The Journal of nervous and mental disease
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This contribution to the literature starts by summarizing the history of psychiatric services in America from the time of our colonization to the present. It then discusses the Bill of Rights and the subsequent "rights" gained by the mentally ill, largely through state legislative or legal actions. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of how the entire area of rights has been swept up in a larger attempt to achieve a federal Bill of Patients' Rights and then a Health Reform Act in 2010.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Jun 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyStigma in America: has anything changed? Impact of perceptions of mental illness and dangerousness on the desire for social distance: 1996 and 2006.
Data from the 1996 and 2006 General Social Survey were analyzed to examine the relationship between the desire for social distance from individuals with mental illness and a number of factors that were thought to contribute to it, including perceptions of mental illness and dangerousness. Random samples of participants were assigned to one of four experimental conditions, in which they were read a vignette describing a character who presented with alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, or minor problems. ⋯ The participants' perceptions that the character was mentally ill and/or dangerous to others partially mediated the association between presenting problem and social distance. Participants who were younger, white, better educated, and attended religious services more often required less social distance from the vignette characters than did their counterparts.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Jun 2011
Comparative StudyMeasurement of well-being in the workplace: the development of the work well-being questionnaire.
Because there has been a lack of a single comprehensive measure for assessing workplace well-being, we elected to develop such a self-report measure. Provisional items were extracted from the literature on "positive psychology" and were adapted to capture their workplace application. The provisional 50-item set was completed by a nonclinical sample of 150 adults. ⋯ Work Satisfaction scale scores were influenced by job type. Gender effects were found for two of the four scales, whereas a longer period of employment inversely linked to Organizational Respect for the Employee and Employer Care scores and was conversely associated with higher Intrusion of Work into Private Life scores. The refined measure should enable individuals and employers to quantify the levels of support and well-being provided by employing organizations.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · May 2011
Meta AnalysisPosttraumatic stress disorder in peacekeepers: a meta-analysis.
A meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among peacekeepers. A systematic review was carried out using Medline, Institute for Scientific Information/Web of Science and Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress databases, leading to a total of 12 studies reporting PTSD estimates. ⋯ Peacekeeping studies presented different methodologies such as several screening instruments and different times from the deployment to the moment of PTSD assessment. The wide difference found among those estimates highlights the importance of the creation of standards for PTSD evaluation among peacekeepers.