In the last two decades, new communication technologies have dramatically changed the world in which mental health professionals and their patients live. Developments such as e-mail, online chat groups, Web pages, search engines, and electronic databases are directly or indirectly affecting most people's routines and expectations. Other developments are poised to do so in the near future. Already, for example, patients are acquiring both good and bad advice and information on the Web; many expect to be able to reach their therapists by e-mail. And already there is pressure from third party payers for providers to submit claims electronically.

These technological breakthroughs have the potential to make mental health care more widely available and accessible, affordable, acceptable to patients, and adaptable to special needs. But many mental health professionals, as well as those who train them, are skeptical about integrating the new capabilities into their services and question the ethical and legal appropriateness of doing so. Those unfamiliar with the technologies tend to be particularly doubtful. How much e-mail contact with patients should I encourage or permit, and for what purposes? Why should I set up a Web site and how do I do so and what should I put on it? Should I refer patients to chat groups or Web-based discussion forums? Could video-conferencing be a helpful tool in some cases and what is involved? How do I avoid trouble if I dare to experiment with innovations? And last but not least, will the results of my experimentation be cost-effective?

The book includes:

• an extensive overview of legal and regulatory issues, such as those raised by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA);
• concrete technical, ethical, and managerial suggestions summarized in a seven-step Online Consultation Risk Management model; and
• how to" resource lists and sample documents of use to beginners and experienced professionals alike.

For better or worse, no mental health professional today can avoid confronting the issues presented by the new technologies. The Mental Health Professional and the New Technologies: A Handbook for Practice Today will enormously simplify the job of thinking through the issues and making clinically, ethically, and legally prudent decisions.

In recent years, a growing number of children and adults have been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological condition characterized by severe difficulties with social communication. While extremely talented in their areas of special interest, many with the diagnosis also have problems with coordination and sensory processing. Professionals and families struggle to help them function competently and make the most of their unique abilities.
This readable and practical book synthesizes the latest knowledge about how to do so in various contexts from early childhood on. The authors include psychologists, psychiatrists, special educators, an occupational therapist, a specialist in communication disorders, and a lawyer, with diverse philosophies and methods of intervention. They suggest a variety of ways to help those with Asperger's adapt to the "neurotypical" world, and to bridge the social chasms that can develop as they are integrated into schools, organizations, and communities.
"Asperger's Syndrome: Intervening in Schools, Clinics, and Communities" constitutes a vital new resource for all those who seek to improve the lives of individuals with the syndrome.

In the real world, caseloads include clients with substance abuse, psychiatric, and co-occurring disorders. Here you'll find reliable information and informative case examples to help you manage your caseload more effectively! Caseloads that include mental health, substance use, and co-occurring disorders are becoming more and more common, yet most texts in this area focus on one specific type of disorder. This unique handbook reflects the reality facing mental health and substance abuse professionals in their daily practices, focusing on how to effectively manage caseloads that include individuals with vastly differing levels of functioning. Providing diagnostic criteria, treatment regimens, and a great deal more, Treating Co-Occurring Disorders: A Handbook for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals is an exceptional single source for useful information on handling all of these types of cases and clients. Treating Co-Occurring Disorders: A Handbook for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals describes the psychiatric and substance use disorders that commonly co-occur and examines the evolution of co-occurring concepts and treatment. It provides an overview of relapse prevention and symptom management models for use with clients with co-occurring disorders and another covering mental health and substance abuse recovery movements. Treating Co-Occurring Disorders: A Handbook for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals will bring you closer to topics that impact day-to-day practice, including: conducting comprehensive assessments for individuals with psychiatric and substance use symptoms providing individual, group, family, and case management interventions for clients of differing levels of function who exhibit psychiatric and substance abuse symptoms identifying standard interventions for all clients with co-occurring disorders measuring change and establishing reasonable treatment outcome performance standards for these clients supervising staff who work with multifarious caseloads From the authors: Currently, most mental health and substance abuse professionals are aware of how to effectively assess and treat individuals with diagnoses for which they were trained. However, few therapists exclusively have clients who manifest only psychiatric or substance abuse symptoms. This book provides information and case examples concerning how to effectively manage a caseload composed of individuals with substance abuse, psychiatric, and co-occurring disorders. It presents strategies for providing comprehensive assessments for these individuals. Additionally, it describes how to provide effective case management as well as individual, group, and family treatment for individuals with multiple disorders and levels of function, and provides information on interacting effectively with the mental health and substance abuse recovery communities. Tables, figures, and a generous portion of intriguing case descriptions will help you apply the information in this useful volume to your own work.

Contents:
A Systematic Literature Review Section. Quantifying Associations Between Social Position and the Common Mental Disorders in Britain Section. Ethnicity and Common Mental Disorders Section. Bullet Points and Executive Summary.

Discover the importance of family in the treatment of schizophrenia!
Family Involvement in Treating Schizophrenia: Models, Essential Skills, and Process is a vital resource for developing clinical skills and programs designed to increase family involvement in the treatment of schizophrenia. The book is a "hands-on" learning tool to be used as a broad overview of many intervention models and/or for a more focused look at a particular model with details of its use, implementation, and effectiveness. Dr. James A. Marley presents case studies and vignettes of each intervention model in action, highlighting specific techniques and skills. He also examines self-help and family advocacy programs, and addresses professional issues that have a direct impact on the provision of family services.
Family Involvement in Treating Schizophrenia: Models, Essential Skills, and Process examines the practical application of family therapy when working with families coping with schizophrenia. The book addresses the importance of family involvement, the different types of intervention models that best serve the family, the founding principles behind the major intervention models, how to design and implement the right model, and how family issues impact service delivery. It includes recommendations for additional reading and listings of related Internet resources. Among the therapies examined include: psychodynamic Bowenian experiential structural strategic systemic/Milan cognitive-behavioral narrative solution-focused multiple families psychoeducational Family Involvement in Treating Schizophrenia: Models, Essential Skills, and Process is a primary source of information for clinicians and studentsthat's equally effective as a professional resource and as a textbook. The book is invaluable as an aid to developing sensitivity to the special needs of families coping with this debilitating disorder.

Health and Suffering in America analyzes how we came to see various forms of suffering as "mental illness," and argues that social and historical dynamics, not scientific discovery, gave us this notion. Robert Fancher argues that the beliefs of mental health professionals have less to do with science than with the professions' own values and ideologies. The image we have of mental health care hides vast realms of unexamined assumptions. In effect, the author maintains that "mental health" consists of mental health professionals' ideas about how people ought to live and act, not discoveries about human nature.

The body of the book consists of detailed analyses and critiques of four influential American cultures of therapy: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive therapy, and biological therapy. Fancher emphasizes how heavily their concepts and methods are determined by their cultures rather than by empirical data. Furthermore, our notions of mental health are not scientific discoveries, but moral ideals. Yet mental health workers often fail to understand this. As a result, they misunderstand their own authority and, worse, fail to subject their moral ideals to appropriate moral and cultural criticism.

The new introduction by the author explores how the rise of managed health care coalesces with insistence on parity for mental health problems, supported by continuing claims that mental health care is science-based.

According to the National Service Framework for mental health published by the Department of Health in 1999 black and minority ethnic communities have little confidence in mental health services. Cultural Diversity, Mental Health and Psychiatry examines how and why this situation has come about, and makes specific practical, often surprising, suggestions for changing the status quo.
In his latest and most critical analysis, Suman Fernando reflects on the current situation in light of his own personal experience, academic research and anecdotal reports. He weaves together themes of immense importance for the future of psychiatry and mental health services in a multi-cultural setting, exploring:
· the nature of racism and its permeation into mental health services
· the inside story of the struggle against racism in statutory and voluntary sectors of the mental health system
· the history of psychiatry and the role of spirituality, holistic thinking, psychotherapy and Asian traditions of medicine.
Trainees, practitioners, and managers of mental health services will profit from the practical application of Fernando's ideas, and students and academics will benefit from his theoretical guidance.

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Originally published in English in 1986, these volumes are far more than the story of the life of a powerful statesman. The name Bismarck sums up the entire political, social, economic and intellectual development of central Europe in the second half of the 19th Century and the internal and external shape that Germany then assumed. This book analyses how much of this was Bismarck's personal achievement or whether he was the man who put the nation on the disastrously wrong course that reached its fateful culmination in 1933? It examines whether Bismarck's success was precisely because he implemented policies for which the time was ripe and did so in ways that were in harmony with the historical evolution of central Europe.

Although best known as a disseminator of Freudian and Kleinian ideas, the author also contributed important and original material to the body of psychoanalytic literature. This volume presents some of this material and highlights the importance of the author's contribution.

Consumer-run organizations and other types of mental health self-help are becoming increasingly popular in the public mental health system. These initiatives now outnumber traditional mental health organizations in the US (Goldstrom et al., 2006). This growth is due in large part to their low cost, devoted supporters, burgeoning evidence base, and increased acceptance by mental health professionals. International interest in these initiatives is also growing as self-help is flourishing in industrialized countries worldwide. I recently edited a special issue on mental health self-help for the American Journal of Community Psychology and we received submissions from five continents, with exciting work coming out of China, Australia, and Europe. The proposed book develops a rich theoretical model called the Role Framework, which explains how people engage in and benefit from mental health consumer-run organizations (CROs).

Satire plays a prominent and often controversial role in postcolonial fictions. Satire and the Postcolonial Novel offers the first study of this topic, employing the insights of postcolonial comparative theories to revisit Western formulations of 'satire' and the 'satiric'.
Through the varying lenses provided by satire's relation to irony, allegory, narrative and the grotesque, this book offers new readings of important novels by V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) and Salman Rushdie (India). It presents a detailed study of the complex and multidirectional ways satire has engaged with the history and messy aftermath of empire.

Friendship, Love, and Hip Hop investigates how young Black men live and change inside a mental institution in contemporary America. While the youth in Hejtmanek's study face the rigidity of institutionalized life, they also productively maneuver through what the author analyzes as the 'give' - friendship, love, and hip hop - in the system.

Culturally Diverse Mental Health ventures beyond the issues of traditionally conceptualized ethnic populations - African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and American Indians - and broadly defines multiculturalism to include other often overlooked and non-ethnic populations. In this comprehensive text, leading experts in the field unite and explore the mental health concerns of women, gays and lesbians, the deaf, the elderly, and religiously diverse populations while also examining issues particular to bi-racial individuals, and differences within and between various cultures. The authors present an extensive literature review across chapters that elucidates the relevant mental health research, as well as valuable intervention strategies essential to the treatment of culturally diverse individuals. A vital resource for students and therapists treating multicultural populations, as well as anyone interested in developing multicultural sensitivity, this text provides critical insight into the widespread resistance to multiculturalism and poses suggestions for the future that will encourage knowledge, sensitivity, and awarenesss to an increasingly multicultural society.

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This book deals with problems related to the analysis and treatment of borderline and psychosomatic patients. It demonstrates how psychoanalytic practice has had to accomodate the range of "borderline syndromes" and produce new models of theory and treatment.

This book describes how neural circuitry develops epigenetically, in a manner that directly reflects early environmental influences. It provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field, and discusses the structure and function of memory.

Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Causes of Dementia in Younger People 3. Assessment and Referral 4. Treatments for Dementia 5. Occupational Therapy Interventions 6. Psychological Interventions 7. Social Worker and Social Care: Roles and Intervention 8. Multi-Agency Working 9. Views of Users and Carers 10. Planning Services for Younger People with Dementia 11. Day Care and Outreach Interventions 12. Support for Patients 13. Support for Families 14. Links with Other Health Services 15. Multi-agency Working 16. Views of Users and Carers

Culturally Diverse Mental Health ventures beyond the issues of traditionally conceptualized ethnic populations - African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and American Indians - and broadly defines multiculturalism to include other often overlooked and non-ethnic populations. In this comprehensive text, leading experts in the field unite and explore the mental health concerns of women, gays and lesbians, the deaf, the elderly, and religiously diverse populations while also examining issues particular to bi-racial individuals, and differences within and between various cultures. The authors present an extensive literature review across chapters that elucidates the relevant mental health research, as well as valuable intervention strategies essential to the treatment of culturally diverse individuals. A vital resource for students and therapists treating multicultural populations, as well as anyone interested in developing multicultural sensitivity, this text provides critical insight into the widespread resistance to multiculturalism and poses suggestions for the future that will encourage knowledge, sensitivity, and awarenesss to an increasingly multicultural society.

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This book contributes to the scientific and ideological debate on child sexual abuse and illuminates the trainer practitioner in the process by recognizing that human services training is built on the ideology and values of the sponsoring organisation, the participants, and the trainer.

Deaf adults and children, like their hearing counterparts, experience a full range of mental health problems. They develop psychoses, sink into deep depressions, abuse alcohol and drugs, commit sexual offenses, or simply have trouble adjusting to new life situations. But when a deaf client appears on the doorstep of an ordinary hospital, residential facility, clinic, or office, panic often ensues. Mental Health Care of Deaf People: A Culturally Affirmative Approach, offers much-needed help to clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and other mental health professionals--and to their program administrators. The editors, a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and the authors, leading authorities with a variety of expertises, systematically review the special needs of deaf patients, particularly those who regard themselves as "culturally Deaf," and provide professionals with the tools they need to meet those needs. Among these tools is an extensive "library" of pictorial questionnaires and information sheets developed by one of the very few psychiatric units in the country devoted to the deaf. These handouts greatly simplify the processes involved in the diagnosis and treatment of people who in many cases are not good readers--for example, explaining medication and inquiring about side-effects. The handouts are reproduced on downloadable resources, to enable purchasers to print out and use copies in their work. This comprehensive clinical guide and its accompanying downloadable resources constitute vital resources for all those who seek to provide sensitive, effective mental health care to deaf people.

The first book to focus on measuring the basic processes of mental healthcare, such as access, detection, treatment appropriateness, safety and continuity of care, "Improving Mental Healthcare: A Guide to Measurement-Based Quality Improvement" integrates practical information about quality measures& mdash;such as their clinical logic, validity and basis in scientific evidence& mdash;into a highly readable guide on how to implement measures and use the results to improve quality of care.

"Improving Mental Healthcare" examines the clinical, policy, and scientific underpinnings of process measurement, a widely used method of assessing quality of mental healthcare. It describes the use of measurement to improve quality, promote accountability, encourage evidence-based practice, and shape incentives to favor delivery of high-quality care.

Divided into two sections totaling 14 chapters, the first section describes factors that led to a nationwide emphasis on improving quality of care, major approaches to quality assessment, considerations in selecting measures, as well as how to analyze and interpret measure results. The second section summarizes information on more than 300 quality measures, including their clinical rationale, specifications, sources of data, supporting evidence, readiness for use, and& mdash;where available& mdash;data on reliability, validity, results, case-mix adjustment, standards, and benchmarks.

"Improving Mental Healthcare" helps clinicians, managers, administrators, payers, purchasers, accreditors, consumer groups, and other stakeholders meet national mandates to assess and improve quality of care by providing the following tools and guidance: Results fromthe National Inventory of Mental Health Quality Measures, a federally funded study summarizing clinical, technical, and scientific properties of more than 300 process measures A user-friendly format that helps potential measure users find quality measures that reflect their priorities and meet their needs Guidance for healthcare organizations and clinicians on how to integrate measurement into a comprehensive approach to quality management An understanding of the relationship between process measurement and other approaches to quality assessment, in particular outcomes assessment-the focus of a companion guide, "Outcome Measurement in Psychiatry: A Critical Review" (APPI 2002)

"Improving Mental Healthcare," which includes extensive references as well as useful figures and tables illustrating key concepts, is essential reading for practicing clinicians, healthcare managers, medical students and psychiatric residents& mdash;who must now meet ACGME requirements to learn about quality assessment and improvement& mdash;as well as members of oversight organizations and consumer advocacy groups. It will prove invaluable for healthcare organizations seeking to improve quality of care, clinical training programs, and courses on quality assessment, healthcare management, and mental health policy.

This is a masterful effort to recognize and place the prison and asylums in their social contexts. Rothman shows that the complexity of their history can be unraveled and usefully interpreted. By identifying the salient influences that converged in the tumultuous 1820s and 1830s that led to a particular ideology in the development of prisons and asylums, Rothman provides a compelling argument that is historically informed and socially instructive. He weaves a comprehensive story that sets forth and portrays a series of interrelated events, influences, and circumstances that are shown to be connected to the development of prisons and asylums. Rothman demonstrates that meaningful historical interpretation must be based upon not one but a series of historical events and circumstances, their connections and ultimate consequences. Thus, the history of prisons and asylums in the youthful United States is revealed to be complex but not so complex that it cannot be disentangled, described, understood, and applied.

This reissue of a classic study addresses a core concern of social historians and criminal justice professionals: Why in the early nineteenth century did a single generation of Americans resort for the first time to institutional care for its convicts, mentally ill, juvenile delinquents, orphans, and adult poor? Rothman's compelling analysis links this phenomenon to a desperate effort by democratic society to instill a new social order as it perceived the loosening of family, church, and community bonds. As debate persists on the wisdom and effectiveness of these inherited solutions, The Discovery of the Asylum offers a fascinating reflection on our past as well as a source of inspiration for a new century of students and professionals in criminal justice, corrections, social history, and law enforcement.

At a time of huge pressures on mental health services, this highly topical, broad-ranging and thought-provoking analysis of the mental health crisis examines the current challenges in mental health service delivery and access using a range of perspectives (political, economic, and cultural, organisational issues). It then puts forward a number of alternatives, reviewing both current and alternative initiatives, and exploring what is needed for a mentally healthy society.

This innovative text focuses on a key aspect of community mental health care -- Intensive Home Treatment (IHT). It examines the issues surrounding the provision of home treatment to individuals as an alternative to psychiatric admission. Divided into three parts the book discusses current practice in the UK, then describes some of the clinical approaches and interventions used in home treatment and goes on to explore the impact of interagency and interprofessional issues on the day to day working of home treatment services. Neil Brimblecombe has drawn together the work of a wide range of mental health professionals including nurses, social workers and psychiatrists to provide those who work in this progressive field an authoritative and comprehensive text which they will find invaluable as they develop their practice and provision of home treatments.

Replacing the successful "Working with Dementia", this edition draws together many new ideas and practical approaches from a wide variety of professionals working at the leading edge of the provision of services to people with dementia and provides a comprehensive account of current best practice. Beginning with the diagnosis of dementia and other problems associated with aging, this book considers assessment, the person centered model of dementia, rehabilitation and therapy. It outlines practical interventions, illustrated with case studies that provide a stimulating insight into contemporary understanding and practice. Nursing staff, occupational therapists, residential care workers, social workers and all those in day-to-day contact with elderly people will be inspired by this vital handbook for all care staff.

Mental health care increasingly faces a challenge to be 'evidence based'. However, despite much policy activity in the UK, it's still not clear what sort of evidence researchers should be producing for mental health services, or what purchasers should be looking for. Evidence in Mental Health Care evaluates a range of different research methodologies and types of 'evidence', and includes:
* a historical and conceptual analysis of what was regarded as evidence in the past, and what impact it has had in mental health care
* a presentation of different methodological approaches, and a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses in providing evidence
* how evidence is applied in different treatment and care modalities
* different angles on the way forward for providing appropriate evidence to improve current mental health care.
Evidence in Mental Health Care will prove vital for the successful extension of evidence-based evaluation to mental health services in general. It will be essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners across the range of mental health disciplines, health service managers and purchasers of services.

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eBook available with sample pages: 020336130X