Negative attitudes and stigmas against those diagnosed with mental illnesses have been found to prevail in modern society, despite the availability of effective treatments and attempts to educate people about mental health. Numerous studies have been conducted on the attitudes of various groups of people and communities towards mental illness. There is, however, limited research about student populations, particularly students registered for courses in the “allied health professions”. This study aimed to explore and describe the prevailing attitudes towards mental illness of a sample of the undergraduate Psychology student population (registered between 2nd and 4th year of study) within the Faculty of Health Sciences at a South African University. The procedure followed was an electronic intranet based survey, utilising the Community Attitudes to Mental Illness (CAMI) scale. The survey was accessed via the university’s student portal and links were sent via email to students to complete. A total of n=51 student responses were recorded and analysed. Data were quantitatively analysed using t-tests and Analyses of Variance (ANOVA). No statistically significant differences on the CAMI scales were found between the students in relation to the various student demographic variables such as age, gender, race or year level, and the CAMI findings. Overall, the sample of undergraduate Psychology students were shown to have favourable attitudes towards mental illness, which is potentially accounted for by their chosen field of study of Psychology. Education and knowledge about mental health were acknowledged as being most important in reducing stigma towards mental illness.

During the past 60 years, United States prisons have become one of the primary institutions caring for mentally ill individuals. Factors such as privatization of mental health care with a focus on profit-maximization, ineffective jail diversion programs, and unsuccessful mental health courts have contributed to prisons having an increased population of mentally ill inmates. In fact, about 20% of people who are currently incarcerated suffer from a major mental illness (Mason, 2007). Other elements outside of the justice system such as a lack of mental health awareness and a lack of resources have led to damaging interactions between the mentally ill and law enforcement and have added to this growing rate of mentally ill incarcerated. Given the harsh realities of prison, this overrepresentation of those suffering from mental illness is even more concerning and is worsened by aspects of prisons such as solitary confinement. This issue coupled with the lack of appropriate mental health care services being provided and the lack of support after release has led those suffering from mental illness to be potentially worse off than when they entered prison. This paper focuses on mental health care in prisons from admittance to post-release and provides evidence for the need to overhaul how those suffering from mental illness are treated. The responsibility of mental health care has been placed on prisons due to the escalation of inmates with mental illness, the failure of programs inside the justice system, and the lack of post-release follow-up. The physical setting, behavioral interactions, and personnel influences in prisons have led to worsening symptoms and have inhibited the ability to effectively treat these inmates. Given 95% of inmates will be released, these issues need to be addressed more comprehensively for the benefit of our society as a whole (Binswanger, Nowels, Corsi, Long, Booth, Jutner, & Steiner, 2011).

Bakgrund: Den psykiatriska vården har förändrats genom historien. En stor förändring skedde i samband med psykiatrireformen på 1990-talet. I samband med detta upplevde de närstående att de fick inta en mer vårdande roll och ett större ansvar för familjemedlemmen med psykisk ohälsa.   I tidigare studier framkommer att de närstående upplever börda i förhållande till sin familjemedlem och att det i sin tur har inverkan på den närståendes eget välbefinnande. Vidare påverkar detta den närståendes relation till familjemedlemmen med psykisk ohälsa.   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva närståendes upplevelser av hur relationen till en familjemedlem med psykisk ohälsa påverkas när familjemedlemmen flyttat till ett HVB-hem.   Metod: Studien genomfördes som en intervjustudie med kvalitativ induktiv ansats. I studien deltog tio respondenter och insamlat material bearbetades av författarna genom en kvalitativ latent innehållsanalys.   Resultat: I föreliggande studie framkommer att de närstående upplever att de befinner sig i en komplicerad situation. Rollen som närstående till en person med psykisk ohälsa kan upplevas som påfrestande och relationen blir på grund av olika anledningar ofta ansträngd. Det resultat som framträdde var att Relationen präglas av ömsesidig påverkan och att HVB-hemmet kan ge trygghet och underlätta relationen.    Slutsats: Att öka delaktigheten och att underlätta för de närstående gör att de kan minska sitt lidande och öka sitt eget välbefinnande. Vilket, ur ett helhetsperspektiv, kan skapa förutsättningar för en bättre relation och ökad livskvalité för samtliga individer i systemet. / Background: Psychiatric care has changed through history. A major change occurred in connection to the psychiatric reform in the 1990s. In relation to this, the relatives also felt that they were taking a more caring role and a greater responsibility for the family member with a mental illness.Previous studies have shown that close relatives to family members with a mental illness, experience a burden related to their family member. This burden is so significant that it affects the relatives own well-being and further influenced their relationship with the family member with mental illness. Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe relatives’ experiences of how the relationship to a family member with mental illness is affected when the family member moves to a residential care home. Method: The study was conducted as an interview study with a qualitative inductive approach. In the study ten respondents were interviewed and collected material were processed by the authors through a qualitative latent content analysis.Results: The present study revealed that the close relatives find that they are in a complicated situation. The role of being related to a person with mental illness can be experienced as stressful and the relationship, due to various reasons, becomes strained. The result that emerged was that the relationship is characterized by mutual influence and the residential care home can provide security and ease the relation.   Conclusion: To increase participation and ease the burden for the close relatives, can reduce their suffer and increase their own well-being. Which, from a holistic perspective, can create conditions for a better relationship and increase the quality of life for all individuals in the system.

Under tjugohundratalets första decennier har det kunnat konstateras ett ökande av antal svenskar som sjukskrivs på grund av psykisk ohälsa. Vilka slags lärdomar upplever personerna att de tillägnat sig efter att ha varit sjukskrivna? Hur kan drivkrafter identifieras i personernas berättelser? Och vilka betydelser har samspelet med omgivningen haft för personerna vid återgång i arbete? Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka personers upplevelser om lärande efter en sjukskrivning till följd av arbetsrelaterad psykisk ohälsa. Studien är kvalitativ och bygger på åtta intervjuer av personer med egen erfarenhet av sjukskrivning. Dessa intervjuer har sedan analyserats med hjälp av Illeris tre lärandedimensioner samt delvis av Mezirovs transformativa lärande. Resultat och slutsats visar att det sker lärande efter en sjukskrivning där lärdomen varit ökad självkännedom, där drivkraften varit att åter komma in i ett sammanhang och där omgivningens bemötande och stöd haft stor betydelse. / During the first decades of the twentyfirst century, an increase in the number of Swedes reported on sick leave due to suffering from mental illness has been noted. What kind of learning do people experience after being on sick leave? How can driving forces be identified in their stories? And what meanings have the interaction with the environment had for people when returning to work? The purpose of this paper is to investigate people's experiences of learning after a sick leave due to work-related mental illness. The study is qualitative and based on eight interviews of individuals with own experience of sick leave. These interviews have then been analyzed using Illeris’ three learning dimensions and partly by Mezirov's9 transformative learning. The result and conclusion show that learning takes place after a sick leave where learning gave increased self-awareness, where the driving force was to be able to re-enter a context and where the receivement and support from the environment was of major importance.

I denna uppsats studeras den psykiska ohälsan bland unga genom att intervjua yrkesverksamma nära de unga. Syftet är att undersöka orsakerna bakom den psykiska ohälsan bland unga. Unga definieras i denna studie som personer mellan 12 och 19 år. För att få förståelse för orsakerna till den psykiska ohälsan analyseras omständigheter i de ungas liv utifrån ett intersektionellt perspektiv och utifrån en samhällsordningsteori. Ett delsyfte är också att försöka utröna vilka omständigheter som agerade förebyggande mot psykisk ohälsa eller hjälpte unga ur den. För att undersöka detta genomförs semistrukturerade intervjuer med yrkesverksamma som arbetar nära unga i Stockholm. Data analyseras sedan med en kvalitativ analysmetod. Studiens resultat visar att hög stress, hög press, höga krav och instabila levnadsvillkor låg bakom den psykiska ohälsan bland unga. Därutöver är könsordningen och klassystemet betydande strukturer som påverkar de ungas hälsa. Förutom detta upptäckts funktionsvariationer och medborgarskapsstatus som faktorer som orsakar skillnader i ohälsan. Socialt stöd är den viktigaste faktorn som skyddar mot psykisk ohälsa. Slutsatserna som dessa resultat utröna är att samhällets strukturer och skolans utformning samt individualiseringen i samhället är orsaker till den psykiska ohälsan bland unga och de skillnader som finns inom gruppen unga. / In this paper, mental illness among youths is studied by interviewing professionals whom work close to the youths. The purpose is to investigate the causes of mental illness among youths. Youths are defined as people between the ages of 12 and 19 years old. In order to gain an understanding of the causes of mental illness circumstances in the youths´ lives are analyzed based on an intersectional perspective and a “social order theory”. Another purpose is to try to determine what circumstances prevent mental illness or help the youths to overcome it. To investigate this, semi structured interviews are conducted with professionals whom work close to the youths in Stockholm. The collected data is analyzed with a qualitative analysis method. The study’s results show that high stress, high pressure, high demands and unstable living conditions are behind the mental illness of the youths. In addition, the gender system and the class system are significant structures that affect the health of the youth. Furthermore, function variations and citizenship status are identified as factors that cause differences in mental illness within the group. Social support is the most important factor in the prevention of mental illness. The conclusions that these findings reveal are that the structure of society and the design of the school as well as the individualization of society are the causes of mental illness as well as the reasons for the differences within the group of youths.

Bakgrund: Personer med psykisk sjukdom känner ett utanförskap i samhället där negativa attityder, stigma samt diskriminering har identifierats som viktiga faktorer. Samtidigt finns det en korrelation mellan försämrad hälsa och psykisk sjukdom, vilket innebär att sjuksköterskor verksamma inom den somatiska vården kommer i frekvent kontakt med personer som har en psykisk sjukdom. Sjuksköterskor har därför ett ansvar att främja personer med psykisk sjukdoms hälsa även i den somatiska vården. Syfte: Undersöka sjuksköterskors attityder till att vårda personer med psykisk sjukdom i den somatiska vården. Metod: En litteraturöversikt baserad på Fribergs (2017) metod. Databaserna CINAHL Complete och PubMed genomsöktes för artikelsökning. Totalt tio vårdvetenskapliga artiklar valdes till denna litteraturöversikt. I analysen av artiklarna uppkom likheter samt skillnader som tematiserades och kategoriserades. Resultat: Negativa attityder till att vårda personer med psykisk sjukdom var vanligt bland sjuksköterskor på somatiska avdelningar, men det fanns även sjuksköterskor med positiva attityder. Det framkom två huvudteman med två respektive fyra underteman. Sjuksköterskors positiva attityder till att vårda personer med psykisk sjukdom, med underteman: vilja att hjälpa och självsäkerhet. Andra huvudtemat var; Sjuksköterskors negativa attityder till att vårda personer med psykisk sjukdom, med underteman: stigmatiserande attityder, motvillighet, osäkerhet och utsatthet. Diskussion: Resultatet diskuterades utifrån de faktorer som framträdde i resultatet och påverkade sjuksköterskornas attityder. / Background: People with mental illness experience alienation and social exclusion in the society where negative attitudes, stigma and discrimination have been identified as important factors. At the same time, there is a correlation between deterioration of health and mental illness, which means that nurses working in somatic care is frequent in contact with people with mental illness. Therefore, nurses have a responsibility to promote the health of people that have a mental illness and are hospitalized in the somatic care. Aim: To investigate the attitudes of nurses towards care for people with mental illness in the somatic care. Method: Literature review by Friberg´s (2017) method. The search for the articles was conducted in CINAHL Complete database and PubMed database. A total of ten medical science articles were selected for this literature review. Similarities and differences emerged in the analysis of the articles and were thematized and categorized Results: Negative attitudes towards caring for people with mental illness were common among nurses in the somatic care, but there were also nurses with positive attitudes. There were two main themes with two and four subordinates respectively. Nurses' positive attitudes towards caring for people with mental illness, with subordinates: wanting to help and self-confidence. The second main theme was; Nurses’ negative attitudes towards caring for people with mental illness, with subordinates: stigmatizing attitudes, reluctance, uncertainty and exposure. Discussion: The result was mainly discussed based on the negative attitudes of nurses to care for people with mental illness linked to the factors that appeared in the results.

Despite older adolescence being a risk period for the development of mental health concerns, mental health service engagement is low amongst 16-18 year olds. As therapeutic attendance is linked to clinical outcome, it is important to understand engagement in this population. There is a paucity of research looking specifically at the older adolescent engagement phenomenon. Previous qualitative research into adolescent experiences has provided rich and detailed results. Ten 16-18 years olds, engaged in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, were recruited from two London-based services. Each young person was interviewed in order to understand their personal experience of engaging in mental health services. Interviews were transcribed and underwent Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Analysis produced twelve subthemes subsumed within five superordinate themes: engagement begins at help seeking, strength of inner resolve, evolution of the self, in the clinic room, and, existing within service walls: physical and policy-based boundaries. Themes are discussed in detail. Conclusions are drawn in relation to previous theory and research. When considering 16-18 year understandings of the engagement phenomena, key elements include: clinician and service developmental appropriateness, negotiation of developmental tasks in relation to engagement, experience of the physical building environment, and awareness of service policy limitations. Suggestions for clinical practice in relation to engagement facilitators and threat are made, and recommendations for future research proposed.

The Mental Health Recovery Star (MHRS) is a therapeutic tool and outcome measure, used widely in the UK and internationally for clients and keyworkers in mental health services to jointly assess and work towards client-centred recovery goals. As such it has been recognised as potentially offering a means of building a positive working alliance between clients and workers. The alliance is increasingly being highlighted as a key common factor across therapeutic models that may underpin positive clinical outcomes. This study employed Grounded Theory Methods to explore the alliance within the context of using the MHRS in rehabilitation mental health services. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten clients and four workers across three services. The findings are presented in a theoretical model that explains the core category that emerged from this study – “being engaged in working together towards improved wellbeing”. Working with the MHRS was seen to inform three particular alliance processes: collaborative working; negotiating new or shared perspectives; and motivation towards improved wellbeing. The findings also highlighted challenges that can hinder these processes when using the MHRS, calling for improvements in practices of negotiation and better support for workers. Further clinical implications alongside avenues for future research are discussed.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that community based horticultural projects can be effective interventions for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Such programmes have been shown to provide a wide range of benefits, including increased confidence and self-esteem, improved mood, extended social networks as well as the development of new skills and a circadian rhythm. Whilst there is now considerable evidence demonstrating the beneficial outcomes of group gardening, there is a lack of understanding as to how psychological processes that contribute towards therapeutic outcomes might be affected by these interventions. This study explored experiences of community gardening programmes in order to better understand how attendance may affect the psychological health of people experiencing mental distress. In particular, it sought to understand the impact of nature on psychological experience during group attendance. Eleven people experiencing mental health difficulties were interviewed about their experiences of attending community gardening groups. The study adopted an ethnomethodological approach to constructionist grounded theory, in order to develop a framework within which participant experiences could be understood. Findings suggested that key processes of feeling safe, letting go, (re-)connecting and finding place provided mechanisms of positive psychological change. Fundamental to each process were changes in construal of, and relationships with, others, nature and importantly, the self, within the gardening group contexts. An increased sense of identification with other people and non-human nature, and the development of empathy and compassion, appeared to be key psychological processes which may account for the positive impact on participants’ mental health. Directions for future research and implications for future clinical interventions are suggested.

Studies have shown that a mother’s history of child maltreatment is associated with her child’s experience of internalising and externalising difficulties. This study aimed to characterise the mediating pathways that may underpin this association. Data on a mother’s history of child maltreatment, depression during pregnancy, depression after birth, maladaptive parenting practices and her child’s experience of maltreatment and preadolescent internalising and externalising difficulties were analysed in a sample of 9,397 mother-child dyads followed prospectively from pregnancy to child age 13. The results showed that maternal history of child maltreatment was significantly associated with child internalising and externalising difficulties in preadolescence. Maternal antenatal depression, post-birth depression, maladaptive parenting and child maltreatment were observed to significantly mediate this association. The study concluded that psychological and psychosocial interventions focused around treating maternal depression, particularly during pregnancy, and improving parenting skills, could be offered to mothers with traumatic childhood experiences to help protect against psychopathology in the next generation.