Divergent views--patient, career and staff perceptions of diagnosis and reasons for psychiatric admission to a district general hospital

Service user and family carer involvement in mental health care: divergent views

This study assessed differences between service users', family carers' and mental healthcare providers' perceptions on service user and family carer involvement in mental healthcare. We conducted questionnaires in care networks for persons with serious and persistent mental illness, among 111 service users, 73 family carers and 216 mental healthcare providers. Many aspects of service user and family carer involvement are achieved to satisfactory levels while other aspects are scarcely realized. Service users and mental healthcare providers perceive family carer involvement as less important and realized than service user involvement. Family carers hold more favorable views on the importance and realization of involvement than do mental healthcare providers. The implementation of stakeholders' involvement in healthcare is ongoing. Notwithstanding great efforts, service users' and family carers' involvement preferences are not yet fully considered. Developing procedures, training and monitoring cycles regarding involvement may enhance this situation.

Response of Japanese patients to the change of department name for the psychiatric outpatient clinic in a university hospital

There has long been controversy over the stigma associated with mental illness and psychiatric facilities. In Japan, the department name "Department of Psychiatry" (in Japanese, Seishin-ka) itself evokes the lay public's and psychiatric patients' feelings of stigma. This phenomenon may hamper psychiatric treatment of adequate duration and quality. On July 1st, 1999, the Juntendo University Hospital changed the department name from "Department of Psychiatry and Neurology" (in Japanese, Seishin-Shinkei-ka) to Mental Clinic, accompanied by an increased number of new outpatients, as reported previously. In the present study, we turn our attention to the opinions of those patients who have received treatment in the department under both names. Questionnaires asking for their opinions about the department names revealed that the majority have feelings of stigma associated with the name "Department of Psychiatry and Neurology." This result did not correlate with demographic factors or the length of psychiatric treatment. However, those who experienced psychiatric admission were significantly less uncomfortable with the name than those who did not. It was also revealed that the change in the name lessened their feelings of stigma and negative self-image as patients of a general hospital. These results suggest the importance of the name of the psychiatric department in general hospitals, in Japan, from therapeutic, psychosocial and ethical viewpoints.