Crazy mess

Why are we unable to properly help people who we define as suffering from mental health disorders? Reasons have been sought for, among other things, the structure of the service system, treatment methods and insufficient resources. It's probably the sum of many things — and not the least of which is what we basically think mental health disorders are about.

In the book Mieletö säyörö, we look at how certain phenomena have come to be called mental health disorders and what effect this has had on the way in which people have been tried to be helped. At the same time, we will review with examples what scientific, ethical and therapeutic problems have resulted from such an approach and why these problems have not been actively resolved in psychiatry.

The work shows how renewing the approach also revolutionizes the way a person in need of help is met. Such a change is crucial for survival and well-being. At the same time, the service system develops so that the effectiveness of treatment improves.

If the starting points of psychiatry are not discussed openly and based on research data, the problems cannot be truly solved either. An insane disorder shakes up established concepts and makes you think about different aspects of being human.

PsT Tomi Bergström is an internationally known researcher of network-based treatment models for psychosis, who has been involved in drafting, among other things, the World Health Organization's new guidelines for the development of mental health care. He works as a research doctor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä and as a psychologist at a psychiatric hospital in Tornio.