rob Matheson for the Big Think blog
Neural network learns speech patterns that predict depression in clinical interviews
To diagnose depression, clinicians interview patients, asking specific questions — about, say, past mental illnesses, lifestyle, and mood — and identify the condition based on the patient’s responses.
In recent years, machine learning has been championed as a useful aid for diagnostics. Machine-learning models, for instance, have been developed that can detect words and intonations of speech that may indicate depression. But these models tend to predict that a person is depressed or not, based on the person’s specific answers to specific questions. These methods are accurate, but their reliance on the type of question being asked limits how and where they can be used.
In a paper being presented at the Interspeech conference, MIT researchers detail a neural-network model that can be unleashed on raw text and audio data from interviews to discover speech patterns indicative of depression. Given a new subject, it can accurately predict if the individual is depressed, without needing any other information about the questions and answers.
The researchers hope this method can be used to develop tools to detect signs of depression in natural conversation. In the future, the model could, for instance, power mobile apps that monitor a user’s text and voice for mental distress and send alerts. This could be especially useful for those who can’t get to a clinician for an initial diagnosis, due to distance, cost, or a lack of awareness that something may be wrong.
“The first hints we have that a person is happy, excited, sad, or has some serious cognitive condition, such as depression, is through their speech,” says first author Tuka Alhanai, a researcher in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “If you want to deploy [depression-detection] models in scalable way … you want to minimize the amount of constraints you have on the data you’re using. You want to deploy it in any regular conversation and have the model pick up, from the natural interaction, the state of the individual.”
Continue reading
I found this particularly interesting since I have recently had two phone assessments and the second one was to query the answers that I had put on the standard questionnaire. That one that asks how many days in the last two weeks have you ... ?
I find that particularly difficult. Did I feel miserable all day just once, did I feel miserable and unable to cope for part of every day etc?
Neural network learns speech patterns that predict depression in clinical interviews
To diagnose depression, clinicians interview patients, asking specific questions — about, say, past mental illnesses, lifestyle, and mood — and identify the condition based on the patient’s responses.
In recent years, machine learning has been championed as a useful aid for diagnostics. Machine-learning models, for instance, have been developed that can detect words and intonations of speech that may indicate depression. But these models tend to predict that a person is depressed or not, based on the person’s specific answers to specific questions. These methods are accurate, but their reliance on the type of question being asked limits how and where they can be used.
In a paper being presented at the Interspeech conference, MIT researchers detail a neural-network model that can be unleashed on raw text and audio data from interviews to discover speech patterns indicative of depression. Given a new subject, it can accurately predict if the individual is depressed, without needing any other information about the questions and answers.
The researchers hope this method can be used to develop tools to detect signs of depression in natural conversation. In the future, the model could, for instance, power mobile apps that monitor a user’s text and voice for mental distress and send alerts. This could be especially useful for those who can’t get to a clinician for an initial diagnosis, due to distance, cost, or a lack of awareness that something may be wrong.
“The first hints we have that a person is happy, excited, sad, or has some serious cognitive condition, such as depression, is through their speech,” says first author Tuka Alhanai, a researcher in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “If you want to deploy [depression-detection] models in scalable way … you want to minimize the amount of constraints you have on the data you’re using. You want to deploy it in any regular conversation and have the model pick up, from the natural interaction, the state of the individual.”
Continue reading
I found this particularly interesting since I have recently had two phone assessments and the second one was to query the answers that I had put on the standard questionnaire. That one that asks how many days in the last two weeks have you ... ?
I find that particularly difficult. Did I feel miserable all day just once, did I feel miserable and unable to cope for part of every day etc?
Friday, 24 August 2018
The Absence of Mental Illness Doesn't Equal Mental Health
a post by Naomi Vaida for the World of Psychology blog
In an increasingly globalized and mediatized world, in which mental illness is one of society’s most discussed cultural artifacts, Colleen Patrick Goudreau’s words ring out: “If we don’t have time to be sick, then we have to make time to be healthy”.
With the prevalence of mental health problems, it is clear why. Mental health issues are one of the leading causes of the overall disease burden globally, according to the World Health Organisation. One study reported that mental health is the primary source of disability worldwide, causing over 40 million years of disability in 20 to 29-year-olds.
Compared to previous generations, mental illness is now said to surpass the effects of the Black Death. The root causes of the unprecedented rise in people directly affected by mental illness, and the cost of this, can be considered across at least three levels of analysis.
Continue reading
In an increasingly globalized and mediatized world, in which mental illness is one of society’s most discussed cultural artifacts, Colleen Patrick Goudreau’s words ring out: “If we don’t have time to be sick, then we have to make time to be healthy”.
With the prevalence of mental health problems, it is clear why. Mental health issues are one of the leading causes of the overall disease burden globally, according to the World Health Organisation. One study reported that mental health is the primary source of disability worldwide, causing over 40 million years of disability in 20 to 29-year-olds.
Compared to previous generations, mental illness is now said to surpass the effects of the Black Death. The root causes of the unprecedented rise in people directly affected by mental illness, and the cost of this, can be considered across at least three levels of analysis.
Continue reading
Tuesday, 22 May 2018
‘Community Is Being Lost’: Mental Illness Campaigner Natasha Devon on the Ideas in Her Bold New Book
a post by Dylan Brethour for the Rights Info blog
Mental health and body image campaigner Natasha Devon MBE writes about mental illness, pill shaming, and getting fired by the government in her new book A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z From Anxiety to Zero F**cks Given.
“I very quickly realised that when the government says, ‘we consulted with experts,’ what they mean is ‘we’re going to go through experts until we find the one that’s going to back up what we were going to do anyway,’” Natasha Devon tells me. “And I wasn’t prepared to toe that line.”
We’re talking about her very public sacking by the Department of Education as a children’s mental health champion in 2016. Devon asserts that the relationship soured after she refused to rein in criticism of the government’s policies.
“I think it’s beyond dispute now that I’ve seen the freedom of information request,” she says, “I don’t think anyone would contest it.”
Continue reading
Mental health and body image campaigner Natasha Devon MBE writes about mental illness, pill shaming, and getting fired by the government in her new book A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z From Anxiety to Zero F**cks Given.
“I very quickly realised that when the government says, ‘we consulted with experts,’ what they mean is ‘we’re going to go through experts until we find the one that’s going to back up what we were going to do anyway,’” Natasha Devon tells me. “And I wasn’t prepared to toe that line.”
We’re talking about her very public sacking by the Department of Education as a children’s mental health champion in 2016. Devon asserts that the relationship soured after she refused to rein in criticism of the government’s policies.
“I think it’s beyond dispute now that I’ve seen the freedom of information request,” she says, “I don’t think anyone would contest it.”
Continue reading
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Identity, mental health and work: How employees with mental health conditions recount stigma and the pejorative discourse of mental illness
an article by Hadar Elraz (Cardiff University, UK) published in Human Relations Volume 71 Issue 5 (May 2018)
Abstract
This article asks how identity is constructed for individuals with mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace. It takes especial regard to how MHCs are discursively situated, constructed and reconstructed in the workplace.
Employees with MHCs face a difficult situation: not only do they need to deal with the stigma and discrimination commonly associated with MHCs, but they must also manage their health condition whilst adhering to organizational demands to demonstrate performance and commitment to work.
Discourse analysis derived from 32 interviews with individuals with MHCs delineates how these individuals feel both stigmatized and empowered by their MHCs.
The findings address three discursive strands:
Full text (PDF 20pp)
Abstract
This article asks how identity is constructed for individuals with mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace. It takes especial regard to how MHCs are discursively situated, constructed and reconstructed in the workplace.
Employees with MHCs face a difficult situation: not only do they need to deal with the stigma and discrimination commonly associated with MHCs, but they must also manage their health condition whilst adhering to organizational demands to demonstrate performance and commitment to work.
Discourse analysis derived from 32 interviews with individuals with MHCs delineates how these individuals feel both stigmatized and empowered by their MHCs.
The findings address three discursive strands:
- a pejorative construction of mental illness in employment and society;
- contesting mental illness at work by embracing mental health management skills; and
- recounting mental illness through public disclosure and change.
Full text (PDF 20pp)
Monday, 27 November 2017
We need to rethink how we classify mental illness
an article by Tamara Kayali Browne for the Guardian
Psychiatric diagnosis must serve an ethical purpose: relieving certain forms of suffering and disease. Science alone can’t do that
How do we decide what emotions, thoughts and behaviours are normal, abnormal or pathological?
This is essentially what a select group of psychiatrists decide each time they revise the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), considered a “bible” for mental health professionals worldwide.
But questions like this cannot be answered by scientists alone. This was famously demonstrated when homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the DSM in 1973. The decision was not based on new scientific evidence but came about due to pressure from activists. Cases such as this show the limitations of psychiatry and is where I believe philosophers, sociologists and ethicists could be of use.
Continue reading
Anyone, and I do mean anyone, who has ever been in contact with psychiatric diagnoses will find this interesting.
Psychiatric diagnosis must serve an ethical purpose: relieving certain forms of suffering and disease. Science alone can’t do that
How do we decide what emotions, thoughts and behaviours are normal, abnormal or pathological?
This is essentially what a select group of psychiatrists decide each time they revise the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), considered a “bible” for mental health professionals worldwide.
But questions like this cannot be answered by scientists alone. This was famously demonstrated when homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the DSM in 1973. The decision was not based on new scientific evidence but came about due to pressure from activists. Cases such as this show the limitations of psychiatry and is where I believe philosophers, sociologists and ethicists could be of use.
Continue reading
Anyone, and I do mean anyone, who has ever been in contact with psychiatric diagnoses will find this interesting.
Wednesday, 15 July 2015
An Evaluation of the Effects of Jail Diversion and Reentry for Mentally Ill Offenders
an article by Christine Tartaro (Richard Stockton College, Galloway, New Jersey, USA) published in Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume 54 Issue 2 (2015)
Abstract
Jewish Family Services (JFS) is a nonprofit agency that assists mentally ill offenders in southern New Jersey. In an effort to steer misdemeanants to treatment rather than jail or probation, JFS established agreements with police to provide pre- and post-booking diversion for misdemeanants whose offenses appear to be a product of mental illness.
JFS also participates in re-entry planning services for incarcerated mentally ill offenders who are serving county jail sentences.
Data were collected for cases involving clients who were diverted or participated in re-entry and people who were referred to JFS and either were ineligible for reasons other than criminal offense type or drug and alcohol addiction or were eligible but unable to be contacted by JFS.
Treatment participants remained in the community before being incarcerated for an average of 218 days longer than the members of the comparison group, and this difference remained statistically significant when controlling for other relevant variables.
Abstract
Jewish Family Services (JFS) is a nonprofit agency that assists mentally ill offenders in southern New Jersey. In an effort to steer misdemeanants to treatment rather than jail or probation, JFS established agreements with police to provide pre- and post-booking diversion for misdemeanants whose offenses appear to be a product of mental illness.
JFS also participates in re-entry planning services for incarcerated mentally ill offenders who are serving county jail sentences.
Data were collected for cases involving clients who were diverted or participated in re-entry and people who were referred to JFS and either were ineligible for reasons other than criminal offense type or drug and alcohol addiction or were eligible but unable to be contacted by JFS.
Treatment participants remained in the community before being incarcerated for an average of 218 days longer than the members of the comparison group, and this difference remained statistically significant when controlling for other relevant variables.
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Mindfulness Meditation as an Adjunct Approach to Treatment Within the Correctional System
an article by Terra Dafoe and Lana Stermac (Ontario Institute of Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Canada) published in Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume 52 Issue 3 (April 2013)
Abstract
Cognitive-behavioural therapy and relapse prevention represent the correctional gold standard in treatment, while the principles of risk, need, and responsivity are widely recognised as essential for reducing recidivism.
Addressing responsivity has become difficult as the number of inmates with mental health diagnoses continues to rise, complicating treatment programming and highlighting the need for adjunct, complementary therapies.
Mindfulness has been shown to be effective across a number of clinical populations found within correctional settings.
Furthermore, it has been shown to be effective for working with difficulties identified as dynamic, criminogenic needs; for example, self-regulation.
The present article reviews mindfulness research with the goal of demonstrating the utility of this adjunct approach to working with individuals residing within the correctional system.
Abstract
Cognitive-behavioural therapy and relapse prevention represent the correctional gold standard in treatment, while the principles of risk, need, and responsivity are widely recognised as essential for reducing recidivism.
Addressing responsivity has become difficult as the number of inmates with mental health diagnoses continues to rise, complicating treatment programming and highlighting the need for adjunct, complementary therapies.
Mindfulness has been shown to be effective across a number of clinical populations found within correctional settings.
Furthermore, it has been shown to be effective for working with difficulties identified as dynamic, criminogenic needs; for example, self-regulation.
The present article reviews mindfulness research with the goal of demonstrating the utility of this adjunct approach to working with individuals residing within the correctional system.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
“Every individual has his own insanity”: Applying Vygotsky's work on defectology to the question of mental health as an issue of inclusion
an article by Peter Smagorinsky (The University of Georgia, USA) published in Learning, Culture and Social Interaction Volume 1 Issue 2 (June 2012)
Abstract
In Volume 2 of the Collected Works, Vygotsky argues for more inclusive treatment of people who depart from the developmental norm.
In this essay I review facets of his approach and discuss how they may inform current attention to extranormative mental health makeups, e.g., tendencies toward depression, anxiety, bipolarity, and related neurological influences on personality.
I focus on the following sets of Vygotskian tenets:
Abstract
In Volume 2 of the Collected Works, Vygotsky argues for more inclusive treatment of people who depart from the developmental norm.
In this essay I review facets of his approach and discuss how they may inform current attention to extranormative mental health makeups, e.g., tendencies toward depression, anxiety, bipolarity, and related neurological influences on personality.
I focus on the following sets of Vygotskian tenets:
- his belief that mental and cognitive differences do not comprise defects or deficiencies, but rather present developmental channels that depart from the evolutionary norm;
- his assertion that “secondary disabilities” resulting from stigmatization related to difference produce more deleterious effects on one than does the source of difference itself;
- his belief that feelings of inadequacy, if socially channeled toward productive roundabout means of mediation, can productively promote human growth within existing cultural channels; and
- his conviction that the goal of education and human development is to promote progress toward a culture’s higher mental functions – i.e., those ways of thinking endemic to particular cultural orientations to the world – rather than to remediate sources of difference.
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