Promoting shared decision making in mental health

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Introduction

This website is concerned with mental illness and mental health, and the ways in which choice can help promote shared decision making between the people who experience mental illness.

It is targeted at:

• Service users
• Carers - as in informal supporters such as family members
• Healthcare professionals

The overall aim of this website is to inform users of mental health services and those who informally care for them that they do have choices. The site explains how and why choice is increasingly important and provides information and practical, interactive tools, to help encourage choice and stimulate discussion.

 

Mental illness and mental health

Mental illness is a broad term that covers many possible conditions or disorders. This site focuses mainly on two in particular:

• schizophrenia and
• bipolar disorder, often referred to as manic depression

This website may also be helpful for people affected by other mental disorders; examples of these would include personality disorders and depression.

 

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is an illness which affects the chemistry of the brain. It affects thinking, emotions and behaviour. The number of individuals likely to experience schizophrenia in their lifetime is 1 in 100 with 15 to 30 new cases per year per 100,000 of the population. With every person affected by schizophrenia in the UK, 10 others are affected by its consequences – family, friends and colleagues¹.

 

Schizophrenia is equally common in men and women, usually occurring between the ages of 15 and 45 with the age of onset slightly earlier in men¹.

 

Symptoms of schizophrenia may include delusions eg persecution (which are typical of paranoid schizophrenia); hallucinations which are usually auditory (hearing voices) but which may also be visual or tactile².

 

Schizophrenia is one of the most distressing mental illnesses. However, improved understanding of the condition, the development of patient support groups and the development of new medicines has greatly improved quality of life for service users¹.

 

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is characterised with two mood swings:

• depression - feeling very low, and
• mania - feeling very high. When symptoms are slightly less severe, it is known as hypomania³.

"Unlike simple mood swings, each “extreme episode” can last for several weeks or longer. The high and low phases of the illness can be so extreme that they can often interfere with daily life."

 

"The pattern of mood swings in bipolar disorder varies widely between individuals. Some people have only a couple of bipolar episodes in their lifetime and are stable in between, while others may experience many episodes³."

 

"The exact cause of bipolar disorder is not fully understood, but the condition seems to run in families. It is a relatively common condition, with around 1 person in 100 being diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. It can occur at any age, but often develops between the ages of 18 and 24. Both men and women, and people from all backgrounds, can get it³."

 

Although bipolar disorder is not caused by stress, stressful situations can trigger episodes of mania or depression in those with the condition. Bipolar disorder may also be triggered by overwhelming problems in everyday life, such as problems to do with money, work, and relationships³.

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