Neuropsychiatric problems after critical illness are receiving increasing attention, particularly in the critical care medicine literature, but mental health and primary care clinicians should also be interested in these common problems, given the growing number of critical illness survivors who need care. Patients frequently come out of the intensive care unit (ICU) with horrifying distorted memories and don't understand what has happened to them. Not only are patients debilitated with ICU-acquired weakness and cognitive impairment, they are traumatized by actual experiences (e.g., shortness of breath and pain) and distorted memories (of being tortured, raped, assaulted, or imprisoned) shaped by delirium. Patients' family members are also frequently quite distressed, and children surviving critical illnesses appear to have similar experiences to adults. This book provides an overview of the nature and epidemiology of cognitive and other psychiatric problems in this growing population, and it addresses the small but growing literature on prevention and early intervention efforts. Addressing these problems successfully will require collaborative interventions, both in-ICU and post-ICU.

Nurses are challenged to understand the scientific bases of psychiatric disorders and treatment implications that modify behavior and improve functional status and quality of life for clients and their significant others. This challenge extends to integration of scientific knowledge into the biological, functional, and psychosocial distress experienced by persons with mental disorders. The primary strength of this issue is its broad focus and synthesis of scientific knowledge into psychiatric mental health practice. The initial section centers on technological advances and the art of psychiatric mental health nursing and legal considerations when caring for persons with mental disorders. The following section provides discussions of various psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and mood disorders, acute psychosis, attention deficit disorders, substance-related disorders, eating disorders, and borderline personality disorder. The remaining section focuses on special populations and treatment concerning children and adolescents and families in crisis, geriatric emergencies, adverse drug reactions, and suicide. Each article integrates innovative treatment modalities, including pharmacotherapy and psychotherapeutic interventions such as psychoeducation, family involvement, and psychosocial rehabilitation. This issue will provide timely updates in these areas and be a go-to source for mental health and psychiatric nurses.

Schizophrenia and Psychotic Spectrum Disorders aims to engage young caregivers in psychiatry, psychology, nursing and social work so that they will be able to become well informed about this significant-and at times confusing-illness. Because schizophrenia is considered to be one of the most complicated and severe psychiatric disorders, this book has the goal of summarizing key issues of the illness, such as its presentation, frequency and age of onset, and diagnostic characteristics. It also contains informative chapters about the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, ranging from brain development issues, genetics, and likely abnormalities in neurotransmitters. This book will give young professionals and those joining the field an excellent and accessible background to treatment. In this area, Schizophrenia and Psychotic Spectrum Disorders provides a comprehensive approach to diagnosis, treatment initiation, strategies for non-response, approaches of therapy, and importantly, ways to provide family therapy and support.

Promoting recovery from mental health problems is a guiding principle within modern mental health care. Working in partnership with service users, new practice techniques are being designed and delivered that can allow individuals to thrive within society and move towards a fulfilling life beyond their diagnosis. Recovery remains a broad and subjective term though and understanding what this means for your service users and how to implement recovery into your practice is an important challenge. Developed in partnership with Certitude - an influential charity providing support for people with mental health problems or learning disabilities - this book will answer all your questions about recovery in mental health nursing. It provides clear explanations and practical guidance that you can immediately bring into your work on placement.

"God Has it come to this?" Meet Grace, white-haired, with dementia, being admitted to the daunting asylum with an unwelcome introduction from the student nurse. Then Percy, the crystal radio buff, with depression. Here is Harry, the Japanese ex-POW, whose bath-time is a re-living of battles fought and Walter, with the dodgy and less than faithful, girl-friend. What about Tom, who is getting secret signs from both the Newscaster on the BBC as well as the landlady of the local pub, or Betty who won't fit in the coffin, and needs a bit of encouragement? But also meet Stuart, the very novice student nurse fearfully working on nights, standing there being strangled, not knowing what to do, or trying to come to grips on his first day on the ward with shaving a corpse. Learn about what goes on in the long asylum corridor & how to survive the laws of the asylum jungle. Stuart has to rely on information from the unlikeliest of sources, the Social Club hard drinkers. Asylum Bound is a wild weird walk through the experiences of a student nurse as he enters the unknown world of the mental "asylum" of the 1970s. It is a bizarre world, a world of terrible extremes. Within this odd place there are Hogarthian characters of varying chaotic hues, some aggressive, some sad, some disturbed and some institutionalised, both patients and staff. It is in this strange world that Stuart begins to understand the origins of psychiatry and its terrible treatments, including lobotomies, E.C.T., insulin shock and even aversion therapy for underwear snatchers. He has to learn about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, new and frightening conditions that had new and frightening treatments and outcomes. But he finds an asylum coming to the end of any usefulness it might ever once have had. The patients are leaving, the staff are changing, and, thank God, the abuses are declining. It is a different world from anything he has experienced before. It is a very new world. It is a life-changing revelation. For Stuart, what started as a novelty, progressed to fascination and was to end in tragedy. It was the start of a long psychiatric nursing career. It is, sadly, all true.

Geropsychiatric And Mental Health Nursing, Second Edition Addresses The Knowledge And Skills Necessary In The Assessment And Nursing Care Of Older Adults Experiencing Common Late Life Mental Health And Psychiatric Problems. This Text Features Experts In Gerontological Nursing And Geropsychiatric Fields And Provides Essential Information For Advanced Practice And Professional Nurses, As Well As Graduate And Undergraduate Nursing Students.The Second Edition Has Been Completely Revised And Updated To Include Crucial Areas Like Assessment, Diagnosis, Psychopharmacology, And Behavioral Management Strategies In Nursing Care Of Older Adults. New To This Edition Are Case Studies In Each Chapter In Addition To Discussion Questions. This New Edition Also Presents The Work Of The Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative (GPNC) In Its Entirety. The Focus Of The GPNC Is To Improve The Education Of Nurses Who Care For Elders Suffering From Depression, Dementia, And Other Mental Health Disorders. The Collaborative Effort Enhances Extant Competencies For All Levels Of Nursing Education, Focusing On Older Adults With Mental Health/Illness Concerns. Shared In The Appendix Are The Competency Statements Developed For Basic, Graduate, Post-Graduate, And Continuing Education Nursing Programs.

Manual Of Psychiatric Nursing Skills Guides Nursing Students And Practicing Nurses Towards Enhancing Fundamental Psychiatric Nursing Skills Competency In Specific Assessment And Interventions For The Selected Psychiatric Disorders. A Nursing Skill Book In A Manual Format, This Text Is Handy At The Clinical Site And Encourages Readers To Translate Their Theoretical Knowledge And Psychiatric Nursing Skills Into Clinical Practice. Topics Include Therapeutic Communication Techniques, Assessment And Interventions For Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, And Suicide Attempts, And Crisis Management Skills For Psychiatric Emergencies. Included In The Appendices Are Essential Insights Into Ego Defense Mechanisms, Erickson'S Psychosocial Developmental Stages, Freud'S Stages Of Psychosexual Development, And Piaget'S Stages Of Cognitive Development.

"It has everything; familial hatreds, great love, romance and failed relationships, attempts by the character to change patterns of life -in fact all the ingredients of a page -turner. It is written in a highly charged poetic style and is full of fine imagistic writing and It should be published both because of all the above and because it is an individual experience which has universal significance. " - By Siobhan Campbell, Tutor on M A Creative Writing Course Kingston University

Description

Mad? Sad? Or Bad? the truth about Alzheimer's Disease. After a lifetime of coping with a very difficult - and sometimes nasty - mother, Patricia now faces her parents decline and impending death. As she guided her mother through family history, she tries to unravel what has always ailed the older woman.The story moves through darkness, to understanding and to skeletons in the cupboard. And ultimately to love.

But Patricia reaches a mind- blowing conclusion about what she believes to lie behind old age dementia.

About the Author

Pamela spent most of her working life bringing up four children and doing casual jobs.. she took a degree in English and at a local university and then taught in Adult Education and became a Market Research Interviewer. When her work dwindled in the Recession of the 1990s, she tried for a while to run her own private Adult Education business. She has always wanted to write and began in her twenties. She has broadcast her own talk on the radio, published some short stories and articles, and had prizes in a few writing competitions. Pamela lives in The Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames.

Book Extract

"'....And she's got a perfect figure, you know.' For the first time I am listening to what the nurse is saying about my eighty-eight year-old Mother.

'I like her, ' she had begun. What's all this? I asked myself. My mother's never got on with anybody, and probably nobody has ever liked her. She certainly doesn't like anyone much. We talk, as I scrabble around trying to remember how the conversation had started. 'She asked me where I came from. Tells me she has always wanted to travel...' Well, we all know that old story, don't we?

'...And she's got a perfect figure, you know.' That's when my ears pricked up. I'd hardly been listening, having looked after my mother for as long as I can remember, having lived her life rather than my own... But now this, at nearly ninety and last week nearly dead. 'What do you mean, what do you mean? In and out - in and out?'

'Oh - everything, ' the nurse laughs. 'And it is so good for you, because it's genetic.' Genetic? I am her, not exactly a case of symbiosis, since it has not been beneficial to me, but something like that.

A week ago, I stood over my mother, having been summoned to what I had thought was her deathbed. She was asleep, but gasping in her sleep, and I thought, 'Are you gasping to stay alive in the hope that one day you will have a life? No, what I really thought was, you look like I feel. Gasping to stay alive in the hope that one day you will have a life. And now this, the perfect figure? A young girl's body beneath that weary face? The tune 'Beautiful Dreamer' comes back into my mind. I think she even used to sing it, way far back, or at least hum it anyway.

Beautiful Dreamer, a Sleeping Beauty, is it really that? Is that old face weary with disappointment? Because the young girl's body has never been satisfied? Yet my mother has never shown any strong desires for such needs to be fulfilled. I am a Sleeping Beauty too, but I know it.

Book Description & About the Author

Trudy Marwick was born in South East London in 1965. She has spent most of her life living around London. Now living in Orkney and married to Malcolm and bringing up their children.

Her childhood spent trying to catch up with her brother and avoid bullying at school; she drifted into Teacher Training College but left after 2 years. She trained and worked in Personnel but now spends most of her time doing local voluntary work. Following years of research into Disability - particularly Autism and Aspergers syndrome Trudy could see some similarities between her childhood and that of her son.

Having been told at school that her stories lacked imagination, and were poorly put together, Trudy didn t feel confident about her writing. This is the first subject she has felt passionate enough about to overcome her fears of rejection and she wants her story to make a difference to others. Her insights into living with autism will be challenging and interesting to others who face diagnosis or who work alongside those with a diagnosis. Sometimes sharing the humour, sometimes the tears.

Researching her son s diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder made Trudy face her own difficulties. She shares her journey of life s ups and downs living with autism.

Description

Don t Mind Me is Judith Haire 's vivid account of the terrors she experienced while in the throes of psychosis. She describes how her dysfunctional family background and her abusive first marriage combined to bring her to the brink of insanity. Her remarkable and sustained recovery is told in great detail. Don t Mind Me is an extraordinary story and shows how Judith battled through her devastating illness and emerged a stronger and more resilient woman.

About the Author

Judith Haire was born in 1955 and worked for several years before graduating in Politics from Sheffield University. Afterwards she spent eleven years working in the civil service, in a variety of roles. At 37 she experienced an acute psychotic episode which was to change her life radically. She lives in Kent with her husband Ken and their eccentric cat, Smudge. Judith had her first article published in Mental Health Practice magazine in 2007. Don t Mind Me is her first book.

Description

This book tells the story of my battles within the mental health system over the last fourteen years. I have, from a psychiatrist's perspective, variously been diagnosed as hypomanic, schizophrenic, manic depressive and as having schizoaffective disorder - and in that order

But from my point of view (and as an ex-journalist I decided to investigate the mental health system from the inside out ), I have simply been on an extraordinary spiritual journey, meeting the spirits of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, meeting a spiritually persecuting Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, meeting the ancient queen Cleopatra herself, meeting the devilish spirit of Dr. Josef Goebbels, before penultimately having sex with the female angel Jana and finally meeting the fallen angel Lucifer himself

The book recounts the story of all the above, whilst also ending with a discussion and critique of contemporary psychiatry.

I do not believe myself to have been mentally ill. I believe myself to be a visionary.

About the Author

Michael Black was born in 1962, and Angels, Cleopatra And Psychosis describes his life and spiritual experiences within the British mental health system over the past fifteen years. The book stands up for the legitimacy of so-called psychotic experience, and questions the validity of the received medical model.

Michael grew up in Cheshire, where he attended Wilmslow Grammar School before doing an English and History degree at York University. He then completed a doctorate in anti-apartheid literature at Cambridge University, whilst variously working as a journalist and theatre producer.

Michael is the author of one novel, Crossing Out The Emperor, and six stage plays. He has received three Arts Council Playwrights Bursaries, and is currently working on a new novel and two film scripts.

The publication of Angels, Cleopatra And Psychosis is supported by Macclesfield Mind.

Developed Especially For Practicing Nurses Preparing For The Certification Examination Offered By The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), The Psychiatric Nursing Certification Review Guide For The Generalist And Advanced Practice Psychiatric And Mental Health Nurse Provides A Succinct, Yet Comprehensive Review Of The Core Material. This Book Has Been Organized To Give The Reviewer Test Taking Strategies And Techniques And Sample Test Questions, Which Are Intended To Serve As An Introduction To The Testing Arena. In Addition, A Bibliography Is Included For Those Who Need A More In Depth Discussion Of The Subject Matter In Each Chapter. The Third Edition Has Been Completely Revised And Updated To Reflect Current Guidelines And Information From The Latest Version Of The DSM IV-TR. The Medications And Use Of Medications Has Also Been Updated To Reflect Proper Usage And Doses.

Those who work in the mental health sector are constantly exposed to personal information about the experiences, behaviour and relationships of their clients. It is therefore unsurprising that mental health professionals will sometimes need to consider whether they are ethically or legally obliged to disclose certain information to third parties. Yet how is this done? In what circumstances is a therapist, counsellor, or nurse obliged to disclose confidential information and to whom? A profession's codes of ethics or a legal text is rarely able to provide meaningful practical guidance. The authors, experienced professionals in law and mental health, have focused on the actual decision-making process of disclosing confidential information to allow mental health professionals to find a solution that is ethically and legally sound and able to be recognised as such by external authorities. The book is relevant to a wide range of professionals working in the mental health sector such as psychologists, social workers, counsellors, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, and students.

Substance abuse is a crisis of international concern. Substance Abuse Education in Nursing, Volume III expands upon the content in Volume II, and is particularly suited to the advanced baccalaureate level of ed ucation. Volume III offers nurse educators - as well as educators prep aring physicians, social workers, teachers, and counselors - the most current information on the recognition and treatment of this tragic di sease. As a comprehensive resource, educators will find this book indi spensable when updating existing curricula, developing learner objecti ves, and assessing educational outcomes.

Irene Burnett-Thomas experienced four bouts of clinical depression in her adult life before she went on to train as a nurse. In this moving and inspirational reflection, she discusses with honesty her symptoms, treatment and recovery from depression, one episode of which occurred postnatally. We gain an intimate picture of what it feels like to suffer from depression, one of the achievements of this book being the communication of deep feelings. Written in conversational style, Irene brings light to the subject, and her spiritual strength is evident. Irene beats the serious illness of depression and moves on to help others, where we learn about her life as a student nurse and a staff nurse. We accompany her on the journey of this finally triumphant and uplifting story.

Description

For twenty-eight years, I have been experiencing inner voices and physical presences in ways that would normally induce the label 'schizophrenic' - except that I have never been ill from this cause.

This is how it all began:

A 'presence' that I could not see, moved from the space in front of me, into me, and immediately my mind was charged with another 'voice' or provoker of thoughts, thoughts over which, then, I had no control, and which were not initiated by me. In my head began conversation as between two separate people, one of whom was me.
I began to hear voices.

This book is part autobiography, part DIY Manual, and so...

...if you are being engulfed in the quicksands of your mind, if you are calling for help in the silence of your mind, if you cannot silence the voices that invade your mind, dominate and torment you, if you are caring for someone who is struggling within the morass that their mind has become...

...if you are any of these, then I am writing for you.

About the Author

Born in South Wales, I spent my early years there, apart from four years service in the Royal Navy. In 1950, I graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and immediately began work at the Sellafield Nuclear Plant, where I spent all of my working life, my most memorable post being as Senior Instrument Engineer in the Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station.

I retired early, and began an entirely new life developing my smallholding, and my interest in horses. Quite by chance, and following a seemingly innocent investigation and an interest in dowsing, a situation developed from which I began to hear voices and experience a wide range of allied phenomena. That was in 1979, and to this day I have never been free from intrusions into my mind, or from intruding presences. YES - INTRUSIONS. Because of what I was doing at the time, and from all that has followed, I have not the smallest shadow of doubt that my experiences result from spiritual intrusion into my mind and body. I have never been ill from this cause, although there have been difficult times.

My purpose in writing is to inform and encourage - yes, to encourage those who are troubled by voices to believe that they can regain control of their minds and thoughts, and to help them to do so.

Description

This book includes a true story about reaching the very edge, the very depths and heights of bipolar illness, but almost always with a sense of humour. Much like a car crash, people cannot help but look when they spy on these sort of black events. It is a new perspective on manic depression as in Prof K.R. Jamison's autobiography about her illness in An Unquiet Mind, but mixed explosively with S. Kaysen's immersion into madness in Girl, Interrupted; except this book feels like it's been written whilst on crack-cocaine and directed by Quentin Tarantino on a blood-thirsty day. This book may be dark but its underlying message is one of hope. Sometimes you have to see the depths of Hades before you can really appreciate life and health.

Being a manic depressive from just 5, then adding in anorexia, bulimia, self-harm and hundreds of suicide attempts, "typical" student substance misuse on the heavy end of "normal," culminating in a long hospitalisation when I was an Oxford doctoral student in clinical medicine. I ended up totally "mad," in a long-term psychotic mixed episode (being both manic and depressed concurrently, and suffering from delusions and hallucinations) and several actual deaths that I was revived from.

This is my autobiographical tale, a girl who came from nowhere "up North" to study medicine at Oxford University and spent the majority of her life quite literally mad, but never stopped laughing about it. This suits a wide audience for personal and professional reasons. I want to reach sufferers, carers, and professionals. I am proof that anything can be overcome, what should not be survived can be, and that nothing is more important in these diseases than hope.

About the Author

Katy Sara Culling was born in Liverpool, North England, in 1975. Daughter of Sue and Paul Culling, her family moved back to its roots in Derbyshire, where she grew up along with her younger sister Beth, in the village of Castle Donington, on the Derbyshire-Leicestershire border. However, even as young as 5 she exhibited symptoms of bipolar disorder. She attended a private school for girls, Loughborough High School, where she was a high achieving student. Unfortunately, due to bullying and also to numb her mania and depression, she developed anorexia nervosa and began to self-harm.

Katy Sara then went to The University of Nottingham, where she studied Biochemistry and Nutrition. She did her (1st class) thesis on alcohol and metabolism, interested in the psychology of Alcoholism. All this was done despite considerable illness including over 60 suicide attempts and purging-type anorexia - and yet more bullying. Her good work at Nottingham lead to an offer of a place at The University of Oxford, where she studied for a PhD (DPhil) in Clinical Medicine. In her final year she became so ill with bipolar disorder that she was in hospital (first as a day patient, then an inpatient, and eventually a sectioned inpatient). During that year and a half she attempted suicide over 300 times, dying twice, only to be revived. She finally, at the age of 28 got a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the correct medication, and has been mostly fine ever since. She later wrote up her PhD thesis and published her results.

Beverly is owner of Sweet Grapes, Inc. a company licensing experienced professionals in the StilMee(t) model of dementia coaching. She has personally coached hundreds of families and trained caregivers in assisted living residences and group homes for the developmentally disabled. She is a frequent presenter on aspects of dementia caregiving, focusing on the person's spirit and emotional well being. Beverly's interest always swayed toward understanding the behaviors of people through life changes, preparing her for her present passion for teaching dementia caregivers and training coaches. She earned her masters in family counseling at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, is certified by the Boston Family Institute in Brookline, Mass. in family systems. She is an advanced practice nurse in Adult Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing. "Talk to me like Beverly does; she still sees me. She doesn't just see me as an Alzheimer patient." Peter, who inspired our brand name StilMee(t) "My coach came just when I was about to fall apart and taught me ways to enjoy my husband again." Judi "I was so frustrated all the time; she suggested ways to work with my husband. They always worked!" Florence "It helped open my mind to what my mom was feeling and how to appeal to her spirit." Kathy