This commentary reflects my 35 years of working with civil commitment statutes, first in Alaska, then in Oregon, and on various committees on the national level. Coming from a background in community and public psychiatry, I have always considered civil commitment to be the most important forensic mental health statute, as the commitment process in any state greatly influences the lives of many...

In an increasingly 'patient-centred' health service individuals are demanding to make independent judgements about their own fate. In keeping with this trend there is now a growing drive to review the current laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The issues in the euthanasia debate usually revolve around patients who are terminally ill and/or suffering intractable pain. However, pain is not ...

OBJECTIVE To describe the frequency of support for terminal sedation among internists, determine whether support for terminal sedation is accompanied by support for physician assisted suicide (PAS), and explore characteristics of internists who support terminal sedation but not assisted suicide. DESIGN A statewide, anonymous postal survey. SETTING Connecticut, USA. PARTICIPANTS 677 Connec...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of a family-oriented inpatient rehabilitation programme on behavioural and emotional problems in healthy siblings of chronically ill children and to assess the association between these problems and quality of life. METHODS A total of 259 healthy children (4-16 years, M = 8.6 years, SD = 3.3) with a chronically ill sibling were enrolled in the study. Parents f...

In 1994, Oregon passed the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, becoming the first state in the nation to allow physician-assisted suicide (PAS). This paper compares the public discussion that occurred in 1994 and during the Act's implementation in 1997 and examines these debates in relation to health care reform under the Obama administration. I argue that the 1994 and 1997 Oregon PAS campaigns and ...

BACKGROUND Mental ill-health among the general population is increasing in Sweden. Primary Health Care (PHC) and Healthcare Centres (HCC), where district nurses (DNs) work, bear the basic responsibility for treatment of mental ill-health, while severe mental ill-health fall under the responsibility of psychiatric specialist care. The increased prevalence of mental ill-health in the community me...

GPs with training in occupational medicine report cases of work-related ill health and sickness absence to The Health and Occupation Reporting network in General Practice (THOR-GP) using an online webform. This report describes the data reported in 2006 and 2007. GPs mainly reported musculoskeletal disorders and mental ill-health. A much larger proportion of the mental ill-health cases were sic...

BACKGROUND Although incidence data for work-related ill-health in the UK are available, more detailed information for smaller geographical areas has hitherto been unpublished. AIMS To estimate the incidence of work-related ill-health reported by clinical specialists in Scotland, 2002-2003. METHODS THOR (The Health and Occupation Reporting network) is a UK wide reporting scheme for work-rela...

Abstract Ill-being and mental ill-health have been on the rise in both Europe United States, especially among middle-aged older adults. Although financial security has shown to play a protective role emotional well-being, little is known about of different types family assets health well-being. Using longitudinal survey data from Survey Health, Aging Retirement (SHARE) collected between 2004 20...