The Massachusetts Guide To Community Based Mental Health Services

Community-based behavioral health providers and systems have an essential role in serving individuals with mental and substance use disorders who are currently or formerly involved with the criminal justice system. These individuals are a part of every community, and as for all community members with behavioral health needs, individualized, integrated, comprehensive, coordinated, and continuous service is the standard of care. Individuals with behavioral health issues are overrepresented in jails and prisons across the United States.1 Most of these individuals return to their communities, families, and social networks and subsequently require community-based behavioral and physical health care services. Research has shown that mental and substance use disorders affect people from all walks of life, with or without justice involvement, and, with the services and supports of behavioral health providers, many people recover.

This single source provides a manageable, representative selection of rapidly accumulating literature. 1,158 items, primarily in U.S. literature from January 1953 to April 1961, complement the 984 items to May 1953 of Evaluation in Mental Health (USPHS Publications, 413). The Guide's arrangement imposes a useful structure upon the entire field; the detailed subject index offers easy access to all aspects of the materials. Part I lists 15 books for orientation in the field. Part II gives 715 items in five subject-categories: theory; practice; research methods and findings; evaluations and reviews of practice and research; and professional roles. Part III lists 317 items for related professions, and social problems. Part IV gives 61 bibliographical items to aid access to more extensive or specialized materials and 22 reference books on vital statistics and census data. Part V lists 28 reference works on information and funding organizations, with their addresses. The Guide's comprehensive Author-Title-Subject Index is of special value. Introductory discussions, instructions on use, and a List of Journals are included.

This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. It provides a comprehensive outline of the essentials of work in community mental health care. Written in an accessible and engaging style, it provides an indespensible blueprint for the profession in the twenty first century. It summarises the history of community care; its why, when, what and who; the skills required to work with psychiatric patients; the practical 'rules of the game' in terms of the care programme approach, the mental health act and treatments (psychological, social and physical, including medications). This provocative and ground-breaking book will encourage debate and challenge community mental health workers to provide a modern and practical approach to the holistic care of the patient.

The aim of this text is to provide mental health professionals, both those in the field and those in training, a better understanding of the service delivery system and ideas for how to work effectively in it. It examines various driving forces-deinstitutionalization, empirically based practices, managed care--both in the evolution of the present community mental health care system, as well as the impact on the overall system today. The text begins with an overview of the Community mental health field, including the impact of deinstitutionalization on it. Next, it provides a description of the ecological model and the prevention paradigm, both conceptualizations needed to navigate through the system. Individual-oriented tools include stress management and brief therapeutic techniques. Systems-oriented tools include consultation strategies, community research methods and change techniques. These techniques provide the professional with effective tools to produce large-scale reform. The values that community mental health professionals must consider include cultural responsiveness, empowerment, and the ethical concerns unique to helping agency-affiliated individuals in the community. The book concludes by exploring a vision of the future of the system: a description of the needs of the elderly, the fastest growing segment of our population. Also covered are programs designed to help this population and dramatic changes expected in the types of mental health interventions that corporate employers and their insurance companies will support.

Advice on Helping Your Loved Ones, from the medical director of the country's largest state mental health system and the mental health editor of The Huffington Post More than fifty million people a year are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. It spares no sex, race, age, ethnicity, or income level. And left untreated, mental disorders can devastate our families and communities. Family members and friends are often the first to realize when someone has a problem, but it is hard to know how to help or where to turn. Our mental health “system” can feel like a bewildering and frustrating maze. How can you tell that someone has a mental illness? What are the first and best steps for you to take? Where do you go to find the right care? The Family Guide to Mental Health Care is the first comprehensive print resource for the millions of people who have loved ones suffering from some kind of mental illness. In this book, families can find the answers to their most urgent questions. What medications are helpful and are some as dangerous as I think? Is there a way to navigate privacy laws so I can discuss my adult daughter’s treatment with her doctor? Is my teenager experiencing typical adolescent distress or an illness? From understanding depression, bipolar illness and anxiety to eating and traumatic disorders, schizophrenia, and much more, readers will learn what to do and how to help. Real-life scenarios and authoritative information are written in a compassionate, reader-friendly way, including checklists to bring to a doctor’s appointment so you can ask the right questions. For readers who fear they will never see the light at the end of the tunnel, this book gives hope and a path forward. As one of the nation’s leading voices on quality care in mental health, Dr. Lloyd Sederer has played a singular role in advancing services for those with mental illness. Now, the wealth of his expertise and clear guidance is at your disposal. From the first signs of a problem to sorting through the variety of treatment options, you and your family will be able to walk into a doctor’s office know what to do and what to ask.