Mental Health Issues: What’s Stopping You from Seeking Help?

No matter who you are, everyone needs a little help sometimes. That’s why free and confidential mental health care is easily available for anyone, but still you can be reluctant to take it. Shying away from seeking care can be really detrimental to your wellbeing, as treatment can prevent your condition from getting worse. If left untreated, mental health problems can cause trouble at work, in your relationship and even lead to drug abuse or suicide. So, what’s stopping you from getting the help you need?

 

Outlook: A 2007 study, entitled “Perceived Barriers to Mental Health Service Utilization in the United States, Ontario and the Netherlands,” found that barriers in attitude were the most common reason why Americans don’t seek mental healthcare. The researchers found that many Americans wrongly believe their mental wellness will sort itself out on its own, and that professional psychiatry does not work.

 

Social factors: According to a report by former Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, race, age, culture and gender discrimination are major causes for obstructions in seeking mental care.

 

Lack of Self-Perception: If someone you care about has a mental illness, he or she may be unaware of the fact that anything is wrong. Your loved one may assume that those erratic actions, behaviours and emotions are normal, which means he or she won’t be able to entertain any thoughts of seeking medical help for the problems. You and your collective loved ones may need to intervene here, as there’s no way for the patient to find a solution until he or she first acknowledges that there’s a problem.

 

Lack of Access: You may find it difficult accessing mental healthcare facilities if you live in a rural environment or village, which is even more worrying considering the fact that seclusion is very damaging to mental wellness. You may also be unable to access facilities if you don’t have adequate transport or if you have certain responsibilities at home.

 

Social Stigma: No one wants to be seen as crazy, and so a lot of people – and teenagers in particular – don’t talk about mental health problems, or seek the treatment they need.

Categories: health, health problems, mental, Mental Health, Mental Healthcare, Mental Wellness, nbsp, nbsp lack, nbsp social, self perception, social stigma

Should Doctors Adopt Homeopathy in Mental Healthcare?

A psychiatrist in Dubai has called upon the mental healthcare community to move away from conventional medicine, and instead turn towards homeopathy as a treatment for mental wellness disorders. According to Dr Vengalis Zafeiriou, this can reduce the incidence of severe side effects.

At the second conference on Integrative Medicine Conference, organised by Dubai Healthcare City Authority’s Centre for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ), Dr Zafeiriou argued that homoeopathy can reduce the length of time you spend in hospital, the amount of medicine and laboratory examinations you need, your frequency of relapses and costs to you and state healthcare. He said that homeopathy, a form of alternative medicine, can also improve overall wellbeing and chronic disease prevention and treatment, and all this whilst being side-effect-free and easily combinable with any other treatment.

The ‘Advances in Evidence Based Integrative Medicine’ conference was created with the view of bridging the gap between conventional, complementary and alternative medicine through evidence-based integrative medicine case studies. For Dr Zafeiriou’s presentation, he provided case studies of patients suffering from alcoholism and autism.

After his lecture, Dr Zafeiriou, a Psychiatrist and President and Director of Education of the Hellenic Association of Homoeopathic Medical Cooperation in Greece, commented, ‘In psychiatry there aren’t any medicines designed to be curative, rather these relieve symptoms. Homeopathy can treat all kinds of disorders from anxiety and phobias to depression and schizophrenia. In mental hospitals, homoeopathy can treat patients with severe mental disorders, contributing considerably to the therapeutic outcome of conventional psychiatric treatment.’

But what do other insiders on the subject have to say about homeopathy’s role in mental wellness? According to John Graham, Chiropractic Practitioner, Mezyad Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, homoeopathy should become part of UAE mental health care services because it ‘has a place in psychiatric medicine. I truly believe that body, mind and spirit are interrelated – you cannot affect one without affecting the other.’

Dr Naseem Akhtar Qureshi, Director, Division of Research and Studies at the General Administration of Medical Research in Saudi Arabia, added that homoeopathy takes the stigma out of conventional mental health care: ‘Incorporating a homoeopathic unit in a psychiatric hospital will reduce the stigma associated with psychiatrists and mental hospitals. Homoeopathy will add another dimension to the holistic approach in the treatment of mentally ill patients. It will be a useful addition to the therapeutic arm of psychiatry.’

Google+
Should Doctors Adopt Homeopathy in Mental Healthcare?

Categories: homeopathy, Mental Healthcare, Side Effects