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Psychodynamics as an aid to clear thinking about patients

Article Abstract:

Nurses may gain understanding of the problems and behaviour of their mental health patients through the use of a psychodynamic model which concentrates on the intrapsychic and interpersonal processes in the patient-nurse relationship. Nurses should try to appreciate the strengths of their patient as well as understand the nature of their problems. Patients can portray themselves to nurses in a specific way that can mask their problems, while nurses may in turn be reluctant to identify those problems. Community nurses have now become responsible for patients who were previously cared for in hospitals.

Analysis, Usage, Mentally ill persons, Mentally ill, Nurse and patient, Nurse-patient relations, Psychodynamic psychotherapy

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Parasuicide response

Article Abstract:

King's College Hospital in London, England, established its experimental parasuicide team in 1986, and the team's success has given it a permanent footing. A team of specialist psychiatric nurses assesses all patients in the hospital who have deliberately harmed themselves and offers a follow-up counselling period to patients who do not have a psychiatric illness. The aim is to help patients understand their problems and cope with them in a less destructive fashion. The parasuicide team is cost effective because it reduces the need for hospital care for suicidal patients.

Innovations, Psychiatric nursing

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A difficult age?

Article Abstract:

The extent of depression amongst teenagers and children is greatly underestimated, and their suicide attempts are often regarded as being only attention seeking, according to the team at the Good Hope Children's Centre in Birmingham, UK. Children's problems are often related to wider problems within the family, so the centre aims as far as possible to work with the whole family. According to figures from the UK Dept of Health, the number of 10-14-year-olds admitted to psychiatric hospitals in the last five years has grown by 65%.

Depression in adolescence, Adolescent depression, Depression in children, Childhood depression

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