Dr John Milton: ‘Doing the right thing’
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
We all like people to do what we want. There are ways to achieve this, usually involving metaphorical sticks or carrots. Government is starting to think about nudging the science around choice (if there is such a thing). However what we are usually talking about in healthcare is ‘compliance’, usually defined as a willingness to follow a course of t
Continue reading
Jenelle Clarke: Response to Nick Manning's post, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
(For reference, please see Prof. Nick Manning's post,  “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.) Nick Manning’s post regarding the ‘routinisation of charisma’ within therapeutic communities is a timely reflection as the ATC prepares to celebrate 40 years next week.   With a scheduled round table discussion about the history of TCs, the issues he
Continue reading
Prof. Eddie Kane and Melanie Jordan: The IMH’s new Centre for Health & Justice — its raison d’être
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
The intentions of this blog post are threefold: 1.) To introduce the IMH’s new Centre for Health & Justice; 2.) To overview the Centre for Health & Justice’s creation and its objectives; 3.) To seek bloggers’ development suggestions in relation to the Centre for Health & Justice’s goals. In preceding years, the question of how best to d
Continue reading
Prof. Ruth McDonald: The Apple Diet - it may be good for your health, but don't swallow it whole
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Last November the Institute of Mental Health celebrated its 5th birthday. A month earlier the death of Steve Jobs, the man who took Apple from a small start-up enterprise to the world’s most valuable company dominated media headlines and popular attention. Jobs wasn’t universally popular (an interviewee quoted in Adam Lashinsky’s recent book ‘Insid
Continue reading
Melanie Jordan: Response to Hugh Middleton's post, “Illnesses like any other”
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
(For reference, please see Dr Hugh Middleton's post, “Illnesses like any other”. The challenge of a multi-disciplinary approach to mental health.) Hugh Middleton raises some admirable and poignant questions here, particularly in relation to the responses of young doctors regarding mental health as a strand of their medical training. I find the ‘Mar
Continue reading
Launch of the IMH Blog
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Welcome to the launch of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) Blog!  This blog is affiliated with the Institute of Mental Health (University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust).Our aim is to capture the variety of interest and expertise that is reflected in the Institute’s diverse membership body by bringing together a range of
Continue reading
Prof. Justine Schneider: What is meant by patient and public involvement in mental health research?
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
What is meant by patient and public involvement in mental health research?  I recently found out that organised activists had successfully recruited women with breast cancer to a key study, overcoming the barriers that researchers alone had faced.  I know that campaigns are sometimes successful in obtaining access to drugs through NICE.  But ‘menta
Continue reading
Prof. Ian Shaw: Reflecting on how not to do policy – current NHS reform
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
It started going wrong at the LibDem spring conference last year. There was criticism of the Health reforms and Nick Clegg had to back track. In interview Shirley Williams said that neither Clegg nor Cameron (neither renowned for their work ethic) had read the Health Bill before signing it – they had relied on a verbal briefing by Lansley. The Roya
Continue reading
Victoria Tischler - Mental health in three dimensions: a sculpture for the new building
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
As part of my role as the Institute's arts co-ordinator I have taken on the weighty task of commissioning an artwork to mark the opening of our new headquarters in May 2012. How do you represent mental health in a sculpture? This will be the task of an artist who will work with mental health service users, a local artist, and healthcare students ov
Continue reading
Melanie Jordan: A discussion regarding the Enabling Environments project ~ Follow-on from Nick’s and Jenelle’s posts
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Campling et al. (2004) argue we are all constructions of our environment and of each other, developing our identities, learning patterns of communicating, and our social responses in the context of our social environment. ‘The quality of our physical environment can be health giving or health destroying’ (Howard 2004:69). Johnson and Haigh (2011) r
Continue reading
Amanda Keeling - Mental Capacity and the Right to Make Stupid Decisions
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
As a disclaimer, I should probably declare that this is a cross-posting, from the entry I wrote on the Law School's mental health and capacity blog last month; as far as I know, we have little shared readership, however, and I wouldn't want to deprive you here...Last month, a research team across the Universities of Bristol and Bradford and the Men
Continue reading
Ian Shaw: Maoism in the NHS? - Reflecting on the development of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
I recall back in 2002, a local prominent GP telling me “I’ve worked in NHS for over 25 years and seen 15+ reorganisations and not one of those had any impact on my practice”Of course they hadn’t   - he hadn’t let it. He hadn’t `owned’ nor engaged in the reforms.  The advent of practice based commissioning (pbc) with devolved GP budgets promised cha
Continue reading
Melanie Jordan - Institutional (e.g. prison) settings and mental health: Goffman revisited?
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Institutional (e.g. prison) settings and mental health: Goffman revisited? According to Goffman (1961), upon entrance to total institutions (prisons, asylums, monasteries, army camps, etc.) inmates may begin ‘a series of abasements, degradations, humiliations, and profanations of self’ (p. 24). Inmates’ conception of self ‘is systematically, if oft
Continue reading
Jenelle Clarke - The Value of Relationships and TCs: Reflecting on the ATC at 40
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
Therapeutic communities recently celebrated 40 years since the birth of the Association of Therapeutic Communities (ATC) with round table discussions held last month at the University of Nottingham.  The focus for the event was ‘Re-birth in a time of austerity,’ specifically reflecting on the past 40 years and discussing what the future may hold fo
Continue reading
Dr John Milton - Your days are numbered: Measuring clinical performance in mental health
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
In Brad Pitt’s recent Oscar-nominated film ‘Moneyball’, Jonah Hill plays Peter Brand a young Yale economics graduate who brings a radical approach to scouting baseball players, based on ‘Sabermetrics’ (derived from the acronym ‘SABR’, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research). Brand’s approach is to almost exclusively use players
Continue reading
Victoria Tischler - Mental health in three dimensions: a sculpture for the new building, blog post 2
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
In her second blog post, Victoria Tischler, the Institute's arts co-ordinator, writes about shortlisted applicants who each have a vision of representing mental health in a sculpture.  She also talks about the annual Koestler awards at Rampton and gives us a description of the inside of the new building!For more information about commissioning an a
Continue reading
Dr Simon Clarke - The Compulsion to Repeat and Health Commissioning
The Institute of Mental Health
The Institute of Mental Health
“Insanity is the doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results”                - Alcoholics Anonymous I was at an NHS meeting the other day amid a heated discussion about the importance of integrating healthcare needs across the physical/mental health divide. After I made a point about the importance of centring health s
Continue reading