BMJ VOLUME 322 24 FEBRUARY 2001 bmj.com
This study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitude and beliefs about causes, manifestations and treatment of mental illness among adults in a rural community in
northern Nigeria.
New assessment guidelines for measuring the overall impact of mental health problems in Latin America have served as a catalyst for countries to review their mental health policies. Latin American countries have taken various steps to address long-standing problems such as structural difficulties, s...carce financial and human resources, and social, political, and cultural obstacles in the implementation of mental health policies and legislation. These policy developments, however, have had uneven results. Policies must reflect the desire, determination, and commitment of policy-makers to take mental health seriously and look after people’s mental health needs. This paper describes the development of mental health policies in Latin American countries, focusing on published data in peer-reviewed journals, and legislative change and its implementation. It presents a brief history of mental health policy developments, and analyzes the basis and practicalities of current practice.
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Инструмент Всемирной Организации Здравоохранения для Оценки Систем Психического Здоровья
(ИОСПЗ-ВОЗ) представляет собой новый инструмент, предназначенный для с...ора основной
информации о системе психического здоровья в стране или регионе. Целью сбора такой
информации является улучшение систем охраны психического здоровья и оказания
психиатрической помощи. В ИОСПЗ-ВОЗ система психического здоровья определяется как
совокупность всех видов деятельности, основной целью которой является пропаганда,
восстановление или поддержание психического здоровья. Система психического здоровья
включает все организации и ресурсы, нацеленные на улучшение психического здоровья.
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Научные журналы играют важную роль в проведении и распространении результатов исследований. Однако в настоящее время в обще доступных журналах, посвященных психи...ческому здоровью и психиатрии, публикуется ничтожно малое количество материалов по исследованиям, проводимых в этих странах, или посложившейся в них ситуации. И в тоже время более 85% мирового населения проживают в 153 странах, отнесенных на основании критериев Всемирного банка к категории стран с низким и средним уровнем дохода. Еще большее беспокойство вызывает тот факт, что, как можно заметить, разрыв в числе публикаций между этими странами истранами с высоким уровнем дохода может еще больше увеличиться. Это совещание имело цель найти способы урегулирования этой неблагоприятной ситуации.
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WHO-AIMS REPORT ON MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM IN NEPAL
A report of the assessment of the mental health system in Nepal using the World Health Organization - Assessment Instrument for
Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS).
Kathmandu, Nepal
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, a collaborative endeavour of the World
Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and the Harvard School of Public Health,
drew the attention of the international health community to the burden of neurological
disorders and many other chronic conditions. T...his study found that the burden of neurological
disorders was seriously underestimated by traditional epidemiological and health
statistical methods that take into account only mortality rates but not disability rates. The
GBD study showed that over the years the global health impact of neurological disorders
had been underestimated.
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Global Campaign Against Epilepsy
Mental health issues are usually given very low priority in health service policies. Although this is changing, African countries are still confronted with so many problems caused by communicable diseases and malnutrition that they have not woken up to the impact of mental disorders. Every country m...ust formulate a mental health policy based on its own social and cultural realities. Such policies must take into account the scope of mental health problems, provide proven and affordable interventions, safeguard patients’ rights, and ensure equity.
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The concept of mental disorder is determined by many factors, including the historical context, cultural influence, level of scientific knowledge and capacity to carry out scientific enquiry, level of education in certain circumstances, as well as many others. In putting together a method of classif...ication of mental disorders, the expert’s duty is primarily that of capturing and remaining faithful to the current level of knowledge in the subject, acknowledging that, in a matter of time, some or all the above factors could change to variable degrees, making what was clear as a mental disorder a few decades previously less clear in the next edition of the classification system.
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The rise of the discourse of 'trauma' as a major articulator of suffering within Western culture is a facet of the medicalization of life that has gathered pace in the last century. In recent years, Western mental health professionals have been increasingly involved in services addressing the plight... of war-affected populations - largely non-Western - in war zones or as refugees. Querying the extent to which their experiences can be reduced to a matter of mental health, this article addresses child refugees from war via three questions that go to the heart of the debate about how they are to be understood, the implications for their future maturation as individuals and citizens, and the role of psychological therapies aimed at catharsis of 'traumatic' memory.
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