The problem of adults with severe mental illness parenting minor children is a growing concern. These clients suffer from concerns that negatively affect them and their children. This study showed many clients seeking services at public mental health agencies are parents of minor children and have had a history of family dysfunction. Prevalence rates, demographic characteristics, types of mental illness diagnoses, family background variables, and some current issues regarding these clients were examined. The study concludes with clinical implications for clients and their families and calls for a family focused approach.
Documenting the extent of psychiatric disorder among elders in developing societies sensitizes health planners to the growing reality of aging in their societies and the need for expanded physical and psychiatric health care services.
After a history of neglect, bioethicists have recently turned their attention to the topic of infectious disease. In this paper we link bioethicists' earlier neglect of infectious disease to their under-appreciation of the extent to which the problem of infectious disease is related to social factors and thus to questions of justice. We argue that a social causation of illness model -wellknown to sociologists of medicine, but incompletely understood by bioethicists -will improve future bioethical analysis of issues related to infectious disease. By emphasising the relationships between social and economic structures of inequality and health, the social causation model provides a richer approach to ethical issues associated with infectious disease than the more commonly used biomedical model.
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<p>Recent statistics indicate that nearly one quarter of American adults have been diagnosed with a mental illness (Egan & Asher, 2005). This means many of these adults are parents affected by a mental illness while trying to raise their children. Nurses in many health care settings, particularly pediatrics, public health, schools, emergency rooms, and mental health, often see the damaging influence of parental mental illness on children. As the largest number of health care providers, nurses can make a significant contribution to improving the plight of these families. This is because nurses understand and have a holistic view of family function. Due to the nature of their education and expertise, nurses are in a unique position to not only offer clinical interventions but also act as bridges in connecting these families to social service agencies and family and community support networks.</p>
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