Jim van Os & ISPS -
We are in my opinion in need of a fundamental shift - a meta-paradigm shift within our collective understandings & approaches to mental health.
ISPS is an interesting Global Organisation trying to change the story around mental health. Below are some of the main points as to why this change needs to take place.
http://www.isps2017uk.org/jim-van-os
http://www.isps.org/
What is the evidence really showing us, and what does it mean for tomorrow's mental health services?
Much of the language and practice of mental health care is based on apparently simple (but false) concepts, for example:
that symptoms are caused by mental disorders
that evidence from randomised controlled trials are required to inform evidence-based guidelines that can be applied to individual patients
that the highest intensity of care is admission to a hospital bed
that professionals have no lived experience of mental illness
that severe syndromes are of 'biological' and mild syndromes of 'psychosocial' origin
that the technical ingredients of psychotherapy are more important than the therapeutic relationship
that effectiveness of interventions is reflected by reductions in symptoms
that there is an urgent need for a medical model of prevention of mental illness
that deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation and manipulation of the immune system hold major promise for the treatment of mental illness
and that the organisation of mental health care is best placed in the hands of large and complex organisations that negotiate contracts based on production parameters and quantitative outcome measurements.
Close analysis of these assumptions shows that their apparently strong and even unassailable logic is increasingly being questioned.
Scientific demystification of professional knowledge and practice suggests that a critical transition may be approaching that requires new concepts, language, science and practice to address the issue of mental distress in populations.
Jim van Os is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
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