In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a number of Italian psychiatrists were convinced that medicine and education should work together to treat children with mental disabilities, then commonly defined as "feeble-minded". To this end they promoted the establishment of "Medico-Pedagogical Institutes", institutes,…

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for emotional dysregulation and behavior problems that can escalate to levels requiring psychiatric hospitalization. Evaluating the etiology of such behaviors can be challenging for health care providers, as individuals with ASD can have difficulty self-reporting concerns.…

While there are a number of instruments that assess historical factors related to sexual aggression for the purposes of risk assessment, there is a notable absence of measures that assess change in ongoing, sexually aggressive behaviours engaged in by people who reside in psychiatric hospitals. The purpose of this report is to describe the…

Inpatient assault of forensic and psychiatric staff is a complex and multifaceted issue. Hence, the consequences reported in the literature regarding prosecuting assaultive inpatients are quite variable. In this article, issues pertaining to the prosecution of violent inpatients are reviewed. Illustrative cases, challenges of prosecution,…

Background: The term "off-label prescribing" refers to the use of a drug outside the terms of its Marketing Authorisation, including prescribing for an unlicensed indication. There have been few reports about off-label prescribing in psychiatry. The aims of the study were to determine the frequency of off-label prescribing of psychotropics for…

Relates librarian's experiences in a mental patients' library program which is centered around the concept of bibliotherapy (use of selected reading materials as therapeutic tools). Bibliotherapy in a mental hospital setting, types of bibliotherapy groups, library materials, and librarian training are discussed. Twenty references are included.…

This study describes the pattern of emotional and behavioural difficulties of children whose mothers have mental illness, and explores the relationship between children's behavioural and emotional difficulties and maternal perceptions of attachment. Thirteen mothers previously admitted to psychiatric hospital for mental illness completed a measure…

Discusses the philosophy of the rehabilitation services department at McLean Hospital on patient education for the mentally ill, noting patient library collection and recommended resources on marital problems, sex education, drug manuals, and diagnostic and research findings. A list of magazines subscribed to, color code classification, and 23…

Describes a pilot mediation program that offers an empowering alternative to problem resolution used by mental health consumers receiving treatment at an inpatient psychiatric center. The training program uses mental health clinicians and consumers (peer advocates) to act as assistants in mediating disputes between consumers and between consumers…

The program was set up to involve, on a continuing basis, the significant other of frequently-readmitted hospitalized psychiatric VA patients. The couples identified their characteristic strengths, and their maladaptive ways of functioning, and were expected to make use of alternative ways of behaving which were recommended by the staff. A…

This paper describes the University of West Florida graduate level, didactic/experiential course in psychopathology which has been offered since 1975 to introduce clinical psychology students to the applied and practical aspects of psychiatry. Elements of the basic practicum course are described: (1) each student is assigned to a psychiatrist on a…

Case studies in Norwich, England, identified issues in the provision of adult education in psychiatric settings: differing definitions of the role of adult education; role conflict between adult educators and health professionals; and opposing beliefs about outsiders entering an institution. The cases also affirmed the therapeutic value of…

Police are on duty around the clock. As the only available service agency during many hours of the day, they must cope with a variety of social problems, among them psychiatric and drug and alcohol emergencies that may not be criminal offenses but nevertheless pose a threat to the individual and the community. Few jurisdictions have developed a…

In this paper, the authors report that in many of the cases they have treated, the living situations and/or environments to which patients were returning upon discharge, were not suitable for either maintaining, or improving upon, the gains achieved while hospitalized. As a result, a community residence training program, based upon a behavioral…

This paper presents the approach used by the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) of the University of Minnesota's Refugee Assistance Program in Mental Health for identifying successful and culturally sensitive mental health service delivery models. It divides these into four categories: the psychiatric model; the community mental health model; the…