By Joanna Moncrieff. The Critical Psychiatry Network’s 2017 conference “Recovery in a Time of Austerity” raised some tricky issues for the audience and like-minded people, but also pointed to the potential for radical transformation of our approach to mental health problems. Three top quality speakers, big names in the Recovery field, gave inspiring and provocative talks.
CPN co-chairs, Hugh Middleton and Joanna Moncrieff, went to meet Luciana Berger MP (the shadow minister for Mental Health) to convey the importance of a Critical Psychiatry perspective in developing the Labour Party’s mental health policy. After his victory in the Labour Party leadership last year, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s early moves was to appoint
A recent meta-analysis of antipsychotic drug treatment for people with ‘treatment refractory schizophrenia’ suggests clozapine may not be better than other antipsychotics. Clozapine has been the mainstay of treatment for this group since a landmark study by American psychiatrist, John Kane, in 1988 found it to be substantially superior to the old antipsychotic chlorpromazine. Subsequent
Suicides in the Unites States have reached a 30-year high. The steepest rise is in the middle-aged. The rate of suicide in women rose more than in men, but male suicides are still more than three times as common as female suicides. Suicide by firearms was still the most common cause. The Guardian 22/04/16
A recent spot check by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that Southern Health NHS Mental Health Trust, previously criticised for its inadequate investigations of serious incidents and deaths in care, still lacks robust safety procedures and procedures for managing complaints. The Health Trust’s chairman resigned just before the CQC report was published. The Guardian