I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

In health care we can always use more funding. Looking at my own experience, I have found that sometimes funding is mismanaged, spent on programs that are destined to fail or diverted from successful programs towards something new that is perceived to offer the best solution to certain crises of the moment. To front line staff it often seems startlingly obvious certain solutions that are proposed will be an spectacular failure even before the policy and procedure is written, yet to those in decision making positions continue to forge forward. Is the problem that no one from the front line was consulted or that the interests of the people are secondary after designing elaborate and new "next best things" as a justification of spending, assuring that is occurs as quickly and efficiently as possible to prove it was necessary? M. Danda RN BN

In health care we can always use more funding. Looking at my own experience, I have found that sometimes funding is mismanaged, spent on programs that are destined to fail or diverted from successful programs towards something new that is perceived to offer the best solution to certain crises of the moment. To front line staff it often seems startlingly obvious certain solutions that are proposed will be an spectacular failure even before the policy and procedure is written, yet to those in decision making positions continue to forge forward. Is the problem that no one from the front line was consulted or that the interests of the people are secondary after designing elaborate and new "next best things" as a justification of spending, insuring that is occurs as quickly and efficiently as possible to prove it was necessary?

     The role of pharmacology is integral in psychiatry. As nurses we encounter clients with mental health issues at all levels of health care from acute to community. With the development of effective medication to treat many psychiatric disorders there has also been an increase in use of medication as a first line of treatment (McCabe, 2004). The readings for this section made me reflect my role as a nurse and how use of psychiatric medication may be optimized for the best treatment of the client in a way that involves much more than simply having an order written by a doctor and hand out pills.           Intuitively one would imagine that because psychotropic medication is widely used in North America that there has been extensive testing conducted on both men and women to substantiate safety of medication. With my background in psychology it does not come as a surprise to me that historically most medication trials for medications that we continue to use today have been conducted o

      Throughout the history of mental health the dominant model used to guide patient care has been the medical model (Shanley & Jubb-Shanley, 2007). In recent years there have been alternative models proposed for providing nursing care in mental health. One model outlined by Shanley & Jubb-Shanley (2007) is the Recovery Alliance Theory. Application of this theory requires a paradigm shift away from the traditional medical model towards a strengths based humanistic approach. The theory resonates with my personal views of what constitutes good mental health nursing because it places emphasis on (1) humanistic philosophy, (2) recovery, (3) partnership relation, (4) strength focus, (5) empowerment and (6) common humanity. These constructs underlie the theory. From these emerge three main concepts that translate the theory into mental health nursing practice, (1) coping, (2) working alliance and (3) self responsibility.      I agree with Shanley & Jubb-Shanley (2007) that, “th

Mental Health and Multiculturalism          The concept of mental illness is relatively new. Westernized nations like the Canada, the United States of America   and European nations are where the majority of research on the subject is being conducted. In fact, t here was a time when mental illness did not exist in western society   ( Thornicroft , 2006) .   Throughout history there have been observation and historical documentation of p eople   who  have  had mental health issues whom   were   portrayed as deviant or psychotic. With increasing social conscience which occurred in the 18 th   century, the mentally ill were given what was considered appropriate refuge in asylums, where residents were isolated and in large part gratefully forgotten by society, receiving little more than shelter (Callaway, 2007). Prior to the past century the general reaction ranged from being   tolerated, pitied, shunned,   or punished, sometimes   they lived out their years   or died (Andrews & Bo