It is suggested that the lack of progress made towards understanding and preventing, or even in many cases even alleviating, psychological suffering has been due, in large part, to the way in which such suffering is conceptualised – as ‘disorder’, ‘illness’ or ‘disease’ which is located, and is thus potentially locatable, within the individual. This conceptualisation of psychological suffering is referred to in this thesis as the ‘Dysfunctional Mind Account’ (DMA). The DMA, it is argued, underlies all accepted models/theories of psychological suffering and is the dominant way of conceptualising such suffering for both professionals and lay-people in Western cultures. It is further argued that the main reason the DMA is unable to assist in understanding and alleviating psychological suffering is because it is underpinned by assumptions about human beings and their suffering which are inherently flawed. The account presented in this thesis places at its centre an analysis of persons and their experience that attempts to overthrow these assumptions. The resulting reconceptualisation presents a view of psychological suffering as emergent from our continual personal and embodied enmeshment within our social world, rather than as arising primarily out of the various processes occurring ‘within’ us (whether that be our neurochemistry or our ‘mental mechanisms’ or an ‘interaction’ between them). It is essentially suggested that psychological suffering emerges from the same source as all other aspects of our personal being; from the constant coactions between the various aspects of our being in the world – personal, organismic and molecular – with the environment within which we are enmeshed. This means that the feelings/thoughts/behaviours conceptualised as ‘mental disorder’ are as much part of our personal being as any other aspect of us; they are not ‘other’, they are not ‘disease’, ‘illness’ or ‘dysfunction’. Such feelings/thoughts/ behaviours, it is argued, almost always, perhaps inevitably, represent a very adaptive response, at every level of our being, to environmental contingencies. Thus, when understood in its full context, the suffering conceptualised as ‘mental disorder’ can be seen as the very understandable responses of the embodied person to what is happening to them, rather than ‘un-understandable’ dysfunctions, aberrations and pathological processes of the ‘mind’ (or brain).

The aim of this study was to find out: (a) the role played by various agencies in the discharge procedure and (b) former psychiatric patients" own perspective on their social network, quality of life and future life expectations. The theoretical framework is based on Mead's symbolic interactionism, Asplund's interpretation of Tönnies' concepts Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and Buber's dialogical philosophy. Descriptive, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered on four occasions from May 1984 to December 1986. On three occasions professionals provided information by means of structured questionnaires. Information on the last occasion was provided by former patients through interviews by means of a semistructured questionnaire. Seventy-three patients were discharged during the research period. I was able to follow 50 through all four stages. Fifty-three patients were interviewed. Other agencies were hardly involved at all in the discharge procedure except for the provision of home support. The duration of and stigma attached to mental illness, being without work and gender seemed to have the most influence on the primary network. The same issues (with the exception of gender), together with place of residence, financial difficulties and inability to exert influence over one's own situation influenced the former patients' quality of life and their expectations of the future. Special attention has been given to their occupational situation and to their relations to the professional network. Work opportunities were highly valued but most of the former patients were excluded from the labour market. The LFP groups satisfaction with the home care workers and dissatisfaction with the psychiatric professionals seemed to be due to the former's ability to undertake a ’caring’ relationship. / <p>S. 1-67: sammanfattning, s. 71-147, [3] s.: 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

Bakgrund: I dag upplever många närstående till personer med psykisk ohälsa svårigheter i att bli delaktiga i den professionella vården. Närstående beskriver vårdpersonalen som ointresserade av att möta personer med psykisk ohälsa. Det beskrivs att vårdpersonal har negativt bemötande gentemot personer som söker vård samt till närstående. Syfte: Att beskriva upplevelser hos närstående till personer med psykisk ohälsa i kontakten med den professionella vården. Metod: Litteraturstudie baserad på självbiografier med analysförfarande utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Upplevelserna från närstående till personer med psykisk ohälsa har beskrivits utifrån följande tema: Vara delaktig men samtidigt åsidosatt - Maktlöshetens ansikte. Temat har identifierats utifrån följande kategorier; Tillit för den professionella vården, När känslor tar överhand och Vårdmiljöns betydelse. Resultatet påvisar vad som gör upplevelsen hos närstående positiv eller negativ. En positiv upplevelse beskrivs ofta av närstående när de upplevt ett gott och trevligt bemötande från vårdpersonal. Negativa upplevelser beskrivs när vårdpersonal uppvisar dålig kunskap i ämnet och en sämre attityd i bemötande gentemot närstående. Vårdmiljön är också betydelsefull. Slutsats: Det finns behov av att implementera och genomföra förbättringsarbeten i professionell vård som möter närstående till personer med psykisk ohälsa. Exempelvis utvecklingsstrategier vid anställning av personal i den psykiatriska vården / Introduction: Next of kin to persons with mental illness often experience it difficult to be involved in the professional health care. Next of kin often describe the health care professionals as disinterested and negative approach towards them and the person who is ill. Aim: To describe experiences from next of kin to persons with mental illness in contact with the professional health care. Method: A study based of autobiographies with analysis method based on a qualitative content analysis. Result: This study results emerged in the main theme; To be involved but also infringed -The face of Powerless. The theme has been identified based on the following categories; Trust for the health care, Emotions taking over and The importance health care environments. The result describes what makes the experience from next of kin positive or negative. Positive experiences were often described when they experienced a good and friendly approach from a health care professional. Negative experiences are described when health care professionals have lacking knowledge and worse attitude towards them. The result also describe that the healthcare environment are important. Conclusion: There are needs to implement and carry out improvements in the professional health care in meeting next of kin of people with mental illness. For example development strategies when health care professionals are recruited in the professional health care.

Bakgrund: Barns och ungas psykiska hälsa har försämrats sedan 1990-talet. Förekomsten av mobbning ligger på samma nivå sedan samma tid. Mobbning och kränkningar har negativa effekter på barns psykiska hälsa. Skolsköterskor har en central roll vad gäller att främja skolbarns hälsa. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur skolsköterskor ser på sin roll i arbetet mot mobbning och kränkningar i skolan.  Metod: Kvalitativ metod med induktiv ansats. Elva  e-postintervjuer har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras i fyra teman. Resultatet visar att skolsköterskor vill, men har inte tillräckligt med tid att arbeta mot mobbning. att hen identifierar och bemöter elever som är utsatta för mobbning, att hen samarbetar med andra professioner på skolan samt att hen även arbetar preventivt i arbetet mot mobbning.  Konklusion: Skolsköterskorna såg sig inte som framträdande i arbetet mot mobbning och kränkningar. Deras syn på sin roll var främst att identifiera och bemömta utsatta elever och hälsosamtalet var deras främsta redskap. Samarbete med andra professioner ansågs vara viktigt för att kunna möta elevens behov. / Background: Mental disorders among children and adolescents has increased since the 90´s. The presence of bullying has not changed. Bullying leads to negative psychological health effects. The school nurse has an important role in the health promoting work in schools. Purpose: The aim of this study is to describe school nurses perceptions of their role in the work towards bullying in schools. Methodology: A qualitative method with eleven interviews made via e-mail. The interviews were analyzed with an inductive qualitative content analysis.  Result: The result is presented in four themes. The result shows that the school nurse wants to but don´t have enough time to work towards bullying, the scholl nurse identify and encounter students involved in bullyin, cooperate with other professionals at school and also work preventively towards bullying. Conclusion: The school nurses didn´t perceive themselves as the most prominent person in the anti-bullying work in schools. Their perceptions of their role was to discover and to encounter children involved in bullying and the health dialogue is their main tool.

Det finns en problematik i att avbilda ett sinnestillstånd och enskilda känslor med illustration utan att vara abstrakt eller specifik. För att informera om känslor till en målgrupp med en bild, bör studier om det specifika sinnestillståndets utföras.  I detta arbete studeras sinnestillståndet mental ohälsa och dess inflytande på individen som resulterar i ansiktsuttryck och kroppsspråk. Arbetet innefattar teorier om trovärdighet, uppmärksamhet och bildmanér. Studieobjektet är organisationen Läkare utan gränsers hemsida, koncentrerat på deras information om mental hälsa/ohälsa. Syftet med arbetet är att förtydliga informationen på Läkare utan gränsers hemsida med en illustration. För att skapa illustrationen har tidigare forskning studerats och en bildanalys och omvärldsanalys har sammanställts. Illustrationens manér har beslutats utifrån en enkätundersökning med fokus på den enskilda individen.  I arbetet är den enskilda individens upplevelse betydelsefull. Samhällets värderingar och förutfattade meningar har uteslutits. / There is a dilemma in creating an image that depicts a state of mind or an individual feeling whitout being abstract or specific. Informing a target audience about a feeling using an image requires studies on the specific mental state. This study focuses on the state of mind of the mental illness and its influence on the human body that results in facial expressions and body language. This report includes theories on credibility, attention and image manners. The object for this study is the website of the organization Mèdecins sans frontières, with focus on their information about mental health/illness. The aim of this study is to clarify the information about mental health/illness with an illustration on the organization´s website. In creating the illustration, studies on previous work has been conducted and an image analysis as well as an external analysis have been compiled. Illustration´s mannerisms have been decided on the basis of a survey, with focus on the individual. In this report the individual experience has been paramount. Society´s values and preconceptions has been excluded.

No description available.

Aim To describe psychiatric nursing students‟ stereotypical beliefs associated with mental illness labels and the potential mediating effects of information provided from curriculum content and contact through clinical placement. Methodology Four nursing campuses were sampled, resulting in one hundred and thirty two (n=132) participants. Participants remained the same for all three phases of the repeated measure. A quantitative approach, non-experimental survey design with repeated measures made use of a self-report questionnaire. Section A included demographic data (age, gender and cultural group), while Section B consisted of a semantic differential measure (SDM) focusing on three mental illness labels; schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar mood disorder. Data was collected on the first day of the psychiatric nursing training block, the last day of the training block, and the first day of the second training block, after approximately six weeks of clinical placement in specialist psychiatric settings. Results Participant scores suggested greater negative stereotypical beliefs associated with the schizophrenia label in all the three phases of data collection. The bipolar mood disorder label was the least associated with negative stereotypical beliefs. Information given during the initial teaching block and contact during the clinical placement period resulted in a slight reduction of negative stereotypical beliefs associated with the schizophrenic label. In contrast negative stereotypical beliefs associated with the bipolar mood disorder label were increased slightly after information and contact. Conclusion and recommendation The results of the study confirmed that health care professionals are not different from the general population in their negative stereotypical beliefs towards mental illness labels. A review of the proposed new nursing curriculum should specifically include emphasis on psychosocial rehabilitation. In addition, clinical placement of the student nurses must be designed to ensure interaction with mental health care users engaged in recovery and community integration to remove perceptions of inability to recover associated with mental illness labels (Adewuya & Oguntade, 2007; Adewuya & Makanjuola, 2008; Corrigan, 2007; Smith, 2010). / M.N. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014

In reviewing the literature on adult survivors of child sexual abuse/incest, it became apparent that one area has remained in its infancy: a systematic method of symptom assessment. Symptoms, both short and long term, have become clinically well documented. An index, the Sexual Abuse Survivors Symptom Index (evaluating absence/presence, frequency, severity, and impact of symptoms upon the survivor), was developed rationally from the literature was administered. A background questionnaire, simplified from one already in use, was also administered to provide information regarding variables that could confound the research.Approximately 130 female adult clinical subjects were approached to determine whether they would participate in the study. Thirty-three subjects agreed to participate. Due to the small sample size, results of the factor analysis cannot be considered reliable. The principal component factor analysis did produce eight factors, which did not converge in the varimax rotation, however, three factors did emerge. The three factors represented an affective component (almost one half of the symptoms), a somatic/sexual component, and an acting out component.The background questionnaire provided some basic support to the variables the literature reported as affecting symptom severity or likelihood for abuse to occur. Areas endorsed as most severe or correlated strongly and moderately to individual symptoms were ones that were directly connected to the abuse(i.e., age of first inappropriate sexual experience, duration of the abuse, multiple abusers, frequency of the abuse, fear of being hurt by the abusers, and overt/contact type of abuse). The variables that influenced the likelihood for abuse to occur, (i.e., substance abuse, strictness, rigid religious traditions, and physical discipline) were endorsed by slightly less than one half of the subjects, but may have had severe impact individually upon each survivor of abuse. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

SAMMANFATTNING Titel: Ortorexia nervosa- Hälsa som blir ohälsa Institution: Institutionen för hälsa och lärande, Högskolan i Skövde Kurs: Examensarbete i folkhälsovetenskap, 15 högskolepoäng Författare: Bergendahl, Jessica; Östman, Evelina Handledare: Ekberg, Joakim Sidor: 23 Månad och år: 06/2014 Nyckelord: Ortorexia Nervosa, Hälsa, Psykisk ohälsa, Medias påverkan Bakgrund: En ny hälsosam livsstil börjar ofta med en god intention, men ibland kan den hälsosamma livsstilen gå för långt. Ortorexia nervosa var från början tänkt som ett sätt att benämna en grupp patienter med liknande problematik, tills det framkom att detta var något som behövde undersökas närmre. En person med ortorexi är besatt av en hälsosam diet som istället kan bli farlig. Mål: Att beskriva vad ortorexi innebär, vilken sjukdomsstatus den har samt om det finns klara direktiv kring behandling. Metod: Vi har undersökt litteratur, vetenskapliga artiklar samt genomfört intervjuer med personer som har behörig kompetens kring ortorexi. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys har använts. Resultat: Ortorexia nervosa är ingen diagnos. Det är svårt att fastställa exakt vad de utlösande faktorerna är, dock är det troligt att det handlar om ett kontrollbehov. Med hjälp av en extremt hälsosam diet skapas en känsla av att ha kontroll. Media verkar ha stor inverkan. Slutsats: Slutsaten blev att mer forskning krävs inom området för att kunna fastställa vad ortorexia nervosa egentligen är. Ortorexia nervosa anses vara när en person försöker leva för hälsosamt och genom att strikt kontrollera kosten uppstår istället ohälsa. / ABSTRACT Title: Orthorexia Nervosa- Healthy turning unhealthy Department: School of Life Sciences, University of Skövde Course: University Diploma Project in Public Health Science,15 ECTS Author: Bergendahl, Jessica; Östman, Evelina Supervisor: Ekberg, Joakim Pages: 23 Month and year: 06/2014 Keywords: Orthorexia Nervosa, Health, Mental illness, Media influences Background: A healthier way of life often starts out with good intentions, but sometimes people take their healthy lifestyle too far. Orthorexia nervosa was meant to be a description for a group of people with similar problems, until it was clear that there might be more behind it. A person with orthorexia is obsessed with healthy dieting and takes it to the extreme. Aim: To investigate what orthorexia is and if there are clear guidelines about treatment. Method: We have studied literature, scientific articles, and completed interviews with people qualified in the fields of orthorexia. A qualitative study based on a content analysis was performed. Results: Orthorexia nervosa has no status of diagnosis. It is difficult to determine exactly what triggers orthorexia, however, it is likely that it is a need of control. Using an extremely healthy diet creates the feeling of being in control. Media seems to influence this. Conclusion: The conclusion was that more research is needed in order to decide what orthorexia nervosa actually stands for. Orthorexia nervosa is considered when a person tries to live as healthy as possible but by strictly controlling their diet illness occurs.

This study examined the effect of diagnostic label (schizophrenia, depression, diabetes, or amateur) on perceptions of an artist as measured by social distance, perceptions of aggressiveness, artwork favorability, and monetary value (of artwork). Previous contact with a person hospitalized for mental illness was assessed to determine its moderating effects. Participants were 165 undergraduate students (118 female, 47 male). Results found a significant main effect for label on perceptions of aggressiveness, but not on social distance, artwork favorability, or monetary value. Although artwork was evaluated favorably regardless of label, the label of schizophrenia increased perceptions of aggressiveness, but showed suggestive effects on social distance and artwork favorability. The overall findings suggest a complex relationship between the label of mental illness, previous contact, and the relative sensitivity of perceptions of aggressiveness and social distance to these effects. / Department of Psychological Science