Mental health services in Iceland

"Kleppsspitali", the biggest long term mental health care facility in Iceland, his role is changing, perhaps too slowly?



We enjoy universal health care coverage in Iceland. We have one of the lowest infant mortality rates and the highest life expectancy rates in the world. But we still have a lot of problems in our health care system, like anywhere else in the world.

This is especially true for our mental health care system. Talk of moving the bulk of the services into the community is common, but practical action is slow to take place. We have started taking some action. Experience from countries like Denmark and the UK help, and user groups make a strong lobby group with increasing numbers of celebrities and politicians stepping up to the plate and talking openly about their struggle with mental illness. This helps reduce stigma in the community and is empoering for other users.

Still we have a long way to go. There is hope. We see how we have built up a powerful substance abuse treatment field and attitudes towards substance abuse in the communiuty are rather healthy, I would think. That is a field were the users of the system took the initiative.

Perhaps that is the key for other areas of psychiatry as well?

No place like home

I am currently back in the "old country". Minnesota has a lot of cool things, but it does not have any mountains and it does not have an ocean near by. Both of which Iceland has in abundance.

I like mountains. They are good for looking at and walking on.
Here is one of my favourites.







I will tell you a little bit about nursing in Iceland later this week.

Graduation

Great things will occur in this building today



Today I graduate from the Graduate school of the University of Minnesota with an advanced practice degree in Psychiatric/Mental health nursing.

This is excillerating and scary at the same time.

My main goal for my first year of practice is not to seriously harm anybody.

I will wait until my second year of practice to start changing the whole treatment paradigm of psychiatry... ;)

Cultural competence

Somalia is a beautiful country in North-Eastern Africa


I have been thinking about this topic alot lately

Been working on a mental health needs assessment of young Somali males here in Minnesota, with a collegue.

We wanted to find out how to better reach out to and serve male Somali clients, ages 18-35 with a psychotic disorder, in Hennepin County.

I was quite humbled after we had done the twelve key informant interviews and literature search on this populations possible community mental health needs.

It is clear to me know how extremely helpful it is to know the fundamental background and history of any population we are serving. Especially those we see frequently.

The things I learned in this process include the importance of cooperation with community resources, again reminded to stop and listen and that families are my clients too, and how many barriers to serving vulnerable populations in this country are due directly or indirectly to economical factors.

I have a lot of learning to do, and a lot of changing too