March 2008

It occurred to me the other day that we have a weekly round-up of mental health related blogging (This Week in Mentalists) but we’re also a nursing blog. Hence from now on I’m also going to do a linkfest every Sunday of the week’s nursing blogs, to be entitled Weekly Handover.

As with This Week in Mentalists, the Weekly Handover will be mostly British-oriented, and you can nominate blogs for future editions by e-mailing zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk

So, on with the first ever edition of Weekly Handover.
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I was asked the question recently as to what i thought about the idea of the label ’schizophrenia’ being abolished. There is no getting away from the fact that the label ’schizophrenia’ inherently carries a poor image and stigma. This has ultimately been brought about through the negative and unbalanced portrayal of ’schizophrenics’ in the media. The image that they are all unstable murderers and attackers.

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I saw this website linked from another blog, but I can’t remember what one, so I apologise for no acknowledgement.

I wanted to share it even further and decided to post the link here as well.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb

Garfield is one of my favourite cartoon strips and I find this idea fascinating. It works so well, it’s often very moving.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Have you all had a good Easter? Not too much choccy eggs? Good. Onward with This Week in Mentalists.

To nominate a blog for future editions, e-mail zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk
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I don’t normally join in the shrieks of “quacktitioner” that some of the other health blogs are so fond of, but today I’m going to make an exception. I was reading through this article on Comment is Free by Madeleine Bunting writing in defence of complimentary therapies. The article itself is (in my opinion) a bit poor, and doesn’t really have much of an argument in favour of complimentary therapies except, “Well yes, most of them are just placebos, but it’s still a safe way to give someone the benefit of placebo effect, right?” (Well yes, Madeleine, but the point of medicine is that it’s supposed to be better than placebo.)

But it was this comment on the discussion thread afterward that attracted my attention.

As a Qualified Holistic Nurse with a Masters in Holistic Nursing and many qualifications in complementary therapies and doing research in the area, I get perturbed by the ’scientists’ and their forever bashing of therapies.I understand that there are many charlatans out there but I also know there are therapists who are qualified and ethical. I educate Patients about what to look for. I also -realise that the essence of these therapies is creating an atmosphere of trust , healing and the ‘relaxation response’ This relaxation response which has been documented & researched from ’60’s by Harvard MD Benson is what plays into the dynamics. It allows for the patient to iniatate their own inner healing which is what it is all about. Pills, surgery,chemo,etc - the medical model are all important but so indeed is the Patient’s own inner healing potential. When will they ever see this!!!

Just what on earth is a “Qualified Holistic Nurse”?

The central question in any philosophy of mind is that of free will and how, in a deterministic universe, is human consciousness able to exercise free will? Perhaps the first attempt in modern times to explain how consciousness sits in relation to a causal universe and is able to act on it was arrived at by Descartes. Descartes in his meditations proved or thought he had proved that the mind or consciousness is of a different order both metaphysically as well as physically from the world around us, a position that became known as Dualism. Whether we are talking about property dualism or substance dualism this position has one significant problem associated with it. How does an immaterial thing like the mind or consciousness affect a physical thing like the universe?

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Robin Lustig of Radio 4’s “World tonight” has written about the current financial crisis in his latest news letter. So if like me you are trying to sell a house and wondering why no one appears to want to buy it here’s why.

I hope you’re all having a good Jewish-Guy-Gets-Nailed-To-A-Cross-Then-Comes-Back-Like-Spock-In-Star-Trek-3 weekend.

Onwards, with This Week in Mentalists.

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It’s time for a new look to the site. We’re considering 5 possible themes, so here’s your chance to have you say on what the site should look like. The nominees are…

1. Ponjong
2. Ceruleus
3. Essay
4. Shades of Gray
5. Blueberry

I’ve opened up a poll box on the right hand side of the webpage. Vote for your favourite.

A drug company has sent me an invitation to a “webinar”.

A webinar?????? A what????? What the holy flid is a webinar????

Apparently it’s a web-based seminar, in which a psychiatrist will be broadcasting a video lecture, complete with chat box so we can interact and ask questions, and a powerpoint-style slide show. I wonder which medication he thinks we should be using for our clients?

Well, fuck that. If I’m going to shred my professional independence on the altar of Evil Capitalist Big Pharma Satan, I’m not doing it as a webchat. If they want me to hand over my mortal soul, they could at least have the decency to come to the clinic and ply me with a sandwich and a pack of post-it notes. What on earth happened to standards?

Okay, I’ve finally got around to it now. This week’s lyric is inspired by my little sojourn to Operation Party Hard yesterday.

So let’s get a party going, (let’s get a party going)
Now it’s time to party and we’ll party hard (party hard)
Let’s get a party going (let’s get a party going)
When it’s time to party we will always party hard
Party hard (party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard…)

Nominations for This Week in Mentalists to zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk

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Okay, I shall now reveal the reason I wasn’t able to do This Week in Mentalists yesterday (I’ll do it later today).

The reason is that I was at the Operation Party Hard protests in London against the Church of Scientology.

I think criticism of psychiatry is perfectly valid, except when it comes from the Church of Scientology. They have a museum entitled Psychiatry - An Industry of Death, which among other things accuses psychiatry of being responsible for the Holocaust. The CoS also has questions to answer about the deaths of Lisa McPherson a mentally ill woman who died under the care of the Church of Scientology, and of Elli Perkins who was killed by her schizophrenic son after Scientologists treated him with vitamins instead of antipsychotics.

I have pictures of the protests. Lots and lots of pictures. Since we’ve been having bandwidth problems on this site, I’ve created a separate blog over here. Go take a peek at what I was up to.

I normally do This Week in Mentalists on a Saturday, but I’ll be busy all day today, so I’ll do it tomorrow, and also tomorrow I’ll tell you lot what I’ve been up to.

In the meantime, here’s a stirring patriotic anthem (and cryptic clue as to where I’ll be today).

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

The above information is also available in pictorial form.

(Guest post by Becky Derham)

I thought the Mental Nurse readership might be interested to know that WISH’s campaign against the smoking restrictions in mental health inpatient units, Stubbing Out Our Rights, has been launched this week.

The arguments for and against the restrictions have already been debated here in a lot of depth so I won’t go into them again, but if you’d like to wander over to the campaign’s website you will see WISH’s take on the issue.
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In the beginning there were the arguments between the medical model (”it’s an illness to be treated”) and the psychosocial model (”it’s a product of society and upbringing”) of mental disorder.

Then, some bright spark decided to mould the two together into the biopsychosocial model.

Just recently, one of our consultant psychiatrists has become extremely fond of talking about an ecobiopsychosocial model.

I’m just gagging for him to use that word to me, just so I can reply with, “Well, that’s easy for you to say.”