August 2008 Archives


The New York Times has a piece on Truman Show syndrome - apparently a growing number of psychotic patients believe they are part of a Truman Show type scenario, in which their every waking moment is being filmed as part of some sort of reality show.
Here's a good quote from a press release promoting a book about the experience of two psychiatrists visiting a UFO convention:

"We were particularly looking forward to the UFO Festival in Roswell as a rare opportunity to observe weirdness recreationally, without the expectation we would do anything about it,"

There's an interesting post on User Watch about the state of the mental health system in the UK.


I know there are a lot of problems with psychiatric inpatient care in the UK but I'd like to think it can't sink the levels illustrated by this story from the USA, in which a patient died after being left sitting in a chair for 22 hours without food or water.


Stress is maybe more damaging than people think, according to Scientific American. Social workers take note!

It doesn't happen often so it's worth celebrating - the Mail has a positive story about a social worker.
Is your boss an inspiring leader? Ok, stupid question. Well, apparently leadership at work can affect your mental health, according to research. It found "moderately strong" evidence linking good leadership at work with improved wellbeing among staff and less sick days.
While psychotherapy may not help all depressed people, the loss of psychiatrists practicing psychotherapy means the loss of basic common sense in psychiatry about depression.
This is a quote from a good piece in the Huffington Post by clinical psychologist Bruce E Levine about the recent finding that there has been a major shift among US psychiatrists from psychotherapy to drugs. Unsurprisingly, the major reason for the shift is money, says Levine.
While Mad World focuses on mental health type issues, it comes at them from a social work perspective, being born of Community Care.
Hallucinogens to treat mental and other illnesses? It's being researched at the moment with potentially positive results, according to the Guardian.
First up - do you fancy watching a tear-jerking video about a lion? If you do - here it is, it's lovely. 
There's a conference going on in the near future, which aims to provide a practical guide to "lean thinking" and "six sigma" as they apply to mental health.

China is hardly covering embodying the Olympic spirit with its ban on people travelling to the country to watch the games for people who have a mental illness, AIDS or some other diseases, says a story on a New Zealand site

Interesting follow-up to yesterday's story about the declining practice of psychotherapy among US psychiatrists.


Will the economic downturn actually make people happier, because they have less money to go out and therefore will have to spend more time with their families?
There's a good piece by Dr Julian Tudor Hart on WalesOnline reflecting on mental health, mental health care and medication.

There's a story on the BBC about a man suffering a mental health crisis, who when he went for help was told to drink warm milk by health professionals. I wonder if this story is all that uncommon and whether there are a lot of people out there who are not getting the crisis service they need.

About Mad World

   
 

Mad World highlights the latest research, policy and debate about all things mental health along with some social work stuff and the odd piece of random nonsense, just to keep you on your toes.

It is written by community editor Simeon Brody.

  Mad World home
     
  Follow Mad World on Twitter Follow Mad World on Twitter
     

How to get in touch

     
  Email: Simeon Brody
     

More from Community Care

 

 

Keep up to date

  Enter your email address, in the box below, to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Powered by MT-Notifier

  Subscribe to this blogs feed 

Subscribe to our blog RSS feed