Issues in mental health nursing
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Feb 2010
ReviewViolence against women: the phenomenon of workplace violence against nurses.
Registered nurses have been the recipients of an alarming increase in workplace violence (WPV). Emergency and psychiatric nurses have been found to be the most vulnerable and yet few solid reporting procedures exist to fully account for a true number of incidents. ⋯ The nursing shortage is expected only to increase; recruitment and retention of qualified staff members may be deterred by WPV. This necessitates focused research on the phenomenon of workplace violence in health care.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Nov 2009
ReviewManaging weight in persons living with severe mental illness in community settings: a review of strategies used in community interventions.
Although several published reviews have summarized the results of behavioral weight management interventions for persons with severe mental illness, little attention has been paid to the interventions themselves, despite the breadth of intervention strategies that have been examined in published trials. This study identified and systematically described 16 behavioral weight management interventions for community-dwelling persons with severe mental illness. ⋯ Individual and societal resources to address obesity among persons living with severe mental illness are limited. Further research is needed to identify the most effective and the most parsimonious interventions.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jun 2008
ReviewNursing implications in the application of conversion therapies on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clients.
Conversion therapies, also know as reparative therapies, emphasize homosexual orientations as psychopathology in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) clients and claim these individuals can reverse their sexual orientation through psychiatric counseling and treatment. Although professional medical and nursing organizations have branded psychiatric interventions designed to change an individual's sexual orientation as unethical, an international movement fueled largely by religious organizations promote such therapies for GLBT persons. This article explores the historical perceptions of homosexuality as psychiatric pathology, efficacy of conversion-based therapies in the changing of clients' homosexual orientations to heterosexual, positions of professional medical and nursing organizations regarding the use of conversion therapies, and ethical considerations these types of therapies pose for psychiatric and mental health nurses.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jun 2008
ReviewParenting, family life, and well-being among sexual minorities: nursing policy and practice implications.
Parenting and family life are fundamental social constructs in human society and in law and public policy. Family structures and support systems provide important economic and psychological advantages for parents as well as for their children. ⋯ Stigma directly contributes to increased risk for substance abuse, anxiety, and depressive illness among both parents and children. This article reviews the relevant policy literature to deconstruct the impacts of stigma on the psychological health and well-being of sexual minority parents so that psychiatric/mental health nurses and other health care providers can identify and counter these effects in their practices and advocate for policy improvements.
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Aging continues to be an important topic of study. For many older adults, the elder years can be a challenging, if not difficult, time. Creativity interventions have been shown to positively affect mental and physiological health indicators. ⋯ While many activities are those typically thought of as creative, such as painting, there are also a number of useful interventions that are not traditionally identified as creative ones, but that are, in fact, creative activities. This paper describes recent work with creativity in older adults, including research and clinical projects, and earlier works that could be refined as creative interventions. Recommendations for further investigation of creativity also are presented.