Book Review
Community mental health
A. Puckett
ISBN: 0729512258; 1993; 486 pages; Harcourt Brace & Company;
Michael Clinton
Faculty of Nursing and Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, Canada; School of Nursing, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
As the process of deinstitutionalization gathers pace and the National Mental Health Policy is implemented, a book on community mental health is timely. Puckett's intention in preparing this text was to respond to a series of important questions. He has sifted a great deal of information to respond to such questions as: What is mental illness? What research tests and measures are there to help community health workers? Can social factors influence the course of a psychiatric illness? Do conventional physical treatments used in psychiatry, such as drugs and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), always produce the best results? How can better communication skills help community workers to provide more effective treatment for sufferers? How do professional workers resolve the difficult ethical questions they confront in practice? Equally important questions concerning rehabilitation, the operation and effectiveness of community services, stress management techniques, violence, and suicide are also raised.
The remainder of the book is concerned with mental illness and culture, methods of alleviating social problems, the effect of the legal system on sufferers and carers, social policy issues, and methods of treatment. The author has used an interesting set of questions to structure his text. An important issue is whether the term mental health has any intrinsic meaning or is only a euphemism for mental illness. He also asks whether mental health promotion can reduce the impact and incidence of mental illness.
Wherever possible, Puckett draws on relevant research to answer his questions and to guide community mental health practice. He focuses equally on social and psychological factors in mental illness, and pays adequate attention to the possible role of social networks in helping to protect vulnerable individuals from psychiatric disorders. The role of psychotherapy, social interventions and the communication skills of com munity workers in producing the best outcomes for clients are also considered.
Puckett provides a good overview of community mental health practice. Vignettes, case studies, useful proformas, and helpful diagrams and illustrations are included in the text. He deals with the problems faced by community mental health workers in an informed and sympathetic way. Yet his book lacks a coherent perspective to link together the answers to the many questions posed.
However, it is generally well written and likely to be useful to mental health professionals. Under graduates in nursing and other health care disciplines will find it contains useful reference material. This reference material is not always covered in enough detail, and its arrangement is unusual, but an extensive index and full bibliography provide valuable assistance. With this in mind, I am pleased to recommend Community Mental Health for use by mental health professionals. Students of the mental health disciplines and those who teach them will find it of much value.
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