The idea of labelling people as attention-seeking is not unique to mental illness, but it’s certainly something that seems to come up an awful lot. The labellers might be friends and family, but unfortunately, they may also be health care providers. One of the labels that comes up regularly is “attention-seeking.” Physical manifestations of mental …
The “Attention-Seeking” Label and the Stigma It Represents Read More »
When any mental health professional is first getting started in their career, one of the things they need to do is find their therapeutic voice. That therapeutic voice can vary a lot from one professional to another, and there’s a tendency to settle into and get very comfortable with it. Some people will use more …
Stand Tall Little Girl is a memoir by Hope Virgo that focuses on her experience with anorexia nervosa. If you’re active on social media, you may recognize Hope from her Dump the Scales campaign to stop weight from being used as a barrier to mental health services for people experiencing eating disorders. Throughout the book, Hope …
Book Review: Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo Read More »
I recently saw a tweet about the issue of cell phones on psych wards, and it stirred up a strong reaction for me. A man was writing about how he’d been advocating for his child to be able to have their cell phone on the psych ward, but this was flatly denied due to their …
When it comes to mental health care, or health care in general for that matter, a simple fact is that the sicker people get, the more it costs to treat them. Sicker people need more acute services, and they need to continue accessing those services for longer amounts of time. Acute care services are extremely …
Why Funding Community Mental Health Care Matters Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is mental illness recovery. The word recovery can have various connotations depending on the context. It began to gain popularity in the context of mental health in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was used by …
So, what is it to be trauma-informed? Trauma-informed practice recognizes the intersectionality of trauma, mental health, and substance abuse, with an awareness that anyone may have experienced trauma, whether they’ve disclosed it or not. Trauma-informed practice aims to create environments that prevent re-traumatization and promote a sense of safety. The individual client’s safety, choice, and …
How Trauma-Informed Practice can Improve Mental Health Care Read More »
There’s lots of information out there about crisis resources for people thinking about suicide, but resources accomplish very little if we don’t reach out to access them. There are many potential barriers to help-seeking, and I wanted to talk about a few of them here, based on my own experience with major depressive disorder and …
How do issues like paternalism vs. autonomy affect the experience of being hospitalized on the psych ward?
