Mental health labels can be powerful and hurtful. We sat down with young patients, families and doctors to brainstorm new names for mental health conditions.
Typically, people who experience psychosis encounter it in young adulthood or alongside dementia later in life. Post-COVID psychosis can hit adults in their middle years.
Early intervention programs for young people with psychosis might cost more initially, and require more intensive support for longer periods, but they’re worth the investment.
It was hoped intensive early intervention programs might ‘bend the curve’ and change the lifetime trajectory of illnesses such as schizophrenia. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.
People with schizophrenia are almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those without the serious mental illness, making it second only to age as a risk factor for mortality.
Current mental health services aren’t targeted at young people. The few that are specialise in either complex mental health disorders, or newly emerging ones. We need a place that does everything.
Media reporting often unfairly stigmatises people with mental illness and promotes the stereotype that mental illness causes violent behaviour. New guidelines offer tips for more responsible reporting.
People with mental illness are especially vulnerable after they are discharged from hospital.
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People with mental illness are at their most vulnerable when they’re discharged from hospital. Without the support of family or friends at this time, they’re less likely to recover.
Genes, drugs in early life, and stress have been linked to the development of schizophrenia.
Research shows that some mindfulness-based interventions for psychotic symptoms can offer people insight into their experiences, and relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression.
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Anti-psychotic drugs work well for only about 30 per cent of schizophrenia patients. Meditation can offer them a route to self-acceptance and reduced anxiety.
The Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) of Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia unanimously voted on March 5, 2018 to ban all smoking of marijuana products on campus — for health and safety reasons.
(Flickr/Chuck Grimmett)
In advance of marijuana legalization in Canada, one university in British Columbia has taken a firm stance, banning all smoking of cannabis products on campus.
Psoriasis is linked with psychosis.
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