Don’t turn away—a book not just to be read, but to be acted on

Slowly, inexorably the optimism evaporated within: … a demoralised institutional culture that is clinging to the false comfort of rigidly following bureaucratic guidelines while losing the capacity to think independently, to assert that mental health services are different, and to advocate on behalf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBMJ (Online) Vol. 379; p. o2803
Main Author Heath, Iona
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London British Medical Journal Publishing Group 18.11.2022
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
Subjects
Cognitive ability
Health services
Mental disorders
Mental health
Mental health care
Opinion
Patients
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Summary:Slowly, inexorably the optimism evaporated within: … a demoralised institutional culture that is clinging to the false comfort of rigidly following bureaucratic guidelines while losing the capacity to think independently, to assert that mental health services are different, and to advocate on behalf of its patients. A huge amount of energy is focused on keeping patients out of the system: devising exclusion criteria to restrict access; limiting clinical engagement by restricting length of sessions and duration of contact; and endlessly driving bed numbers down even further. [...]few of those with severe mental illness have ever been given the attention they need, least of all by mental health services and those, like Penelope Campling, who try to do this are hemmed in and systematically undermined by the way services are structured and delivered.
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Editorial-2
ObjectType-Commentary-1
ISSN:1756-1833
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.o2803