In this chapter we argue that the four principles of medical ethics -- beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice (Beauchamp & Childress, 2001; Gillon, 1985), a new Family Interest Principle (introduced below) and a consideration of ‘capacity’ provide a reasoned practice guide for work with mothers experiencing health problems, focussing here on mental health when a parent is a patient. Our concern is the relationship of the clinician with a parent and through the parent their child. (...) Ethics of service provision or services planning (e.g. Culyer, 2001; McLachlan, 2005; see also Newbigging and Paul, chapter xxx), or the provision of other services (e.g. education, child protection) although intensely relevant to this area are not addressed in this chapter nor will we deal with the complex aspects of medical ethics relating to the treatment of children (Baines, 2008). We use the term ‘parent’ to refer to any adult person who fulfils a substantive parental role with a child. Defining what counts as a family will in certain circumstances be contentious. There are diverse patterns of family arrangements that may be influenced by cultural, political economic and temporal factors. For the purposes of our discussion, we define a family in terms of its role in childrearing, as a group of at least one adult and at least one child, living together in long term relationships on an ongoing basis with vested interest in the well being of each of the family members. (shrink)

Can a human right to good mental health be justified? This is an under-explored question: until recently, rights in relation to mental health have been framed and debated primarily in terms of their relevance to psychosocial disability and mental ill-health/mental distress. By contrast, in this article, I propose the basis of a normative justification for a population-wide right to good mental health, focusing in particular on individuals who do not (...) experience mental ill-health/distress or do not have (or may never have) a psychiatric diagnosis or a psychosocial disability. The article is structured into three parts. First, I will outline the emergence of a population-wide right to good mental health in mental health discourse, led by recent reports published by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Danius Pūras. I will then go on to explore what we might understand by ‘good mental health’. Finally, I will explain how a right to good mental health may be justified, drawing on insights from compassion, ‘vulnerable agency’, and James Wilson's account of ‘a right to public health’. I then respond to feasibility and demandingness concerns about such a right, which together inform the basis of the qualified public health right to good mental health I propose. (shrink)

Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health: The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Mental Health is the first book to question the equation of psychological normality and mental health. It is also the first book to take contemporary psychiatry and clinical psychology to task for deeply flawed thinking when they accept the diagnostic system propounded by the DSM, which reifies syndromes into alleged “mental disorders.” Where Thomas Szasz argued that “ (...) class='Hi'>mental disorders” are myths, Bartlett makes the much more damaging charge that reifying mental disorders involves a provable form of fallacious thinking, producing a variety of epistemological nonsense. /// -/- -/- The author weighs the evidence, and with strict logic, compelling evidence, and careful analysis, challenges the current paradigm of mental health theorists and practitioners. Never has the case against the standard of psychological normality and against the non-scientific creation of “mental disorders” been made with such boldness, multidisciplinary knowledge, solid scholarship, and clarity of language. /// -/- -/- Normality Does Not Equal Mental HealthAlthough the need to question psychological normality as a satisfactory standard of good mental health has been staring us in the face for a long time, no one, clinical professional or scholar, has had the courage or the intellectual willingness to face with unflinching honesty the shortcomings and disappointments of psychological normality and to propose that we should look elsewhere for standards of good psychological health. /// -/- -/- Contemporary psychiatry and clinical psychology, on the contrary, base their conception of mental health on the standard of psychological normality. This supposition has come to be accepted uncritically and without question, and yet it has become fundamental to current clinical theory and practice, and forms the core of the psychiatric classification system of the DSM, which has become today’s diagnostic authority. /// -/- -/- While touting today’s scientific gold standard of “evidence-based” research, DSM’s authoritative classification of “mental disorders” is itself hardly “evidence-based,” for it is recognized, but seldom emphasized, that the majority of DSM’s “mental disorders” have no known empirical, organic basis. /// -/- -/- Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health takes DSM to task not only for its failure to adhere to today’s evidence-based standard, but for its failure to rein in its highly speculative diagnostic labeling, in accordance with the modern paradigm of rigorous science, which repudiates metaphorical reifications whose alleged validity rests only on the voting preferences of a professional membership. /// -/- -/- The book is a carefully argued critique of the dominant assumption in current psychiatry and clinical psychology that psychological normality is fundamental to mental health and therefore good. In place of this unsatisfactory presumption, Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health proposes a positive and constructive revision in our understanding of mental health and of our conception of mental disorders. (shrink)

BackgroundYouth are increasingly aware of the negative effects of climate change on the planet and human health, but this knowledge can often come with significant affective responses, such as psychological distress, anger, or despair. Experiencing major “negative” emotions, like worry, guilt, and hopelessness in anticipation of climate change has been identified with the term eco-anxiety. Emerging literature focuses on adults' experience; however, little is known about the ways in which children and youth experience eco-anxiety.ObjectivesThe aim of this review was (...) to: identify the available evidence on the topic of eco-anxiety in children, clarify the mental health consequences brought by the awareness of climate change in this population, and identify knowledge gaps in the literature and considerations for future research.MethodsGiven that the research on the topic of eco-anxiety in children is limited, that there are very few randomized controlled trials, and that the goal is not to analyze individual studies in-depth, a scoping review was used. Keywords pertaining to the themes of eco-anxiety, climate change and children were used as search terms in five databases. Journal articles using qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as gray literature were examined by two independent reviewers. A descriptive-analytical method was used to chart the data that emerged from the literature. Eighteen articles were considered in the final analysis.ResultsEvidence confirms that children experience affective responses and eco-anxiety in reaction to then awareness of climate change. Mental health outcomes include depression, anxiety, and extreme emotions like sadness, anger, and fear. Youth from vulnerable communities, like indigenous communities, or those who have strong ties to the land are often identified as being emotionally impacted by climate change. The literature analyzed also describes how children and youth are coping with eco-anxiety, including maladaptive and adaptive responses. Preliminary considerations for parents, teachers and educators, mental health care providers, school systems, adults and people of power include adding age-appropriate climate education to the school curriculum, considering youth's emotions, and promoting healthy coping through empowerment. Important gaps exist in the definition of eco-anxiety in youth, as various characterizations of this emerging concept are found across articles. (shrink)

Positive mental health involves not the absence of mental disorder but rather the presence of certain mental goods. Institutions, practitioners, and theorists often identify positive mental health with well‐being. There are strong reasons, however, to keep the concepts of well‐being and positive mental health separate. Someone with high positive mental health can have low well‐being, someone with high well‐being can have low positive mental health, and well‐being and positive (...) mental health sometimes conflict. But, while positive mental health and well‐being are not identical, there is an informative conceptual connection between them. Positive mental health usually contributes instrumentally to the living of a good human life, where a good human life includes (but is not limited to) well‐being. (shrink)

Global mental health in a changing world -- Contemporary humanitarianism -- Humanitarian ethics -- Professional and personal challenges in humanitarian work -- Managing ethical challenges in global mental health -- Aspirational guidance : principles of humanitarian assistance -- Operational guidance : IASC guidelines -- Ethical dilemmas : damned if you do and damned if you don't -- Ethically questionable practices -- Safety imperative and self-care -- Values-based ethical framework and core competencies in global mental (...) class='Hi'>health -- Ethical considerations for refugee mental health providers in the United States -- Conclusion and future directions. (shrink)

What is it to be mentally healthy? In the ongoing movement to promote mental health, to reduce stigma, and to establish parity between mental and physical health, there is a clear enthusiasm about this concept and a recognition of its value in human life. However, it is often unclear what mental health means in all these efforts and whether there is a single concept underlying them. Sometimes, the initiatives for the sake of mental (...) health are aimed just at reducing mental illness, thus implicitly identifying mental health with the absence of diagnosable psychiatric disease. More ambitiously, there are high-profile proposals to adopt a positive definition, identifying mental health with psychic or even overall well-being. We argue against both: a definition of mental health as mere absence of mental illness is too thin, too undemanding, and too closely linked to psychiatric value judgments, while the definition in terms of well-being is too demanding and potentially oppressive. As a compromise, we sketch out a middle position. On this view, mental health is a primary good, that is, the psychological preconditions of pursuing any conception of the good life, including well-being, without being identical to well-being. (shrink)

This paper explores the dilemma faced by mental healthcare professionals in balancing treatment of mental disorders with promoting patient well-being and flourishing. With growing calls for a more explicit focus on patient flourishing in mental healthcare, we address two inter-related challenges: the lack of consensus on defining positive mental health and flourishing, and how professionals should respond to patients with controversial views on what is good for them. We discuss the relationship dynamics between healthcare (...) providers and patients, proposing that ‘liberal’ approaches can provide a pragmatic framework to address disagreements about well-being in the context of flourishing-oriented mental healthcare. We acknowledge the criticisms of these approaches, including the potential for unintended paternalism and distrust. To mitigate these risks, we conclude by suggesting a mechanism to minimize the likelihood of unintended paternalism and foster patient trust. (shrink)

Mental health generally refers to an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions, particularly when he faced with life challenges and stresses. A good mental health isn’t just the absence of mental health problems. It is the achievement and the maintenance of psychological well-being. Mental Health is the state of one’s peace of mind, happiness and harmony brought out by one’s level of adjustment with himself and his environment. In describing mental (...) class='Hi'>health, Anwar said, “…mental health is the health of one’s mind which can prove a potent determinant of one’s integrated personality and balanced behavour identified on the basis of the level of his adjustment to himself, others and with the environment. A mentally healthy individual possesses a number of characteristics which influence his life positively and help him in achieving his goals of life effectively. He has adequate ability to make adjustments in the changed circumstances and situations. His intellectual powers are adequately developed. He is able to think independently and take proper decision at the proper time. He tries to accomplish his work as effectively as possible but he does not prove to be an extremist by becoming a perfectionist. Though these characteristics are expected from a mentally healthy individual, but these should be taken as essential and necessary conditions for the maintenance of proper mental health and thus absence of one or the other characteristic does not necessarily mean negation of mental health. Good mental health is not just the absence of mental problems. Being mentally healthy is much more than free of depression, anxiety or other psychological issues.”1 In this paper an attempt is made to discuss about the mental health policies and issues in India. (shrink)

Understanding students’ psychological pressure and bad emotional reaction can solve psychological problems as soon as possible and avoid affecting students’ normal study life. With the improvement of global scientific and technological strength, and the step-by-step in-depth research on deep learning and computational intelligence optimization. Now, we have enough conditions to build a psychological and emotional data set for the field of education, and build a mental health stress detection model with emotional analysis function. In addition, a variety of (...) experimental methods are used for comparison, which shows the superior performance of the model in practical application scenarios. The results show that: the data set constructed for the model is reasonable. Psychological stress test shows that the tested college students are in good health and have no positive performance. Schools need to pay special attention to obsessive–compulsive disorder and interpersonal sensitivity, and the average values of both indicators are higher than 0.9. For the optimization of ant colony algorithm computational intelligence, both the stability and the average execution time of the algorithm are obviously higher than those of other algorithms. This model has obvious performance advantages after using this algorithm. Using loss function value to measure the difference between simulated emotion analysis and real value. The difference of most emotion tests is less than 3%; the accuracy difference between sadness and fear is about 7%. Although the final results prove the feasibility of this method, there are still some shortcomings to be optimized. (shrink)

The answer, if you look at this paper, is that writing is not good for your mental health, but I think that anything done excessively is not good for your mental health. This paper is about excessive reactions, which given the childhood he gives us a glimpse of he has a tendency toward. I, like him, am a mental health service user. However, all experiences of mental ill health are unique (...) to the person concerned. We all have a tendency to blame others for what has happened to us, for what has triggered our mental distress. For Jason, it is his mother who was triggered in to mental illness. For me it was an alcoholic husband, who was triggered in to alcoholism/mental illness by childhood events. This is a .. (shrink)

Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics identify mental health with moral virtue. Are they right? We might be inclined to disagree with him if we believe that mental health is good for the agent, whereas virtues of character are good for other people. These philosophers answer that the mental features of the virtues of character are also features of a person's good. Still, their demands for psychic unity and cohesion might appear to exaggerate (...) reasonable conditions on mental health. In the view of these philosophers, our conception of mental health should make us aware of the aspects of agency that we value. We do not refer to different characteristics when we think of mental health and when we think of moral virtue. The main question is not about whether we choose to confine the expression "mental health" to the minimal condition, but about what makes the minimal condition valuable. It turns out to be difficult to explain why the minimal condition is valuable without also endorsing the moral virtues. (shrink)

This study aims to investigate mental health among Chinese people living in areas with differing levels of infection severity during the COVID-19 outbreak. It also assesses the association between reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety and mental health in times of crises. A sample of 1,201 Chinese participants was surveyed between April and June 2020. Wuhan city, Hubei province outside Wuhan, and elsewhere in China were categorized into high, moderate, and low infection severity areas, respectively. The Depression, (...) Anxiety, and Stress Scale’s severity cut-points were used to categorize participants. In the overall sample, 20.9, 34.2, and 29.0% of the participants showed elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Those in the highest infection severity group were significantly more likely to be categorized as having elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. General linear modeling was performed on a composite mental distress variable. This model indicated that, even after adjusting for group differences in age, gender, education, and filial piety, the high infection severity group displayed more mental distress than the low infection severity groups. The model also found reciprocal filial piety to have a negative association with mental distress. Conversely, authoritarian filial piety was found to be unrelated to mental distress when controlling for the other variables in the model. No evidence was found for an interaction between either authoritarian or reciprocal filial piety and infection severity, which suggests that the negative association observed between reciprocal filial piety and mental distress was relatively consistent across the three infection severity groups. The findings suggest that future public health programs may integrate the promotion of filial piety as a strategy to help Chinese people maintain good mental health in the face of pandemic crises. (shrink)

BackgroundThe positive component of Mental Health Literacy refers to a person’s awareness of how to achieve and maintain good mental health. Although explored recently, the term still lacks a clear definition among healthcare practitioners.AimTo identify the attributes and characteristics of PMeHL, as well as its theoretical and practical applications.MethodsLiterature search and review, covering the last 21 years, followed by concept analysis according to the steps described by Walker and Avant approach.ResultsPositive component of Mental (...) class='Hi'>Health Literacy is considered one component of MHL, integrating positive mental health. The concept’s attributes include: competence in problem-solving and self-actualization; personal satisfaction; autonomy; relatedness and interpersonal relationship skills; self-control; and prosocial attitude. Four case scenarios were used to clarify the antecedents and consequences of PMeHL.ConclusionPositive component of Mental Health Literacy is considered a component of MHL, which deserves attention throughout the lifespan, in different contexts and intervention levels. Considering PMeHL as a multi-faceted and dynamic construct will help understand the mechanisms that improve mental health and promote healthy behaviors. Priority should be given to robust primary research focused on nursing interventions that enhance and sustain PMeHL in people and families. (shrink)

According to the Maintainable Positive Mental Health Theory (MPMHT), the main pillars of positive mental health are global well-being, efficient coping that enables an individual to maintain positive conditions and functioning, savoring capacity, resilience, and dynamic self-regulation. This study presents the validation of a new five-scale mental health test (MHT), the MHT that operationalizes MPMHT. The methodology comprised two online cross-sectional studies using self-report questionnaires. Participants in Study I (n = 1,736; 448 males, 1,288 (...) females; mean age 51.3 years; SD = 11.6 years) filled in the MHT, the Flow, the Positive emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationship, Meaning, Accomplishment Questionnaire (PERMA-Profiler), and the Flourishing Scale. Participants in Study II (n = 1,083; 233 males, 847 females; mean age 33.9 years; SD = 12.2 years) filled in the MHT, the Shortened Aspiration Index, the short form of the Beck Depression Inventory, the WHO Well-Being Index, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Purpose in Life Test, and the Schema Questionnaire–Short Form. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified a five-factor structure with 17 items in Study I that was confirmed with excellent fit measures in confirmatory factor analysis in Study II. Both studies indicated a high level of internal consistency (above 0.70). In each subscale, a minimum part of 44% did not overlap with the set of the other subscales. The content validity of the subscales was confirmed by 10 tests of mental health. We found a positive correlation of the self-regulation and resilience subscales with age, while women showed a higher level of savoring than men at all age levels. When Study I was replicated after 2 weeks and again after 11 months, excellent internal consistency and good test–retest correlation values of the MHT scales were found. The MHT can thus be considered a reliable and valid measurement tool for mental health. (shrink)

Mental health is a kind of emotional state, a good psychological state can have a positive impact on a person, physical exercise can have a positive impact on the psychological state of college students, prevent the generation of negative emotions, improve the bad emotional state, and then promote the mental health of college students. Health is an inevitable requirement to promote the all-round development of people and a basic condition for economic and social development. (...) Health education should be incorporated into the national education system to promote the national health of the people through sports. Young people are the main force and backbone of national and social development. In order to realize the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation, we must attach importance to the development of young people and the physical and mental health of young people. In the process of compulsory education, middle school and high school period is a key stage in the gradual formation and development of students' psychology and body, but due to the large audience of China's education, the competition is more intense, which inevitably causes a lot of students to focus on exam-oriented education and neglect physical health, especially in recent years, the mental health issues of increasing concern. Through the research situation of mental health in China and the concept of mental health quality, this paper analyzes the problems of sports and mental health, and puts forward some corresponding suggestions for the problems, which has reference significance for promoting students' mental health. (shrink)

Because of the development towards community care, care providers not only exchange information in a team, but increasingly also in networks. This is a challenge to confidentiality. The ethical question is how care providers can keep information about the care receiver confidential, whilst at the same time exchanging information about that care receiver in a team or network? Can shared confidentiality be extended from a team to a network? To clarify this question, the article refers to the advice of an (...) expert ethics committee in mental health care. The advice regards exchange of information in a network as a further step in enhancing collaboration among care providers. Therefore, the good and evident practice of shared confidentiality in a team can be extended to a network if the same conditions are met. First, the care providers participate in a clearly defined and identifiable team or network. Secondly, they have a shared care responsibility. Thirdly, they have a duty of confidentiality. Fourth, they dialogue with the care receiver and obtain his or her consent. Finally, they apply the filter of relevance. Hence, conditional shared confidentiality is an ethical justification for the exchange of information in a team or network. (shrink)

The paper concerns two familiar lines of inquiry. One, stemming from a neo-Aristotelian naturalism associated with Foot and others, asks whether we can derive human excellences from what humans need in order to be some way. The second asks whether virtue is a kind of health, and vice a kind of illness. The first is often seen as a failure to the extent that the list of characteristics derived by this approach does not include familiar moral virtues. However, it (...) is argued that the concept of human excellence is many-layered, so the fact that the approach may not succeed for moral virtues does not show that it is no good for anything. Moreover, the kinds of psychological characteristic derived by a liberalized version of Foot’s approach may also help to give non-trivial answers to the second, Platonic, line of inquiry. (shrink)

COVID-19 has created significant concern surrounding the impact of pandemic lockdown on mental health. While the pandemic lockdown can be distressing, times of crisis can also provide people with the opportunity to think divergently and explore different activities. Novelty seeking, where individuals explore novel and unfamiliarly stimuli and environments, may enhance the creativity of individuals to solve problems in a way that allows them to adjust their emotional responses to stressful situations. This study employs a longitudinal design to (...) investigate changes in novelty seeking and mental health outcomes before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, among a group of students from a university in southeast China. Participants were surveyed at three points: November, 2019 ; between February and March, 2020 ; and between May and June, 2020. Cross-sectionally, correlation analysis indicated that greater novelty seeking was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression at all three time points. Univariate latent curve modeling indicated a growth trajectory in which novelty seeking increased over time and then remained high during the post-lockdown period. Stress, anxiety, and depression all showed V-shaped growth trajectories in which these variables decreased during lockdown, before increasing in the post-lockdown period. Multivariate LCM indicated the growth trajectory for novelty seeking was associated with the growth trajectories for stress, anxiety, and depression. This suggests that the observed decreases in stress, anxiety, and depression during the lockdown period may be attributable to the sample’s observed increase in novelty seeking. These findings are valuable in that they challenge the notion that lockdown measures are inherently detrimental to mental health. The findings indicate the important role of novelty seeking in responding to crises. It may be possible for future public health measures to incorporate the promotion of novelty seeking to help individuals’ respond to stressful situations and maintain good mental health in the face of crises. (shrink)

The COVID-19 global pandemic has led to significant disruptions in the lives of high-performance athletes, including the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the cancellation of many international and national competitions, and drastic changes in athletes’ daily training environment. The purpose of this research was to examine the interplay between the mental health and mental performance of Canadian national team athletes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these variables from the perspective of (...) class='Hi'>mental performance consultants and mental health practitioners. Twelve individuals working in these roles with national team athletes participated in focus groups and interviews during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Findings from the inductive reflexive thematic analysis revealed three main themes: factors impacting athlete mental health, consequences of COVID-19 for athletes, and impact of the pandemic on practitioners. Interestingly, athletes with prior good mental performance skills were perceived to be more equipped to cope with challenges related to the pandemic, which concurrently seemed to facilitate good mental health throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, even though the pandemic had several debilitative consequences on athletes’ mental health, it imposed a break from training and competition that allowed them to rest and enjoy their life outside of sport. Finally, participants discussed the need for more mental health resources and better access to practitioners supporting mental performance and mental health in the Canadian sport system. (shrink)

This article examines the complex relationship between culture, values, and ethics in mental health care. Cultural competence is a practical, concrete demonstration of the ethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence (doing good), nonmaleficence (not doing harm), and justice (treating people fairly)—the cornerstones of modern ethical codes for the health professions. Five clinical cases are presented to illustrate the range of ethical issues faced by mental health clinicians working in a multicultural environment, including issues (...) of therapeutic boundaries, diagnosis, treatment choice, confidentiality and informed consent, and the just distribution of limited health care resources. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven organizations to implement various flexible work arrangements. Due to a lack of longitudinal studies, there is currently no consensus in specialized literature regarding the consequences of flexible work arrangements on employee mental health, as well any long term potential impacts. Using the Job Demand-Resource Model, this study documents consequences of the implementation of two types of flexible work arrangement: work schedule flexibility and teleworking on employee mental health over time, and the (...) mediating role played by work overload during the accelerated implementation of flexible work arrangements in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a longitudinal design and probabilistic sampling, 209 workers participated in this study, twice answering a flexible work arrangement and mental health questionnaire during the pandemic. Findings of this moderated-mediation suggest that work schedule flexibility generates positive effects on mental health over time due to decreased work overload, but only for employees not working from home. These results offer theoretical and practical implications applicable to organizations considering implementation of flexible work arrangements, particularly with regard to how these flexible practices could support a balance between demand and resources, their impact on work overload, and employee mental health over time. (shrink)

This research explores the intervention effect of the mindfulness acceptance insight commitment (MAIC) training program on the mindfulness level, flow state, and mental health of college swimmers. A sample of 47 college swimmers from a regular university was recruited and randomly divided into two groups before the intervention. Independent variables between groups are psychological training mode (MAIC training/no training), and the independent variable within group was time (pre-test, post-test, and continuity test). The dependent variables are mindfulness level, flow (...) state, and mental health (anxiety, depression, training, and competition satisfaction). Results show that after the intervention of MAIC training, the mindfulness level of athletes’ flow state has been significantly improved, whereas anxiety and depression significantly decreased. In addition, the satisfaction with training and competition significantly improved. In the continuous stage after the intervention, the mindfulness level, flow state, and mental health of athletes are still significantly higher than those in the pre-test. The comparison of the post-test and continuity test show no significant differences in the mindfulness level, flow state, depression, and training and competition satisfaction of athletes. Still, the anxiety level shows an upward trend with a significant difference. This study demonstrates that the MAIC mindfulness training program can significantly improve the mindfulness level, flow state, anxiety, depression, and training and competition satisfaction of college swimmers with a good continuity effect. Thus, the athletes’ sports experience can be improved, and good psychological benefits can be attained. (shrink)

Trust and trustworthiness are essential for good healthcare, especially in mental healthcare. New technologies, such as mobile health apps, can affect trust relationships. In mental health, some apps need the trust of their users for therapeutic efficacy and explicitly ask for it, for example, through an avatar. Suppose an artificial character in an app delivers healthcare. In that case, the following questions arise: Whom does the user direct their trust to? Whether and when can an (...) avatar be considered trustworthy? Our study aims to analyze different dimensions of trustworthiness in the context of mobile health app use. We integrate O'Neill's account of autonomy, trust, and trustworthiness into a model of trustworthiness as a relational concept with four relata: B is trustworthy with respect to A regarding the performance of Z because of C. Together with O'Neill's criteria of trustworthiness (honesty, competence, and reliability), this four-sided model is used to analyze different dimensions of trustworthiness in an exemplary case of mobile health app use. Our example focuses on an app that uses an avatar and is intended to treat sleep difficulties. The conceptual analysis shows that interpreting trust and trustworthiness in health app use is multi-layered and involves a net of interwoven universal obligations. At the same time, O'Neill's approach to autonomy, trust, and trustworthiness offers a normative account to structure and analyze these complex relations of trust and trustworthiness using mobile health apps. (shrink)

BackgroundSexual boundary violations in healthcare are harmful and exploitative sexual transgressions in the professional–client relationship. Persons with mental health issues or intellectual disabilities, especially those living in residential settings, are especially vulnerable to SBV because they often receive long-term intimate care. Promoting good sexual health and preventing SBV in these care contexts is a moral and practical challenge for healthcare organizations.MethodsWe carried out a qualitative interview study with 16 Dutch policy advisors, regulators, healthcare professionals and other (...) relevant experts to explore their perspectives on preventing SBV in mental health and disability care organizations. We used inductive thematic analysis to interpret our data.ResultsWe found three main themes on how healthcare organizations can prevent SBV in mental health and disability care: setting rules and regulations, engaging in dialogue about sexuality, and addressing systemic and organizational dimensions.ConclusionOur findings suggest that preventing SBV in mental health and disability care organizations necessitates setting suitable rules and regulations and facilitating dialogue about positive aspects of sexuality and intimacy, as well as about boundaries, and inappropriate behaviors or feelings. Combining both further requires organizational policies and practices that promote transparency and reflection, and focus on creating a safe environment. Our findings will help prevent SBV and promote sexual health in mental health and disability care organizations. (shrink)

Background: When adolescent boys experience close, secure relationships with their parents and peers, the implications are potentially far reaching, including lower levels of mental health problems in adolescence and young adulthood. Here we use rare prospective intergenerational data to extend our understanding of the impact of adolescent attachments on subsequent postpartum mental health problems in early fatherhood.Methods: At age 17–18 years, we used an abbreviated Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment to assess trust, communication, and alienation (...) reported by 270 male participants in their relationships with mothers, fathers, and peers. More than a decade later, we assessed the adult males, now fathers, at 12 months postpartum for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Logistic regression was used to examine the extent to which attachment dimensions predicted paternal postpartum mental health, adjusting for potential confounding, and with assessment for interactions between parent and peer attachments.Results: Trust in mothers and peers, and good communication with fathers during adolescence, were associated with 5 to 7 percentage point reductions in postpartum mental health symptoms in early fatherhood. Weak evidence of parent-peer interactions suggested secure attachments with either parent or peer may compensate for an insecure attachment with the other.Conclusions: Our results suggest that fostering trust and communication in relationships that adolescent boys have with parents and peers may have substantial effects on rates of paternal postpartum mental health problems. The protective benefits may be preventative in intergenerational cycles of risk for mental health problems. (shrink)

ObjectiveRelative deprivation is associated with collective and individual variables in psychology. However, so far, there are few studies on measuring the relative deprivation of university students. Therefore, this study designs the University Students’ Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, verifies its validity and reliability, and then uses it to measure the mental health of students.MethodsAfter reviewing the relevant studies and conducting a theoretical analysis and an open questionnaire survey, this article determined the structural dimension of USRDQ. A total of 103 university (...) students were selected to take the open questionnaire survey, 200 were selected to engage in the item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and internal consistency reliability test, 257 were selected to engage in the confirmatory factor analysis, and 287 were selected to take the retest reliability.ResultsThe USRDQ includes 19 items under the three dimensions, namely, social comparison, cognitive evaluation, and emotional experience. Factor loads range from 0.49 to 0.87, which accounted for 63.39% of the total variation. The questionnaire has good fitting indicators. The Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.916, and the coefficients of the three factors range from 0.805 to 0.934. The results of the survey show that the relative deprivation of students is quite high with a mean of 76.78 and a standard deviation of 16.96. (shrink)

The Mental Health Literacy Scale is the most widely used and strong theory-based measurement tool to gain an understanding of mental health knowledge and ability. This study aimed to test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Mental Health Literacy Scale and to document the norm and its influential factors of mental health literacy among nurses. The MHLS was translated following Brislin’s translation model and tested with a sample of 872 (...) clinical registered nurses. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 were administered to assess convergent validity. The minimum average partial test, parallel analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported 4 first-order 2 second-order structure. The 4 factors were named “knowledge of mental disorder,” “ability to seek information and help,” “recognition of mental disorder,” and “acceptance of patients with mental illness,” with factor 1-3 were summarized into MHLS-Core and factor 4 as MHLS-SA. The MHLS-C was moderately negatively correlated with the PHQ-2 and GAD-2 and highly positively correlated with JSE-HP. The Cronbach’s α was 0.85 for the overall scale and 0.89 and 0.93 for two subscales. The test-retest reliability was good, with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.80 for the whole scale, and 0.79 and 0.94 for two subscales. As an approximately normal distribution, the 50th percentile for the MHLS-C was 99, with 50th percentiles of 74 and 20 for MHLS-Core and MHLS-SA. Higher position, higher professional credentials, higher hospital hierarchy, other specialist hospital, psychiatric hospital and unmarried status were positive predictors. The 29-item MHLS-C, with two subscales of MHLS-Core and MHLE-SA, is a stable and validated tool to measure mental health literacy. MHLS-Core could be used independently to measure the core content of mental health literacy. It may be applicable for Chinese health professionals, but need further validation among the general public. MHL curriculum and a targeted culturally appropriate program for acceptance for health professionals, especially for those in general hospitals and with less working tenure, may be recommended. (shrink)

A central thesis of the book is that we can assume "the worst" about what science tells us about the human animal without having to sacrifice any of the things that are of most importance to ethics: virtue and the good life, harmony of the ...

While knowledge represents a valuable commodity, not all forms of knowledge are afforded equal status. The politics of knowledge, which entails the privileging of particular ways of knowing through linkages between the producers of knowledge and other bearers of authority or influence, represents a powerful force driving knowledge development. Within the health research and practice community, biomedical knowledge (i.e. knowledge pertaining to the biological factors influencing health) has been afforded a privileged position, shaping the health research and (...) practice community's view of health, illness and appropriate intervention. The aim of this study is to spark critical reflection and dialogue surrounding the ways in which the politics of knowledge have constrained progress in addressing mental health and illness, one of today's leading public health issues. I argue that the hegemony of biological knowledge represents an ethical issue as it limits the breadth of knowledge available to support practitioners to ‘do good’ in terms of addressing mental illness. Given the power and influence inherent within the nursing community, I propose that nurses ought to engage in critical reflection and action in an effort to better situate the health research and practice community to effectively address the mental health of populations. (shrink)

Our premise is that ethics is the essence of good forensic practice and that mental health professionals must adhere to the ethical principles, standards, and guidelines of their professional bodies when they communicate their findings and opinions. We demonstrate that adhering to ethical principles can improve the quality of forensic reports and communications. We demonstrate this by focusing on the most basic principles that underlie professional ethical standards and guidelines, namely, Fidelity and Responsibility, Integrity, Respecting Rights and (...) Dignity of Persons, and Justice and Fairness. For each principle we offer a brief definition and explain its demands. Then we identify ways in which the principle can guide the organization, content, or style of forensic mental health report writing, offering illustrative examples that demonstrate or abuse the principle. (shrink)

This study examines whether character strengths predict resilience (operationalized as stable or higher mental health and subjective well-being despite an adverse event) over a period of approximately one month during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain. Using a longitudinal design, participants (N = 348 adults) completed online measures of sociodemographic data, information regarding their situation in relation to the COVID-19, character strengths, general mental health, life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. All variables were measured at (...) Time 1 and Time 2, except for sociodemographic and most COVID-related information (Time 1 only). Time 1 data collection was conducted between March 21, 2020 and April 2, 2020, i.e., approximately the second week of lockdown in Spain. Time 2 data collection was conducted between April 24, 2020 and May 18, 2020, after the Spanish government announced ita intention to progressively release the lockdown. A principal component analysis of character strengths was conducted. Five character strength factors were extracted: fortitude, goodness, intellectual, interpersonal, and restraint. Factor structures at Times 1 and 2 were highly consistent. All character strength factors at Time 1 correlated positively with life satisfaction and positive affect, and negatively with negative affect and mental health at T2 (higher scores in the mental health measure indicate poorer mental health). Fortitude strengths showed the highest correlations. We conducted a series of regression analyses with strength factors at Time 1 as predictors, and mental health, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect as dependent variables, controlling for their baseline levels. To test the directionality of the relationship between strengths and the dependent variables, all analyses were reversed. All character strength factors predicted an increase in mental health. They also predicted positive affect, with the exception of strengths of restraint. Fortitude, intellectual and interpersonal strengths predicted an increase in life satisfaction. Finally, fortitude strengths, interpersonal strengths, and strengths of restraint, predicted a decrease in negative affect. None of the reversed analyses yielded significant effects. Limitations, implications, and possible character strengths-based interventions aimed at promoting mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 10.4 (2003) 373-378 [Access article in PDF] The Forgotten Self:Training Mental Health and Social Care Workers to Work With Service Users Kim Woodbridge Keywords self, workers perspective, them and us, win-win situation The three main papers and the case studies presented in this issue of Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology all focus on the service user perspective in relation to the self as illustrated (...) by different aspects of philosophy. This is also in the context of the service user looking for help during a time when they are experiencing levels of distress and difficulty.Important as this is, evident by the substantial clinical and philosophical literature in this area, what has been overlooked is the perspective of the mental health and social care worker responsible for the care of individuals whose sense of self is disturbed. The significance of this omission has been brought home to me through my experiences in running training workshops for workers working with service users with a diagnosis of personality disorder. (From here on, in this paper, the terms worker and trainee are used interchangeably to refer to the mental health and social care worker).During these workshops challenges to the worker's sense of self have been revealed emotionally ("this doesn't feel like me"), ideologically ("I am not a bad person"), and/or practically ("I don't usually behave like this") when discussing their work with service users. This paper draws from the workshop experiences to explore and consider the workers perspective in relation to the self in more detail.There follows a descriptive account of three workshop sessions which include the trainees responses. With each activity the responses are considered within the context of the self, particularly from the worker's perspective. In the conclusion the argument is made, as evidenced by these illustrations, for the importance of including the workers' perspective when attempting to understand the self. The Trainees and Service Users Workers from various professional and nonprofessional backgrounds attend the workshops. They include psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, support workers, and occupational therapists who work in both in-patient and community settings. They usually have several years of clinical experience working with people with a [End Page 373] diagnosis of personality disorder, but rarely have they had any formal education or training in the area. Discussing their experiences of working with this service user group generates strong and highly emotionally charged personal responses during training.It is their experiences of the relationships with service users whose sense of self is absent, inconsistent, or unstable, that make a substantial contribution to the content of the workshops.Often service users are struggling with fragmented, distorted, or threatening perceptions of the world, themselves, and others. The worker, while embedded within their own sense of self, is engaged in a relationship with the service user. The issues that arise as a part of this relationship can be challenging and distressing for the workers. There are two main areas:The impact the service user's chaotic, fragmented, and unstable sense of self has on the worker's own sense of self.The response of the workers when their sense of self is challenged, and the impact that response has on the service user. These can be seen in more detail in the examples taken from the training sessions presented later in this paper. The Training Sessions The training sessions are either run alone or form part of a 1- or 2-day workshop. As mentioned, the groups are composed of a variety of professionally and nonprofessionally qualified staff. The experiences they share mainly relate to people with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, although other subcategories are mentioned occasionally. Information regarding these and other related sessions can be found in two recent publications: Making positive connections (Duff, Meredith, & Woodbridge,2003) and "Whose good practice?" (Woodbridge & Fulford, 2003). The First Activity: Revealing Internal Models Given the lack of available evidence, even the best-informed trainees are likely to have to fill in the knowledge gaps with their own interpretations of... (shrink)

Traditional mental health models focus on psychopathological symptoms. In contrast, a dual-factor model of mental health integrates psychopathology and subjective well-being into a mental health continuum, and it is adjustment and supplement for traditional mental health research paradigm. The present study explores the applicability of a dual-factor model of mental health in mental health screening of Chinese college students. To assess mental health statuses of 2,065 college (...) students, we used Flourishing Scale Chinese Version, Satisfaction With Life Scale, the seven-item Patient Health Questionnaire, the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form, and Purpose in Life Test–Short Form. Results showed that the dual-factor model of mental health has a good fit index. Also, a feasible screening scale was addressed. The results indicate the importance of addressing both subjective well-being and psychopathology in evaluating mental health screening of college students. (shrink)

Background:The severity of the Coronavirus pandemic has led to lockdowns in different countries to reduce the spread of the infection. These lockdown restrictions are likely to be detrimental to mental health and well-being in adolescents. Physical activity can be beneficial for mental health and well-being; however, research has yet to examine associations between adolescent physical activity and mental health and well-being during lockdown.Purpose:Examine the effects of adolescent perceived Coronavirus prevalence and fear on mental (...) health and well-being and investigate the extent to which physical activity can be a protective factor against these concerns.Methods:During United Kingdom lockdown restrictions, 165 participants (100 female, aged 13–19) completed an online questionnaire assessing perceived Coronavirus prevalence and fear, physical activity, and indicators of mental health and well-being (stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, vitality, and perceived health). Separate hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses (with age, gender, perceived Coronavirus prevalence, and fear entered in step 1, and physical activity in step 2) were run to predict each well-being outcome.Results:Regression analyses indicated that in general, while Coronavirus fear was a negative predictor, physical activity was a positive and stronger predictor of enhanced mental health and well-being outcomes.Conclusion:Findings suggest that physical activity during the Coronavirus pandemic can counteract the negative effects of Coronavirus fear on adolescent mental health and well-being. Therefore, physical activity should be promoted during lockdown to support good mental health and well-being. (shrink)

This article clarifies how the freedom of thought as a human right can be understood and promoted as a right of mental health service users, especially people with psychotic disorder, by using Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach and Fulford’s and Fulford et al ’s values-based practice. According to Nussbaum, freedom of thought seems to primarily protect the capability to think, believe and feel. This capability can be promoted in the context of mental health services by values-based practice. (...) The article points out that both Nussbaum’s approach and values-based practice recognise that people’s values differ. The idea of involving different actors and service users in mental healthcare is also common in both Nussbaum’s approach and values-based practice. However, there are also differences in that values-based practice relies on a ‘good process’ in decision-making, whereas the capabilities approach is oriented towards a ‘right outcome’. However, since process and outcome are linked with each other, these two approaches do not necessarily conflict despite this difference. The article suggests that absolute rights are possible within the two approaches. It also recognises that the capabilities approach, values-based practice and human rights approach lean on liberal values and thus can be combined at least in liberal societies. (shrink)

This paper reflects on the needs for close interaction between psychiatry and all partners in international mental health for the improvement of mental health and advancement of the profession, with a particular view to the relationships between mental health, development and human rights. The World Health Organisation identifies strong links between mental health status and development for individuals, communities and countries. In order to improve population mental health, countries need (...) effective and accessible treatment, prevention, and promotion programmes. Achieving adequate support for mental health in any country requires a unified approach. Strong links between psychiatrists, community leaders and patients and families that are based on negotiation and respect, are vital for progress. When strong partnerships exist, they can contribute to community understanding and advancement of psychiatry. This is the first step towards scaling up good quality care for those living with mental illnesses, preventing illnesses in those at risk, and promoting mental health through work with other community sectors. Partnerships are needed to support education and research in psychiatry, and improvements in quality of care wherever psychiatry is practiced, including primary health and community mental health services, hospitals and private practice. There are important roles for psychiatry in building the strength of organisations that champion the advocacy and support roles of service users and family carers, and encouraging partnerships for mental health promotion in the community. (shrink)

Standards for professional training and practice are defined by accrediting organisations or statutory bodies. These describe the arena in which the practitioner may speak with authority. The sphere of authorised practice is further delineated by the external resources available. Within this explicit framework, unconscious mental processes can affect the professional response in potentially adverse ways. This is particularly important in mental health practice. Professionals must be prepared to examine their own responses on this basis in order to (...) enhance their knowledge of the patient and minimise the possibilities of the patient becoming the victim of the professional's own psychopathology. The maintenance of such a position in an institution or organisation requires a similar process within its structure in order to provide the necessary setting and define the limits of good practice. In this paper, the field of adolescent mental health is specifically examined. (shrink)

Generalized anxiety disorder can cause significant socioeconomic burden and daily life dysfunction; hence, therapeutic intervention through early detection is important. This study was the final stage of a 3-year anxiety screening tool development project that evaluated the psychometric properties and diagnostic screening utility of the Mental Health Screening Tool for Anxiety Disorders, which measures GAD. A total of 527 Koreans completed online and offline versions of the MHS: A, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Penn State Worry (...) Questionnaire. The participants had an average age of 38.6 years and included 340 females. Participants were also administered the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Internal consistency, convergent/criterion validity, item characteristics, and test information were assessed based on the item response theory, and a factor analysis and cut-off score analyses were conducted. The MHS: A had good internal consistency and good convergent validity with other anxiety scales. The two versions of the MHS: A were nearly identical. It had a one-factor structure and showed better diagnostic accuracy for GAD detection than the GAD-7 and BAI. The IRT analysis indicated that the MHS: A was most informative as a screening tool for GAD. The MHS: A can serve as a clinically useful screening tool for GAD in Korea. Furthermore, it can be administered both online and offline and can be flexibly used as a brief mental health screener, especially with the current rise in telehealth. (shrink)

Introduction Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is approved under a humanitarian device exemption to manage treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (TR-OCD) in adults. It is possible that DBS may be trialed or used clinically off-label in children and adolescents with TR-OCD in the future. DBS is already used to manage treatment-resistant childhood dystonia. Evidence suggests it is a safe and effective intervention for certain types of dystonia. Important questions remain unanswered about the use of DBS in children and adolescents with TR-OCD, including whether (...) mental health clinicians would refer pediatric patients for DBS, and who would be a good candidate for DBS.Objectives To explore mental health clinicians’ views on what clinical and psychosocial factors they would consider when determining which children with OCD would be good DBS candidates.Materials and Methods In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with n = 25 mental health clinicians who treat pediatric patients with OCD. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Three questions focused on key, clinical, and psychosocial factors for assessing candidacy were analyzed to explore respondent views on candidacy factors. Our analysis details nine overarching themes expressed by clinicians, namely the patient’s previous OCD treatment, OCD severity, motivation to commit to treatment, presence of comorbid conditions, family environment, education on DBS, quality of life, accessibility to treatment, and patient age and maturity.Conclusions Clinicians generally saw considering DBS treatment in youth as a last resort and only for very specific cases. DBS referral was predominantly viewed as acceptable for children with severe TR-OCD who have undertaken intensive, appropriate treatment without success, whose OCD has significantly reduced their quality of life, and who exhibit strong motivation to continue treatment given the right environment. Appropriate safeguards, eligibility criteria, and procedures should be discussed and identified before DBS for childhood TR-OCD becomes practice. (shrink)

This article aims at giving insight into Norwegian mental health service by exploring the ideologies of two diametrical philosophers, the American Robert Nozick (1938–2002) and the German Axel Honneth (1949‐). Nozick proposes as an ideal a minimal state in which citizens have a “negative right” to the absence of interference and to follow their own interests without restriction from the state. On the other side, Axel Honneth claims that there is no freedom without state interference. In his view, (...) governmental involvement is understood as a prerequisite for personal freedom. We may call this state an opposite of the minimal state; a maximal state. To get a better understanding of these opposite philosophies, we use texts written from conversations with people suffering from mental health problems, nurses and other caregivers in four Norwegian municipalities. Nozick's notion of the minimal state and Honneth's political philosophy of freedom and recognition were used as analytical tools. Among patients and helpers, there were different opinions about good care and how much caregivers should intervene. Some emphasized autonomy, independency, minimal involvement in human contact by nurses and other caregivers, similar a minimal state. Others perceived good care as bonding between helpers and service‐users. They underlined equal and personal relationships, as well as helping with practicalities, similar a maximal state. In the discussion, we focus on how people with chronic illnesses are supposed to transform themselves into self‐cared individuals, able to manage their own condition successfully with minimal help from public welfare and at a lower cost. Finally, we express concerns about who will care for disempowered patients without family and other resources in a minimal state. (shrink)

The focus of this paper is the moral and scientific value of ‘expertise by experience’, that is, knowledge based on personal experience of ill mental health as a form of expertise in mental health research. In contrast to individualistic theories of personal autonomy and the first-person in bioethics, my account of shared decision-making is focussed on how a relational approach to the ‘person’ and ‘patient values’ can throw new light on our understanding of ‘voice’ in (...) class='Hi'>mental health research. The mistake, I argue, is to think that a commitment to listening to the patient voice in the process of perspective taking implies a threat to ‘objectivity’ in clinical practice and the very concept of evidence in the philosophy of science more generally. Instead, I use Helen Longino's account of epistemic validity in philosophy of science to argue that narrative experience and ‘patient perspective’ should be understood as an ongoing dynamic partnership working between the different stakeholders’ knowledge perspectives. I also address the connection between expertise by experience and the psychiatric significance of the personal self for the entrenched topics of agency, self-hood, personal identity, and self-knowledge in psychiatric diagnosis. In contrast to identity politics, my model of shared decision-making preserves a critical distance between perspective-taking and value itself in self/other appraisal as the gold standard for good clinical practice. (shrink)

In Grief: A Philosophical Guide, Michael Cholbi presents a compelling account of the nature of grief. To further illustrate how fruitful the philosophical study of grief, and Cholbi’s account of it is, I present three sets of comments. The first regards the extent to which Cholbi’s account of grief also provides an account of vicarious grief. The second concerns the paradox of grief and the good of grief, and suggests one reason we may recommend grief is that grieving is (...) healthy. The final set of comments pertains to the duty to grieve, and whether this duty may extend to other emotionally rich activities, such as falling in love. (shrink)

Personal recovery entails the idea of learning to live a good life in the face of mental illness. It takes place in a continuous dynamic between change and acceptance and involves the existential dimension in the broadest sense. With cognitive self-regulation and empowerment as central elements, however, current models of recovery mostly have an individual focus instead of a relational one. Furthermore, there seems to be an emphasis on the component of change. Little attention is payed to the (...) role and integration of dealing with loss in personal recovery. In this paper, the role of loss in mental illness will be elaborated from an existential perspective. This will be done by relating existential changes to possibly disruptive experiences of loss in wider experience. With the help of several perspectives on dealing with loss it will be argued this can be integrated in processes of recovery. Then, it will be elaborated how reexperiencing a state of being surrounded, or being included, being held is a necessary part of recovery. The result consists of a refinement of the view on personal recovery. The aim of this paper is therefore twofold: (1) to arrive at a better understanding of what existential loss and loss in wider experience in the context of psychopathology entails, and (2) to further develop perspectives on recovery in mental health care. (shrink)

This study aims to explore new educational strategies suitable for the mental health education of college students. Big data and artificial intelligence are combined to evaluate the mental health education of college students in sports majors. First, the research status on the mental health education of college students is introduced. The internet of things on mental health education, a structure based on big data and convolutional neural network, is constructed. Next, the survey (...) design and questionnaire survey are carried out. Finally, the questionnaire data are analyzed and compared with the mental health status under traditional education. The results show that the CNN model has good accuracy and ability to distinguish symptoms, so it can be applied to the existing psychological work in colleges. In the symptom comparison survey, under the traditional education and big data network, the number of college students with mild mental health problems is found to be 158 and 170, respectively. It indicates that the number of college students with moderate mental health problems decreases significantly. In the comparative investigation of the severity of mental problems, the number of students with normal mental health, subhealth, and serious mental health problems under the background of traditional mental health education is 125, 56, and 5, respectively. The mental health status of college students under the influence of big data networks on mental health education is better than that of traditional mental health education. There are 140 students with normal mental health, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%. In the comparative survey of specific mental disorders, students with obsessive-compulsive symptoms under traditional mental health education account for 22.0% of the total sample, having the largest proportion. In the subhealth psychological group under the big data network on mental health education, the number of hostile students decreases by 7, which is the psychological factor with the most obvious improvement. Hence, the proposed path of mental health education is feasible. (shrink)

Background: The brief generic Multicultural Quality of Life Index is a culturally informed self-report 10-item questionnaire used to measure health-related quality of life. QoL is an important outcome measure in guiding healthcare and is held as a substantial parameter to evaluate the effectiveness of healthcare. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children might negatively influence the parents’ QoL. Having a validated questionnaire to measure QoL for this population will therefore be a vital first step in guiding healthcare for parents of (...) children with ADHD. We aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Norwegian version of the MQLI in a sample of parents of children with ADHD.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 128 parents of children with ADHD were recruited from four outpatient clinics within the Child and Adolescents Mental Health Services in Norway. They completed the MQLI along with an alternative well-being scale, the Five-item World Health Organization Well-being Index, and a form including demographic variables. Reliability and validity of the MQLI were examined. We conducted a factor analysis and calculated internal consistency and the correlation between the MQLI and the WHO-5.Results: Factor analysis of the parents reported MQLI yielded a one-factor solution. For the MQLI, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.73. The correlation between the two measures of MQLI and WHO-5 was high, reflecting convergent validity since the association between the two measures was strong.Conclusion: Results from this study support the reliability and validity of the Norwegian version of the MQLI for assessment of quality of life in parents of children with ADHD with good psychometric properties. Study findings support the use of the questionnaire in CAMHS. (shrink)

College students face a variety of challenges today, and the degree of their psychological health directly impacts their ability to overcome these challenges. A good psychological state helps college students to invest better in their career development and improve the degree of social integration. This paper uses the SCL-90 Symptom Self-Assessment Scale and the Social Support Rating Scale to investigate the mental health, psychological support, and social support of students from low income backgrounds in two universities (...) in Hainan City. The research results showed that there was no significant difference between the objective support scores of students from low income backgrounds in higher vocational colleges and non-poor students, while the subjective support and utilization of support scores were significantly lower than those of non-poor students. In essence, successful social support should not only be one-dimensional support from the subject to the object, but should be a process of two-sided interaction, or a process of “mutual construction” between supporters and those supported. According to the research conclusions, this paper suggests how to improve the degree of mental health of college students by way of forming a comprehensive educational environment including campus culture construction, ideological and moral education, and economic assistance system. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Narrative Formulation RevisitedOn Seeing the Person in Mental Health RecoveryAnna Bergqvist (bio)The use of narrative in mental health contexts models consciousness as something necessarily embodied, as already part of the world, in an inherently value-laden and perspectival way. As such narrative presents a powerful tool for critical reassessment and reevaluation of preconceived ideas in relating to difficult concepts in clinical interactions.Narrative structures can reveal psychological (...) differences between persons in a way that matters for the provision of effective treatment and management. As emphasized by Solomon (2015), narrative reasoning is also motivated by distinctly first-personal concerns that are operative in the practitioner–client relationship. I maintain that the dynamics of that interpersonal relationship are part and parcel of what it means to address the patient's needs to be seen as a person in humanistic empathetic care—without thereby reducing truth to an individual person's perspective to encourage positive transformation.1The notion of empowering narratives to encourage positive change is a core concept behind the emphasis on the critical role of empathy in explaining human development and psychoanalytic change within the self-psychology tradition but is also key to recovery-based models of the significance of person-centered quality of life in medicine more generally. This is defined in mental health as recovering a good quality of life as determined by the values of (by what matters or is important to) the individual concerned (Allott, Loganathan, & Fulford, 2002; Fulford, 1989, 2004; Fulford, Peile, & Carroll, 2012). The importance of strengths in this regard was reflected for example in the UK government program on values-based mental health assessment. The 3 Keys program, as it was called (National Institute for Mental Health in England, NIMHE, and the Care Services Improvement Partnership, 20082) identified three shared 'keys' to good practice in mental health assessment: three things that were identified in a wide-ranging consultation as being important alike by health professionals of all kinds and by 'service users' thus understood as patients and carers (Fulford, Duhig, Hankin, Hicks, & Keeble, 2015a; Fulford, Dewey, & King, 2015b). The third of these keys was defined in [End Page 7] the subsequently published Good Practice Guidance, as "a person-centred focus that builds on the strengths, resiliencies and aspirations of the individual service user as well as identifying his or her needs and challenges" (NIMHE, 2008: 6); and the guidance included a number of real-life case examples of best recovery practice reflecting this aspect of mental health care (Slade et al., 2014).What my (Bergqvist, 2018, 2020, 2022, forthcoming) account adds to this claim is that while such choices are revelatory or expressive of a distinctly first-personal stance, they do not constitute or determine selfhood and self-interpretation in a fixed way. Moreover, the reason is that one can also adopt a second-personal stance on one's own experience and address oneself, where the relationship between the first- and the second-personal narrative perspective on experience and self-understanding is itself a dynamic and open-ended evaluative process.Anna Bergqvist Anna Bergqvist is Reader in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University since 2021, and has been Postgraduate Research Coordinator and AHRC North West Doctoral Pathway Consortium Lead for Philosophy since 2020. I was elected to a Visiting Fellowship at St Catherine's College University of Oxford for Michaelmas Term 2021. Her service to the profession out with the University includes acting as Secretary of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Section for Philosophy & Humanities in Psychiatry (October 2020 – present), Executive Committee Member of the Royal College of Psychiatry (RCPsych) SIG in Philosophy (February 2020 – present) and External Examiner, University of Liverpool (November 2019 – present, 4-year tenure). She is also Director of the Values-based Theory Network at St Catherine's Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice at the University of Oxford, and Member of its Whiteness and Race Equality Network. Her approach to philosophy bridges the disciplines of moral philosophy, moral psychology and philosophy of psychiatry to improve lives through her reputable expertise in moral perception and co-production as a mechanism for change.Notes1. Here I side with Goldie (2012) and Solomon (2015), who... (shrink)