What do you think?
Rate this book
A Concise Introduction to Mental Heath in Canada
This volume examines mental health and illness in Canada. It covers the definition of mental health; the biological and social science perspectives on it; current diagnostic systems and approaches and the main categories of mental disorders; substance use, dependence, and addictive behavior; mental health and illness among children, youth, and adults; sex, gender, and sexuality; culture and ethnicity; responding to mental health crisis, emergency, and disaster; treatment for disorders; mental health services, professions, and practices; and opportunities to improve population and public health. This edition has been updated to reflect recent scientific findings, changes in terminology, and current research on the diagnostic classifications and epidemiology of mental illnesses in Canada. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
- GenresNonfiction
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 15, 2022
Read this for a project at work.
For a concise introduction that aimed to cover the ground from "synapse to society" it did a pretty decent job. "Mental Health in Canada" is a pretty big topic to cover.
For a mainstream book, I was pleasantly surprised by its inclusion of more critical perspectives. In particular, it discusses at several points the pitfalls of our move too far away from social concepts of mental health and into biological ones alone.
There were places it could have been more critical, however, such as in its discussion of sex work, kinks/fetishes, and substance use/harm reduction. Although it does discuss the benefits of harm reduction, I think that it could have advocated the benefits of decriminalization a bit more, in terms of a public health perspective. It also glossed over issues of gender and sexuality in a way that I felt let the impact of heterosexism and cissexism on queer & trans people too much off the hook.
Mind you, the book's now 11 years old, and we've moved a fair ways in the past decade in regards to some of these ideas.
The writing was dry, but I don't think I've ever met a textbook where this wasn't the case.
For a concise introduction that aimed to cover the ground from "synapse to society" it did a pretty decent job. "Mental Health in Canada" is a pretty big topic to cover.
For a mainstream book, I was pleasantly surprised by its inclusion of more critical perspectives. In particular, it discusses at several points the pitfalls of our move too far away from social concepts of mental health and into biological ones alone.
There were places it could have been more critical, however, such as in its discussion of sex work, kinks/fetishes, and substance use/harm reduction. Although it does discuss the benefits of harm reduction, I think that it could have advocated the benefits of decriminalization a bit more, in terms of a public health perspective. It also glossed over issues of gender and sexuality in a way that I felt let the impact of heterosexism and cissexism on queer & trans people too much off the hook.
Mind you, the book's now 11 years old, and we've moved a fair ways in the past decade in regards to some of these ideas.
The writing was dry, but I don't think I've ever met a textbook where this wasn't the case.
February 22, 2023
This was required reading for my Human Service Diploma Program course. The definitions were easy to follow.
I found the book quite engaging. in particular I was a big fan of the quotes that began each chapter
On The Spectrum of Mental Health Problems chapter 4:
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. —Nathaniel Porter (playwright)
I found the book quite engaging. in particular I was a big fan of the quotes that began each chapter
On The Spectrum of Mental Health Problems chapter 4:
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. —Nathaniel Porter (playwright)
June 7, 2015
What a stupid book.
February 18, 2019
More nonsensical intellectual posturing and bullshit masturbatory texts... I'm just glad I'm done with this long program this sememster.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews