Facing the Unseen
The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Man in a White Coat comes a powerful and urgent call to center psychiatry and mental health care into the mainstream of medicine
As much as we all might wish that mental health problems, with their elusive causes and unsettling behaviors, simply did not exist, millions of people suffer from them, sometimes to an extreme extent. Many others face addiction to alcohol and other drugs, as overdose and suicide deaths abound. Yet the vast majority of doctors receive minimal instruction in treating these conditions during their lengthy medical training. This mismatch ignores the clear overlap between physical and mental distress, and too-often puts psychiatrists on the outside looking in as the medical system continues to fail many patients.
In Facing The Unseen, bestselling author, professor of psychiatry, and practicing physician Damon Tweedy guides us through his days working in outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, and hospitals as he meets people from all walks of life who are grappling with physical and psychological illnesses. In powerful, compassionate, and eloquent prose, Tweedy argues for a more comprehensive and integrated approach where people with mental illness have a health care system that places their full well-being front and center.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Dr. Damon Tweedy’s clear-eyed book, the battle to put the mind on equal ground with the body rages. As the resident psychiatrist for multiple medical facilities, he’s seen firsthand how mental health is treated as an afterthought to traditional medicine. He details an unyielding cycle where the insurance system disregards psychiatric care, psychiatrists won’t take insurance because of the red tape, and general practitioners are left to deal with patients who need help that they can’t get. His account of two young women—one with insurance and the other without—and the psychiatric treatment available to each after their suicide attempts is as frustrating as it is heartbreaking. Conversely, he offers up positive examples of collaborative care, where medical doctors and psychiatrists worked together to treat the body and mind of the whole person. Facing the Unseen clearly states the plight of psychiatric care practitioners; it’s up to everyone to face the challenge of fixing it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"When a system marginalizes mental health... patients pay the price," according to this ardent call for change. Tweedy (Black Man in a White Coat) draws on his career as a physician and psychiatrist to examine how the medical system fails people with mental illness. The trouble starts in medical school, he contends, recounting how he completed his psychiatric rotation at an inpatient ward that was miles from the nearest hospital and staffed by doctors who resented their patients, creating the impression that psychiatry fundamentally differs from other medical fields. Illuminating the complex ways that physical and mental health intersect, Tweedy discusses how a bifurcated health system hampered his attempts to treat a veteran whose opioid addiction stemmed from a need to quell persistent knee pain. To integrate care, Tweedy recommends providing mental health services in the same setting as primary care, which might take the form of a psychiatric evaluation immediately following an annual checkup within the same facility. As proof of concept, Tweedy describes how he helped a suicidal man brought to him after an annual primary care appointment the patient had intended to be his last. The personal anecdotes will help readers understand the view from the doctor's chair, and the argument for a "collaborative care" model convinces. It's an edifying proposal for overhauling psychiatric treatment.
