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The concept of serious mental illness: modern myths and grim realities
Author(s) -
Barker Pj,
John Keady,
Susan Croom,
Chris Stevenson,
Trevor Adams,
William Reynolds
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2850.1998.00136.x
Subject(s) - mental illness , mental health , mythology , legislation , psychiatry , psychology , population , mental health law , medicine , political science , environmental health , law , philosophy , theology
Current mental health practice and legislation is influenced significantly by the ill‐defined concept of serious mental illness (SMI). Although the concept of SMI originally appeared to include a consideration of a range of forms of mental illness, including dementias, by custom and practice the term has come to mean, often, only people with a psychotic diagnosis. This paper reviews the influence of the term SMI, considering the way older people, younger people and other subgroups within the ‘adult’ population have been marginalized by the narrow definition of the concept. The paper concludes with a consideration of some of the ethical implications of mental health nurses focusing on an ill‐defined ‘illness’ grouping, and the impact that such a narrow focus might have on the ambition to establish ‘health for all by the year 2000’.