Tag: mental health
What exactly is support?
Over the years I have come to appreciate that patients in psychiatric services very much value support. I’ve been wondering ‘What does support mean?‘ Hold on – I know that everybody knows support when they feel it. That would not inform me what aspects of support make it real or valid. Mental health workers and services without doubt need to provide support. Support can vary across various types of activities e.g. emotional support, advice, guidance, therapy etc. That does notRead More …
Strange medical treatments in history
This post was inspired by a non-medical colleague – initials L.R. See Hysteria, physician assisted paroxysms and sexual relations which follows up on this post. The practice of medicine is built on ‘belief’ in treatments. History shows us how misplaced beliefs led to some horrific treatments, mistakes and death. Many of the treatments now considered “weird” or “outdated” were conceived and implemented in an era before the establishment of rigorous scientific methodologies that are now a cornerstone of modern medicine. HereRead More …
Pandemic lash on mental health
This article will deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. It is important at the outset to briefly review how the pandemic was realised, appreciate the depth and breath of the impact on health services in general – then drill down into what happened with mental health. I will focus on what economic stress may mean for the future. This post is a foundation for the follow up post: Health debt – the post-pandemic trauma. PreambleRead More …