Person-centred care and psychiatry: some key perspectives.

This paper outlines the importance of person-centred approaches to the practice of contemporary medicine and psychiatry. In considering the many aspects of person-centred approaches it outlines some key perspectives, including freedom and human rights; improving individual practice and the quality of services; increasing clinicians' work satisfaction; combining value-based and evidence-based practice; and the training of future generations of psychiatrists.

Dismantling the social safety net: social security reforms, disability and mental health conditions.

This article examines the effects of UK welfare reform since 2008 on people with mental health conditions and disabilities. The results have been profound, particularly during a time of economic austerity, damaging the social safety net and pushing many vulnerable people into poverty and hardship. It has perpetuated inequalities and increased the social exclusion of disabled groups.

Mental Health and Social Care and Social Interventions.

In common parlance, the term 'social' is used in many senses ranging from the way society is organised to the rank or status someone has in society; to activities that involve meeting with other people; to the experience, behaviour and interaction of persons forming groups; and to promoting companionship and communal activities. [..

Implementing Supported Employment. Lessons from the .

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an internationally accepted and effective form of supported employment for people with severe mental health conditions. Despite its strong evidence base, the implementation of IPS has been slow and inconsistent. In England, a demonstration project, , was developed to offer support for the implementation of IPS in six local sites National Health Service Mental Health trusts.

Routine outcome measurement: recovery, quality of life and co-production.

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are self-rated, but may not take in other aspects of the patient's perspective, such as the inclusion of domains that reflect service-user priorities. The clinician's view still has priority, although this situation has shifted in recent years. The Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) offers an advance in this area.

Debating personal health budgets.

Personal health budgets (PHBs) were piloted in the National Health Service (NHS) in England between 2009 and 2012 and were found to have greater positive effects on quality of life and psychological well-being for those with mental health problems than commissioned service, as well as reducing their use of unplanned care. The government intends to extend PHBs in England for long-term conditions, including mental health, from April 2015. Given the importance of engaging clinicians in the next phase of PHB development, we provide an overview of the approach, synthesise the evidence from the national pilot and debate some of the opportunities and challenges.

Mental health and poverty in the UK - time for change?

Poverty and income inequality have increased in the UK since the 1970s. Poverty and mental ill-health are closely associated and disadvantage can have long-term consequences. In addition, the recent recession and austerity measures have had a detrimental effect on people with mental health problems and the mental health of the population.

Diaspora and peer support working: benefits of and challenges for the Butabika-East London Link.

The International Health Partnership ('the Link') between the East London NHS Foundation Trust and Butabika Hospital in Uganda was set up in 2005. It has facilitated staff exchanges and set up many workstreams (e.g.

Difficulties in implementing supported employment for people with severe mental health problems.

People with severe mental health problems have low rates of open employment. Despite good evidence for the effectiveness of Individual Placement and Support (IPS), these schemes are not widely implemented. Their implementation is hampered by clinician and societal attitudes and the effect of organisational context on implementing IPS schemes with sufficient fidelity.

RECOVERY: Implementing recovery in mental health services.

The ideas of 'recovery' arise from the experiences of people with mental health problems. The recovery approach emerged in the North American civil rights and consumer and survivor movements from the 1970s onwards. It is concerned with social justice, individual rights, citizenship, equality, freedom from prejudice and discrimination.

Friendship in people with schizophrenia: a survey.

Objective: To explore the quantitative and qualitative aspects of friendship in people with schizophrenia. To examine emotional and behavioural commitment, experiences of stigma, and the impact of illness factors that may affect the making and keeping of friends. The difference in the perception between the researcher and participants of the presence of problems in friendships was also investigated.

Can a self-referral system help improve access to psychological treatments?

Referrals for psychological treatment have been problematic for many years. Even though GPs have attempted to limit access into the small psychological treatment services, long waiting lists have developed which have deterred referrals and deferred psychological care. GPs have understandably been frustrated.

Sexual problems in schizophrenia: prevalence and characteristics. A cross sectional survey.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of psychosexual problems in people with schizophrenia, and to compare the subjects' and researcher's perceptions of the presence of these problems.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 137 people with established schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, aged 18-65 in one geographical area of southeast England, using a semi-structured interview format.

Results: A total of 74% of men and 82% of women reported at least one ICD-10 defined sexual problem.

In-patient and residential alternatives to standard acute psychiatric wards in England.

Background: Acute psychiatric wards have been the focus of widespread dissatisfaction. Residential alternatives have attracted much interest, but little research, over the past 50 years.

Aims: Our aims were to identify all in-patient and residential alternatives to standard acute psychiatric wards in England, to develop a typology of such services and to describe their distribution and clinical populations.

Can the effects of a 1-day CBT psychoeducational workshop on self-confidence be maintained after 2 years? A naturalistic study.

The continued high prevalence of depression in the general population has been in part attributed to a reluctance to consult and also to the limited capacity of psychological therapy services. In a previous randomized controlled trial, self-referral day-long workshops, each for 25 people, offering a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach, seemed to be effective at 3-month follow-up [Brown et al., 2004].

Reluctance to seek help and the perception of anxiety and depression in the United kingdom: a pilot vignette study.

We investigated if reluctance to seek help could be explained by how people perceive an illness. Participants were members of the general public who had experienced mental health problems, for which approximately half had sought professional help. We asked them to rate the problems of 2 vignette characters using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ).

Integrating mental health into primary health care: local initiatives from Uganda.

Uganda has passed through political and bloody civil strife stretching over 40 years. Since 1987 the HIV/AIDS pandemic has compounded the problems of the country. The present paper describes some initiatives to develop mental health services in one district of the country.

Attitudes towards mental illness in Uganda: a survey in 18 districts.

Uganda, in common with many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has many population risk factors predictive of high levels of mental disorder but poor coverage of mental healthcare (Kigozi, 2005). Recent population studies conducted in Uganda have shown rates of disorder in excess of 20% (Kasoro , 2002; Bolton , 2004; Ovuga , 2005) and the survey by Kasoro (2002) showed a high prevalence of patients with severe mental illness and poor access to services. There are 19 psychiatrists for 24.