BMJ 2002;325:1300 ( 30 November )

Letters

Wanted: patients with mental illness in role of teacher

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---Wykurz and Kelly reviewed developing the role of patients as teachers.1 Mental illnesses are ideally suited for patients to be teachers because diagnosis is based on symptoms that they have first hand experience of. This is especially important for schizophrenia, which is considered to be the worst and most devastating mental illness.

Care of schizophrenia has during the past 50 years changed drastically from care in mental hospitals to outpatient care. Education has naturally changed during these 50 years, but it would be strange if both current care and education were optimal.

Cultural, social, and care factors can dramatically affect schizophrenia, as shown by the World Health Organization's 10 country study, in which cases of continuous psychotic illness varied between 2% in Nigeria and 33% in Japan.2 Thus factors other than symptoms, such as discrimination and social problems, need to be investigated. I am not sure if current medical teachers have . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Developing the role of patients as teachers: literature review
Geoff Wykurz and Diana Kelly
BMJ 2002 325: 818-821. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Yacoub, E., Hall, I., Bernall, J. (2008). Secure in-patient services for people with learning disability: is the market serving the user well?. Psychiatr. Bull. 32: 205-207 [Full text]  
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