Chris Stevenson

Last updated

Chris Stevenson (died 2014) was an author and professor of mental health nursing at Dublin City University, where she was also head of the School of Nursing. [1] [2] She was appointed in 2005, having begun her career as a psychiatric nurse. [3]

Contents

Career

Stevenson trained as a psychiatric nurse before completing a BA (Hons) in psychology and sociology at Sunderland Polytechnic. She then returned to nursing as a community psychiatric nurse, specialising in working with families. Whilst working as a nurse, she studied for an MSc in health and social research at the University of Northumbria, and for seven years she held a clinical lectureship at Newcastle University. She then became a reader in nursing at the University of Teesside, and deputy director of the Teesside Centre for Rehabilitation Sciences. [2]

On her appointment to Dublin City University, she established a qualitative study into attempted suicide by young men in Ireland, noting that suicide is the most common cause of death in 15 to 24-year-old males in Ireland and that mental health nurses are currently not properly trained to deal with people with severe mental health issues, describing the problem as "professional avoidance in engaging meaningfully with the person." [3] A further report in 2010 stressed the implications of the study for suicide prevention strategies. [4] [5]

The following year she was working for ParSons Dowd Psychological of Newcastle, UK as a chartered psychologist and family therapist, and still researching factors linked to suicide. [6] She was later affiliated to the University of Ulster. [7]

Chris Stevenson died on 13 November 2014 at Legan, Co. Longford, in Ireland. [8]

Published works

Stevenson published the following books or chapters of books:

Related Research Articles

MindFreedom International is an international coalition of over one hundred grassroots groups and thousands of individual members from fourteen nations. Based in the United States, it was founded in 1990 to advocate against forced medication, medical restraints, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy. Its stated mission is to protect the rights of people who have been labeled with psychiatric disorders. Membership is open to anyone who supports human rights, including mental health professionals, advocates, activists, and family members. MindFreedom has been recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a human rights NGO with Consultative Roster Status.

Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, mood disorders, addiction, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, paranoia, and self-harm.

Constant visual observation (CO) is the practice of placing somebody, generally someone in a psychiatric inpatient unit, under the constant supervision of a nurse. Someone under constant supervision is watched by others at all times, including while asleep. CO is widely used for potentially suicidal patients, but the evidence to support its effectiveness is weak. Concerns around the use of constant visual observation include paternalism, distrust and dislike by patients, job dissatisfaction amongst staff on CO, and the high cost of paying staff for long shifts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicidal ideation</span> Thoughts, ideas, or ruminations about the possibility of ending ones life

Suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, is the thought process of having ideas, or ruminations about the possibility of ending one's own life. It is not a diagnosis but is a symptom of some mental disorders, use of certain psychoactive drugs, and can also occur in response to adverse life events without the presence of a mental disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Whitaker (author)</span> American journalist

Robert Whitaker is an American journalist and author, writing primarily about medicine, science, and history. He is the author of five books, three of which cover the history or practice of modern psychiatry. He has won numerous awards for science writing, and in 1998 he was part of a team writing for the Boston Globe that was shortlisted for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles questioning the ethics of psychiatric research in which unsuspecting patients were given drugs expected to heighten their psychosis. He is the founder and publisher of Mad in America, a webzine critical of the modern psychiatric establishment.

Suicide risk assessment is a process of estimating the likelihood for a person to attempt or die by suicide. The goal of a thorough risk assessment is to learn about the circumstances of an individual person with regard to suicide, including warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors. Risk for suicide is re-evaluated throughout the course of care to assess the patient's response to personal situational changes and clinical interventions. Accurate and defensible risk assessment requires a clinician to integrate a clinical judgment with the latest evidence-based practice, although accurate prediction of low base rate events, such as suicide, is inherently difficult and prone to false positives.

Marsha M. Linehan is an American psychologist and author. She is the creator of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a type of psychotherapy that combines cognitive restructuring with acceptance, mindfulness, and shaping.

In the United States, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) is an advanced practice registered nurse trained to provide a wide range of mental health services to patients and families in a variety of settings. PMHNPs diagnose, conduct therapy, and prescribe medications for patients who have psychiatric disorders, medical organic brain disorders or substance abuse problems. They are licensed to provide emergency psychiatric services, psychosocial and physical assessment of their patients, treatment plans, and manage patient care. They may also serve as consultants or as educators for families and staff. The PMHNP has a focus on psychiatric diagnosis, including the differential diagnosis of medical disorders with psychiatric symptoms, and on medication treatment for psychiatric disorders.

Loren Richard Mosher was an American psychiatrist, clinical professor of psychiatry, expert on schizophrenia and the chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia in the National Institute of Mental Health (1968–1980). Mosher spent his professional career advocating for humane and effective treatment for people diagnosed as having schizophrenia and was instrumental in developing an innovative, residential, home-like, non-hospital, non-drug treatment model for newly identified acutely psychotic persons.

A registered psychiatric nurse (RPN) specialises in a field of nursing that focuses on the mental health of patients. Psychiatric nurses assist the interdisciplinary team in the assessment and treatment of the patient's psychiatric illness and symptoms. They treat a variety of mental health disorders such as bipolar, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, substance abuse addiction and eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia. However, they do not diagnose the patient, this is the responsibility of a qualified psychologist or a psychiatric doctor. Psychiatric nurses are in charge of dispensing medication and the overall care of patients. Registered psychiatric nurses work under the supervision of doctors’ and they practice within the health care industry, mostly in mental health clinics, outpatient facilities, mental health agencies, long-term care centres or hospitals.

Kevin Joseph Michael Gournay CBE FMedSci FRCN FRSM FRCPsych (Hon) PhD RN CSci Cert CBT is a registered psychologist, chartered scientist and a registered nurse by background. He is an emeritus professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. He was a consultant psychologist at the Priory Hospital North London; retiring in December 2018. He has now returned to clinical work as part of the response to COVID19. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Matilda Centre; University of Sydney., where his work focusses on the impact of COVID19 on mental health and the combination of mental health problems and substance use. He has been responsible over many years for a very wide range of research, policy and practice development in mental health care. He also works as an Expert Witness; he has provided reports on more than 300 suicides; 20 homicides and hundreds of reports on people who have suffered the consequences of traumatic events, including accidents, terrorist related incidents, natural disasters, war related events and stillbirth and perinatal death. He has also provided numerous reports on patients receiving care and treatment in high secure and Medium secure settings, including Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth hospitals

Annie Therese Altschul, CBE, BA, MSc, RGN, RMN, RNT, FRCN was Britain's first mental health nurse pioneer; a midwife, researcher, educator, author and a patient advocate, emeritus professor of nursing.

Rufus May is a British clinical psychologist best known for using his own experiences of being a psychiatric patient to promote alternative recovery approaches for those experiencing psychotic symptoms. After formally qualifying as a clinical psychologist, he then disclosed that he had been previously detained in hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lehmann (author)</span>

Peter Lehmann, D. Phil. h.c., is an author, social scientist, publisher, and an independent freelance activist in humanistic anti-psychiatry, living in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Oaks</span> American activist

David William Oaks is a civil rights activist and co-founder and former executive director of Eugene, Oregon-based MindFreedom International.

Bhargavi Davar is a noted mental health activist in India. She is the managing trustee of The Bapu Trust, an organisation that was founded in 1999 dedicated to the research and activism of mental health issues. She has written numerous articles in medical journals.

In colleges and universities in the United States, suicide is one of the most common causes of death among students. Each year, approximately 24,000 college students attempt suicide while 1,100 students succeed in their attempt, making suicide the second-leading cause of death among U.S. college students. Roughly 12% of college students report the occurrence of suicide ideation during their first four years in college, with 2.6% percent reporting persistent suicide ideation. 65% of college students reported that they knew someone who has either attempted or died by suicide, showing that the majority of students on college campuses are exposed to suicide or suicidal attempts.

Mary Starke Harper was an African American nurse who worked in bedside nursing, nurse research and health policy. She spent several years working for the Department of Veterans Affairs. She performed clinical research on the geriatric psychiatric population and minority health. In 1972, Harper created the NIMH Minority Fellowship Program. She served on four presidential administration advisory panels with regards to mental health and health care reform. She died in 2006 as the recipient of several honors and author of over 180 publications.

Ginette Gosselin Ferszt is an American nurse. She is a professor of nursing and the coordinator of the graduate psychiatric mental health clinical nurse specialist program at University of Rhode Island.

Darby Penney was an American mental health worker and human rights activist working for improvements in psychiatric care.

References

  1. "Nursing". Dublin City University. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Prof Chris Stevenson". Dublin City University. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  3. 1 2 David Labanyi (27 September 2005). "Professor leads research into suicide attempts". The Irish Times . Retrieved 20 March 2008.
  4. "2% of deaths are suicide; REPORT.(News)." The Mirror (London, England). MGN Ltd. 16 June 2010. Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
  5. O'Connell, Claire (15 June 2010). "Boosting sense of value 'may help stop suicide'". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  6. Gordon, Evelyn; Cutcliffe, John R.; Stevenson, Chris (June 2011). "Re-Vitalizing Worthiness: A theory of overcoming suicidality". Grounded Theory Review. 10 (2).
  7. McKenna, Hugh; et al. (September 2012). "Providing Meaningful Care: Learning From the Experiences of Suicidal Young Men". Qualitative Health Research. 22 (9): 1207–1219. doi:10.1177/1049732312450367. PMID   22785623. S2CID   24026831.
  8. Death notice of Chris STEVENSON, RIP.ie, 19 November 2014