Dr David Kingdon Discusses Efforts to Increase Understanding of Psychosis

Increasing awareness of psychosis can help communities engage with patients on a human level and work together to improve, according to David Kingdon, MD, professor of mental health care delivery, University of Southampton.

Transcript

How can education and awareness reduce the stigma around psychosis?

Managed care is an interesting concept which we feel more familiar in the NHS with than perhaps some other ways of treatment, and in terms of managing care, these are the sorts of interventions that we feel really can benefit most from that approach. And also in terms of looking at prevention, as well. Next week I’m talking about “the sanity of madness” to a lay group—we have a “Pint of Science” set of sessions in local pubs around Southampton—and just explaining how psychosis can be understandable, that we don’t have to be frightened of it, and that we can engage with people and engage with them in a very human way, and help them work through the issues that they have without it making things worse. I think the fear is that it’s going to make things worse—if you argue with somebody, yes, it will; if you confront somebody, it will. But if you try to understand it, that just improves the situation.