Mental health articles

Human rights and mental illness In the past, people with mental illnesses were locked up, chained to walls and treated as if they did not deserve any dignity or compassion. Even though these terrible scenes are rarely seen today, the human rights of mentally ill people continue to be abused in many parts of the world. Many people with […]

Promoting the rights of people with a mental illness Literally, stigma means a physical mark on the body. This is what was done to people with mental illness in some societies, as a way of marking them as being different. Today, people with mental illness are excluded or marked out from society in more subtle ways. It is […]

The early identification of mental illness Detecting the onset of a new mental illness Often there is considerable delay before a person with mental illness is brought to you. There are three important reasons for this: • Many mental disorders start very slowly. For example, depression and schizophrenia take weeks to develop, so that there is no real […]

Work/vocational/educational activities and mental illness The links between unemployment and mental illness are well documented and researched. Work or productive activity that includes education and voluntary work provides an array of benefits from income, structure and enjoyment to a sense of identity and worth. Interventions that focus on work might include activities to increase skills […]