Saturday, February 17, 2007

Bottom Line Conference on Mental Illness in the Workplace - March 7

Source: CMHA

There is mounting body of research revealing the tremendous personal and economic costs of mental illness in the workplace. Yet, mental illness is a subject many workplaces still don't know how to talk about. CMHA BC Division invites business leaders, frontline and senior managers, human resource specialists, union representatives, benefit providers and mental health service providers to join us at the 2007 Bottom Line Conference, Mental Illness in the Workplace: The Elephant in the Room. Gain insight, be inspired and learn how attention to mental health and mental illness in the workplace will help retain valuable employees, increase employee health, well-being and productivity, as well as decrease absenteeism and disability claims. This year's speakers include Margaret Trudeau, Dr. Linda Duxbury, and Dr. Allan Young. At the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver. Limited seats are available so register today! Learn more and register at www.bottomlineconference.ca.
>> don't miss our pre-conference Mental Health Works workshops - March 6, 2007. Learn hands-on skills for addressing mental illness in the workplace. Details at www.bottomlineconference.ca or contact Margaret Tebbutt at 1-800-555-8222 or mentalhealthworks@cmha.bc.ca for details.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Depression Impacts 500,000 Canadian Workers

Source: CMHA

About half a million Canadian workers experience depression and most of them say the symptoms interfere with their ability to work, according to a study released by Statistics Canada. Data from 2002 indicate that almost four per cent of workers age 25 to 64 had experienced depression in the 12 months before the Canadian community health survey was conducted. Nearly eight of 10 workers who had experienced depression reported that the symptoms had interfered with their ability to work, at least to some extent. Almost one in five said there was a very severe degree of interference with their work. See "Depression impacts 500,000 Canadian workers: study," at www.canada.com, and "Nearly 4% of Canadian workers say depression limits their life," at www.cbc.ca. See also "Expert: Costs of stress likely higher than we think," at chealth.canoe.ca.
>> learn more about the impacts of mental illness in the workplace, at the Bottom Line Conference on March 7. Learn more and register at www.bottomlineconference.ca.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

With a little brainpower we can fight the stigma of mental illness

Source: Canadian Institutes of Health Research

As a society, we admire and idolize the wonderful accomplishments of the brain. We glorify efforts made through sheer brain power. We also have a special relationship with the brain because it defines who we are and how we relate to our environment. In short, we tend to put the brain on a pedestal.

But, let's start treating the brain with a more balanced perspective, as we would any other organ in the body. Let's focus our attention and resources on healing this organ when it is ill. Let's erase the discomfort, fear and stigma surrounding mental illness.

According to Statistics Canada, one-in-five Canadians will be affected by mental health problems during their lifetime. Equally distressing is the fact that only 32 per cent of people with a problem seek professional help.

This problem also hits Canada hard in the pocketbook. We lose close to $33 billion in industrial production each year due to mental illness. According to the World Health organization, by 2020, if steps are not taken to control mental illness, depression will overtake heart disease as the leading cause of disability.

Numerous types of mental illness exist. These include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, behavioural disorders, such as eating disorders, and addiction to drugs, tobacco, alcohol and gambling. The variety and extent of these problems change throughout life as one's environment and circumstances change. There are also well established links between persons undergoing treatment for physical illness, such as cancer, obesity, etc., and the incidence of poor mental health.

Changing how we think about the brain and mental illness is critical for us to improve our treatment of the illness and confronting stigma around it. Stigma about mental illness is pervasive within society in general, within the workplace and even within the healthcare system.

The Kirby Commission raised stigma as a major issue in its landmark report on mental health. Fear of being labeled as having a mental health problem prevents many people from accepting there is a problem, seeking help and being open about their treatment. Stigma in the workplace contributes to perceptions that people with mental health problems are unskilled, unproductive, unreliable and possibly violent. Stigma about mental illness also makes it harder for many people to find good quality, affordable housing. One of the Kirby Report's key recommendations involved creating a Mental Health Commission which would launch a national anti-stigma campaign.

To improve our response to mental illness we must fully acknowledge its impact. Mental illness can be hard to diagnose correctly. Neuroscientists are only now beginning to expand our basic understanding of how the brain is wired, the role of different neurotransmitters and receptors in exchanging information and how the breakdown in these connections lead to mental illness.

Mentally ill persons also face challenges in getting the proper care from the healthcare system. The system is built on the foundations of making medically sound decisions based upon the best available evidence. While this is an excellent practice, it tends to overlook mental health issues which, for the most part, are not life threatening. We need mental health to take its seat at the table. This means we must make changes to medical school training to provide better instruction to students so that they acquire a deeper appreciation of mental health. This also involves changing the view of psychiatry not as some specialized function but as a mainstream health service.

Finally, we also need to continue to invest in research into mental health. The Kirby Report recommended an additional $25 million to be channeled to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. The Report highlighted the need for such an investment for applied research that would translate existing findings into improved quality of care and services to patients. This research would also play a major role in providing the sound advice and information needed for Canada to create a mental health strategy. Canada is the only G8 country without such a strategy.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research currently supports a large number of projects to begin to better understand and address these issues. For example, CIHR and the Global Business Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health recently launched an ambitious research program to document the types and causes of mental health problems found in Canadian workplaces.

As we observe national mental illness awareness week in Canada, I hope that we can begin thinking about the brain and mental health with a new and healthy perspective.

-30-

Dr. Rémi Quirion is Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA).

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Margaret Trudeau fighting to end stigmas attached to mental illness

Source: medbroadcast.com


Feb 12, 2007

Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: ELIANNA LEV

VANCOUVER (CP) - Margaret Trudeau says she has chosen sanity and that's the choice she wants other Canadians suffering with mental illness to make.

The former wife of the late Pierre Trudeau is using her profile to bring attention to mental illness, which has affected her for 35 years.

"Acceptance. . . is the biggest thing for people to do, just to accept that there is a problem, to accept that they need help," Trudeau told a news conference Monday.

"With mental health issues we're reluctant to accept it because of the stigma that has been played out in the media and the movies."

Trudeau, 58, first experienced depression after giving birth to her second son, Alexandre. That was the first of three times she was hospitalized for her illness. The second time came after the death of her son Michel in 1998 and then after her ex-husband died two years later.

She said she was in such dire straits at that time that she was forced to accept her bipolar disorder and get the help she needed.

"I've chosen sanity, I've chosen to be well," Trudeau said.

She has also distanced herself from marijuana, one aspect of her life that was well-documented when she was thrust into the Canadian spotlight as a 22-year-old flower child and bride of the former prime minister.

She said she's since found the enlightenment she felt from drugs in the form of spirituality. Trudeau is interested in Buddhism and follows the works of the Dalai Lama.

Trudeau said people should treat mental health as they would their physical health, taking days off when they feel unwell.

If Canadians start to talk openly about mental wellness, the stigma will diminish and people help will get the help they need, she said.

"It should be a conversation at the kitchen table, it should be a conversation on the way to work," Trudeau said. "Because recognizing depression in the early stages, you can change the course of the disease."

Dozens of untreated mentally ill found living in chains since Aceh peace deal reached

source: medbroadcase.com

Feb 11, 2007

Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: ROBIN MCDOWELL

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - Auzain, a 38-year-old who has suffered from schizophrenia for his entire adult life, was found locked in a cage in his mother's kitchen. Desperately poor and isolated by a brutal civil war in Aceh province, she saw it as the only way to protect her son.

A peace accord 18 months ago finally ended the decades-long conflict, bringing calm and the beginnings of normality to the region - but also the discovery of some 150 mentally ill people who were chained, shackled or locked up to keep them from hurting themselves or others.

More such people are expected to turn up as nurses fan out across Aceh to visit areas long isolated by war.

Medicine and counselling already have made a tremendous difference for some of the patients. But others, like Auzain, who has been ill for more than 15 years, are harder to help.

Glaring through the wooden bars of the kitchen cell, Auzain speaks bitterly about a man he accuses of wanting to kill his father. He jabs his finger in the air and bursts into laughter before launching into a new tirade.

"He's hallucinating," says Roslaini, a nurse who like many Indonesians has a single name.

She is one of more than 400 nurses in a mental health outreach program that became possible only after the tsunami crashed into the province two years ago, killing at least 131,000 people in devastation that stunned separatist rebels and the government into making peace.

Roslaini tries gently to coax Auzain into conversation, but his darting eyes look past her. "He barely knows I'm here," she says, promising to come back in a few days.

Indonesia estimates 400,000 of its 220 million people suffer from severe mental disorders, a figure the World Health Organization says is roughly in line with other developing countries.

The tsunami intensified high levels of depression and trauma in Aceh, a region already wracked by a 29-year war that killed 15,000 people, many of them civilians slain during army sweeps of remote villages.

While international aid poured in after the killer waves, the long-neglected health system remains underfunded. Aceh's only mental hospital does electric shock therapy without anesthesia, illegal in much of the West, and there is just one full-time psychiatrist for 300 patients.

So physicians are excited about the community outreach program, which initially was funded by WHO and later the Asian Development Bank. It's the first ever for Indonesia and is seen as a potential model for other parts of the sprawling archipelago.

By the end of December, nurses had reached half of Aceh's 21 districts since rebels signed a peace deal with the government Aug. 15, 2005.

Relying on word of mouth, they identified 4,000 people with severe mental disorders and more than 150 living in chains or cages, said Budi Ana Keliat of the University of Indonesia's nursing faculty, who heads the project.

She said once a sufferer is identified, nurses follow up with weekly visits to provide medicine and counselling to patients and their families.

Doctors say Aceh's prolonged conflict increased the prevalence of depression, anxiety disorders, brain injuries and acute psychoses in the worst-affected villages.

In three districts studied from December 2005 to February 2006, the population was found suffering from levels of trauma that rival Bosnia and Afghanistan, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School, the International Organization for Migration, and Indonesia's Syiah Kuala University

For example, among men aged 17 to 29 in Bireuen and Aceh Utara, 67 per cent reported having faced strangulation, suffocation, near drowning or severe head injuries from beatings. Forty-one per cent had a family member or friend killed and 38 per cent reported having to flee burning buildings.

"Simply hearing the history of what the villages went through is disturbing and shocking and providing numbers to this makes even the most seasoned Aceh-watchers grow quiet," said Dr. Byron Good, a Harvard professor of social medicine who wrote the report with his wife, professor Mary-Jo Good.

Mansur, 36, who lives in the former rebel stronghold of Pidie, said he had heard voices in his head for years, but after losing his wife and eight-year-old son to the waves the voices grew louder and angrier.

He started throwing rocks at strangers and threatening to burn down houses, so his family kept him chained to a tree, covering him with a plastic tarp when it rained.

"I felt myself go completely crazy," said Mansur, who managed to free himself one day, poured gasoline on his feet in a village market and set himself on fire. Vendors extinguished the flames, but he suffered severe burns to his feet.

"I have medication now and no longer hear the voices," he said. "I feel much better."

Nurses said that when they first started going to villages, people were too ashamed to identify themselves or others as mentally ill, but have since started opening up.

"I have no reason to feel ashamed. It's normal that I'm tied up because I'm sick," said Amiruddin, 26, who has been chained to the floor of his tiny room since he went on a rampage last June and almost broke his mother's leg.

Now getting medication, he no longer hears voices and talks quietly to visitors, but his family is not ready to release him.

Asked if he thinks he will get better, Amiruddin shakes his head "no." But he smiles when his nurse interrupts, telling him: "You will get better. You are better."

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Some types of Psychotherapy and Counselling

Resource: The Canadian Mental Health Association


Cognitive-behavioural Therapy
-Explores patient’s negative thoughts, emotions, and self-defeating behaviours and helps a person to learn to recognize and change negative thinking patterns;

Interpersonal Therapy
-Emphasizes development of specific skills in managing relationships (e.g. assertiveness training, adjusting to transitions)
-Focus on person’s identity issues, unresolved grief, and/or social issues;

Group Therapy and Support Groups
-Enables people to meet others who can relate to their issues and compare solutions;

Creative Therapies
-Brief therapy models (e.g. solution-oriented), art therapy, music therapy, play therapy and;

Psychodynamic Therapy
-Discover and resolve previous conflicts/traumas believed to be related to the present depression.