 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Martin Gittelman, PhD, Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, 160 West 94th Street, New York, NY 10025, 212 663-0131, gittem01@med.nyu.edu
Tn recent years there has been considerable interest in Human Rights and mental illness. The focus has been largely limited to conditions within psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes and the restriction of civil liberties of persons with mental illness. This paper will describe some of the factors responsible for premature and preventable death in persons with mental illness internationally and in developing countries. Premature death because of a failure to provide intervention is a denial of basic human rights as defined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The interim report of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has noted that even in the US only half of the numbers of persons with mental illness who require treatment are actually receiving treatment. The report notes the annual figure of 30,000 suicides, many of which might have been preventable. Untreated medical illness, incarceration, poverty, homelessness, stigma and indifference are some of the factors which account for shortened life in affluent countries. In developing countries there are numerous factors which make for premature and preventable death. Among these factors are poverty; the increasing recruitment of health and mental health personnel from developing countries without compensation to those countries and policy inaction at the international level. Other factors will be discussed which result in premature death for persons with mental disability such as inappropriate models of mental health care; deinstitutionalization without provision for treatment and weak or absent services at the primary care level.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Suicide, Human Rights
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.