There's an illuminating piece in the Times today, based on a letter published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, claiming that too many people with a mental illness are being "jollied along" rather than receiving treatment.
There were one or two things that caught my eye about this story. The second paragraph reads:
The article goes on to say that this group of psychiatrists believe treatment has been undermined by the desire not to stigmatise people, saying: "Treatments are provided at "mental health" centres, not mental illness clinics."
But isn't stigma rather important? Don't many service users think it is as bad as having the illness? But then this group of psychiatrists believe we should dump the term "service users" in favour of "patients".
While accepting that there is a place for "psychosocial treatment" the psychiatrists believe that all patients should be seen by a psychiatrist first, so decisions can be made about drugs or behavioural therapies.
I would be interested to know what approved social workers think about the article. Fighting Monsters has already commented on it:
"The doctors say that patients with serious problems are often referred to psychologists and social workers rather than clinicians and do not receive the medical therapies they need."Surely for those with lower level needs, a psychologist or social worker may well be more appropriate? And isn't there a bit of sniffiness going on here?
The article goes on to say that this group of psychiatrists believe treatment has been undermined by the desire not to stigmatise people, saying: "Treatments are provided at "mental health" centres, not mental illness clinics."
But isn't stigma rather important? Don't many service users think it is as bad as having the illness? But then this group of psychiatrists believe we should dump the term "service users" in favour of "patients".
While accepting that there is a place for "psychosocial treatment" the psychiatrists believe that all patients should be seen by a psychiatrist first, so decisions can be made about drugs or behavioural therapies.
I would be interested to know what approved social workers think about the article. Fighting Monsters has already commented on it:
"I can't say I speak for all multi-disciplinary teams in the country but although I'm not a medic or medically trained, I'd like to think I can recognise areas of concern and bring a psychiatrist in very quickly when required (and sometimes when not required - I tend to play safe) . I don't need to diagnose in order to recognise."