Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Dispelling stigmas of mental illness (New York) Journal News story on artist George Williams and "In Our Own Voices: Living with Mental Illness" - "... a new public education program sponsored by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Westchester, Inc. Every few weeks, Williams and other speakers talk to different groups of people about the real faces of mental illness. Along with dispelling stigmas, the discussion is meant to demonstrate that mental illness is a medical brain disorder that can be controlled with medication and therapy..."  
  

Advance Directives: Stigma Strikes Again  Brief essay in Psychiatric Services introducing two articles in the current issue - "Stigma's effects are often most pernicious when they are least conscious. A case in point: Do people with mental illness not develop physical ailments as well? Might they not have preferences for how they wish to be treated if they become seriously ill? If the answer to those questions is, "Yes, of course," then why—with all the attention paid in the past two decades to promoting advance directives for end-of-life care—have persons with serious mental illnesses been utterly neglected when it comes to efforts to stimulate the use of advance directives? Two papers by Foti and colleagues in this issue of Psychiatric Services underscore the irrationality of ignoring the needs and desires of people with mental illnesses with regard to end-of-life care. Interviewing a sample of community-dwelling patients, these authors found a high level of concern about end-of-life issues and strong interest in providing guidance to future decision makers about their treatment preferences." The articles by Foti et al are available for a fee.