The second edition of A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health provides a comprehensive review of the sociology of mental health. Chapters by leading scholars and researchers present an overview of historical, social and institutional frameworks. Part I examines social factors that shape psychiatric diagnosis and the measurement of mental health and illness, theories that explain the definition and treatment of mental disorders and cultural variability. Part II investigates effects of social context, considering class, gender, race and age, and the critical role played by stress, marriage, work and social support. Part III focuses on the organization, delivery and evaluation of mental health services, including the criminalization of mental illness, the challenges posed by HIV, and the importance of stigma. This is a key research reference source that will be useful to both undergraduates and graduate students studying mental health and illness from any number of disciplines.

The problem of media representations about mental health is now a global issue with health agencies expressing concern about produced stigma and its outcomes, specifically social exclusion. In many countries, the statistic of one in four people experiencing a mental health condition prevails, making it essential that more is known about how to improve media portrayals. With a globally projected increase in mental health conditions Mediating Mental Health offers a detailed critical analysis of media representations in two phases looking closely at genre form. The book looks across fictional and factual genres in film, television and radio examining media constructions of mental health identity. It also questions the opinions of journalists, mental healthcare professionals and people with conditions with regard to mediated mental health meanings. Finally, as a result of a production project, people with conditions develop new images making critical contrasts with dominant media portrayals. Thus, useful and practical recommendations for developing media practice ensue. As such, this book will appeal to mental health professionals, people with conditions, journalists, sociologists, students and scholars of media and cultural studies, practitioners in applied theatre, and anyone interested in media representations of social groups.

Mental Health Ethics provides an overview of traditional and contemporary ethical perspectives and critically examines a range of ethical and moral challenges present in contemporary ‘psychiatric-mental’ health services.

Communicating Mental Health: History, Contexts, and Perspectives explores mental health through the lens of the communication discipline. In the first section, contributors describe the major contributions of the communication discipline as it pertains to a broader perspective and stigma of mental health. In the second section, contributors investigate mental health through various narrative perspectives. In the third and fourth sections, contributors consider many applied contexts such as media, education, and family. At the conclusion, contributors discuss the ways in which future inquiries regarding mental health in the communication discipline can be investigated. Scholars of health communication, mental health, psychology, history, and sociology will find this volume particularly useful.

Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.

The issue of the mental health consequences of disasters is always timely, but, at present, its consideration serves a pressing need if one takes into account the great number of co-existing and super-imposed disasters occurring throughout the world. Taking Greece as an example, on top of the economic disaster that has produced serious mental health problems, the country is faced with a serious refugee problem produced by human-made disasters that have occurred elsewhere and produce serious mental health problems to the refugees and the host population alike. This volume deals with the mental health consequences of Natural Disasters, Human-made Disasters, and a third category, Economic Disasters. This volume will help contribute to more efficient management and mitigation of the mental health effects of such disasters.