George Szmukler – författare

Mental health laws surrounding psychiatric treatment under coercion have remained largely unchanged since the eighteenth century. The grounds for involuntary treatment in psychiatry are first, that the patient has a "mental disorder" that warrants treatment; and second, that the patient needs to be treated in the interests of his or her safety or for the protection of others. Men in White Coats: Treatment under Coercion is an accessible and timely resource on medical treatment under coercion and its justifications. Split into thirteen chapters, George Szmukler examines the current grounds for involuntary treatment of patients with mental disorders. He argues that the existing laws are both discriminatory and morally unacceptable, and that they should be replaced by an entirely different approach for over-riding treatment refusals.Using case studies and real-life experiences, Men in White Coats: Treatment under Coercion discusses how involuntary treatment in psychiatric practice affects patients, their families, and society, and looks to potential solutions to the current legal frameworks surrounding coercion that could be made applicable across all medical specialties and settings.

Community mental health has evolved as a field of practice and as a research discipline during the last 50 years. Now newer concepts, such as shared decision-making, the recovery approach, evidence-based practice, implementation science, telemedicine, and mobile device technology, are adding layers of texture to this domain. These developments require an ever more sophisticated understanding of the very latest evidence and experience in community mental health care to respond to the values, goals, needs and preferences of people with lived experience of mental health conditions. This second edition of the Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health addresses recent changes and achievements, current controversies, and future challenges while emphasizing areas of convergence, where social values, health, medical sciences, and policy formation converge and meet. This edition also features a new section on global mental health, to emphasise what is known about the mental health gap in low- and middle-income countries, and the evidence of how to respond to these huge global challenges.Like community mental health care itself, the authors are multidisciplinary, international, and bring both clinical and scientific perspectives to this volume. This textbook will be an invaluable and authoritative source of reference for all mental health specialists; for people with mental health conditions, for staff in non-governmental and governmental organisations, and indeed for all who are dedicated to creating better mental health services and systems.

This book serves to remind us that in psychiatry the diagnosis, course, treatment and outcome of disorders rest heavily on the extraordinarily complex and sensitive relationship between doctor and patient. With its emphasis on narrative, meaning, the relationship between subjective experience and objective reality, [it] reasserts the primary truth of medicine, namely that establishing the true picture of health and disease requires the active participation of the patient at every stage. How are we to avoid losing sight of the person in the midst of bleeping machines and flickering computer screens? It is to the credit of the authors of this book that they have so sensibly and lucidly provided an answer.'- Anthony W. Clare, Professor of Psychiatry, St Patrick's Hospital, DublinIn order to treat their clients successfully, psychiatrists must be able to make the most complete and accurate assessment possible in each case. In this comprehensive book, the authors discuss the general principles behind psychiatric interviewing and assessment, then through the use of in-depth case histories combined with analysis, they demonstrate how those principles apply in a wide variety of contexts. They show how information is elicited from clients and used in forming assessments; how courses of action are decided upon; and how clients are re-assessed as cases change and develop over time. This is a book packed with practical information, presented in the context of narratives which demonstrate the real-life application of principles. It will be invaluable reading for students and practitioners of psychiatry and related disciplines.