The authors of this controversial volume have collected case studies and observational accounts of caregivers for over 15 years. Iatrogenic harm is a serious and widespread problem that many have been reluctant to speak out about for fear of being blacklisted by their colleagues. In writing this book the authors hope to establish guidelines that will help caregivers to recognize and deal with potentially harmful behavior thereby improving the standards of care for all patients.

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences. This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press. Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1961 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

Iatrogenic harm is a term that originated in medical practice to denote the damage induced in a patient as a by-product of a therapeutic intervention, such as undesirable side effects, overmedication, infections caused by invasive procedures, etc. With this new book, the authors extend the term to refer to the damage caused, often inadvertently, to a patient or client by any caregiver, whether physician, psychiatrist, therapist, teacher, school guidance counselor, social worker, or judge, in the course of a professional intervention.
The focus of this volume is on mental health, and more specifically, on children and families. The authors, pioneers in community mental health, break new ground by bringing into the open a topic recognized - if recognized at all - only in secret. They discuss causative factors, warning signs and typical features of damaging behavior by caregivers who are ostensibly trying to help patients. The possibility of reducing or preventing this significant cause of pathology is addressed, as are obstacles that threaten the mission of any community mental health service program. Readers will be drawn to the rich case studies and expertise of the authors that is so evident in this commanding, authoritative, and disturbing text.

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Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences. This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press. Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1961 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.