‘Close confinement tells very much upon a man’: Prison Memoirs, Insanity and the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Prison

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 74, Issue 3, July 2019, Pages 267–291, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrz027

This article explores prisoners’ observations of mental illness in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British prisons, recorded in memoirs published following their release. The discipline of separate confinement was lauded for its potential to improve prisoners’ minds, inducing reflection and reform, when it was introduced in the 1840s, but in practice led to high levels of mental breakdown. In order to maintain the integrity of the prison system, the prison authorities played down incidences of insanity, while prison chaplains lauded the beneficent influence of cellular isolation. In contrast, as this article demonstrates, prisoners’ memoirs offer insights into the prevalence of mental illness in prison, and its poor management, as well as inmates’ efforts to manage mental distress.

As the prison system became more closed, uniform and penal after the 1860s, the volume of such publications increased. Oscar Wilde’s evocative prison writings have attracted considerable attention, but he was only one of many prison authors criticizing the penal system and decrying the damage it inflicted on the mind. Exploration of prison memoirs, it is argued, enhances our understanding of experiences of mental disorder in the underexplored context of the prison, highlighting the prisoners’ voice, agency and advocacy of reform.

Full article here.

 Slider photo by Tony Hisgett from Flickr

Dying well: Improving palliative and end of life care for people with dementia

Dementia Discussion Paper 1. Dementia Australia. 2019

Dementia Australia (formerly Alzheimer’s Australia) has released this brief discussion paper calling for better palliative and end of life care for those living with dementia. The report argues that comprehensive palliative care for people living with dementia should be available when and where it is needed, including community or home based care, residential aged care, hospice care, and acute care settings. The authors argue that there is a need to improve the provision of palliative care services for people living with dementia in each of these settings, and to increase the ability of health professionals, staff, families and the community to meet the specific palliative care needs of people living with dementia. The report includes a number of recommendations and calls for action around workforce, advanced care planning, funding, access, coordination and awareness.

  "Once in their ‘end of life’ stage, people with dementia face frequent hospitalisations and may be given unnecessary procedures and treatment. They can be unsuitably admitted into acute beds in unfamiliar and stressful settings where staff do not have the capacity or the specialised training and skills to recognise and provide individually tailored palliative care for people with dementia. As a result of this, people with dementia end up being caught in a cycle of transfers from home to hospital to residential aged care and back to hospital."

Full article here.

 Slider photo by JD Mason on stocksnap.io

The Health Sciences Library regularly receives new issues of the print journals in our collection.

In the table below you can see the latest print journal issues that have arrived and are now available in the library for you to access. 

Australian clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation 2018
and
Australian clinical guidelines for the management of heart failure 2018

The National Heart foundation of Australia & the Cardiac Society of ANZ have developed two clinical guidelines for to assist clinicians in caring for adult patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure.

The full clinical guidelines are available in the journal Heart, Lung and Circulation:  

- Australian clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation 2018 (October 2018, Volume 27, Issue 10, Pages 1209–1266): Click Here to access via: RMH, RWH, PMCC

- Australian clinical guidelines for the management of heart failure 2018 (Volume 27, Issue 10, Pages 1123–1208): Click Here to access via: RMH, RWH, PMCC

NSW Clinical Guidelines: Treatment of Opioid Dependence 2018

NSW Health has developed these guidelines that seek to provide clinical guidance and policy direction for opioid treatment in NSW.

The guidelines aim to improve access to opioid treatment by:

• Personalise patient care by introducing a system that differentiates between those who have low/moderate treatment needs and can be treated in community settings and those with complex/high treatment needs and should be referred to and treated in the specialist treatment sector
• Support more effective coordination of care across health services.

These guidelines are intended for use in generalist health settings (for example primary care, hospital, clinic or community settings) as well as specialised drug and alcohol / opioid treatment clinics.

The Guideline can be accessed at: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/aod/Pages/nsw-clinical-guidelines-opioid.aspx

For Library Members, PsychiatryOnline offers free access to a featured book DURING the current MONTH from the APPI bookstore. 

Feeding And Eating Disorders: DSM-5® Selections

American Psychiatric Association