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Biomedical subjects

R C Christensen

Publications and source records attributed to R C Christensen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

The prevalence of low literacy in an indigent psychiatric population.

Research has shown that individuals with low or limited literacy experience significant obstacles in gaining access to and using health care services. In a study of the prevalence of low literacy in an indigent psychiatric population, 45 patients seeking mental health services at a shelter-based clinic for the homeless were given the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine screening test. Thirty-four participants (76 percent) read at or below the seventh- to eighth-grade level. Ten patients in this low-literacy group (29 percent) reported that they read "very well," 16 (47 percent) that they read "well," and eight (24 percent) that they read "not well." The results suggest the need for providers to consider formal screening for low literacy in clinical settings.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Ethical issues in community mental health: cases and conflicts.

Ethical issues pervade community mental health yet, surprisingly, the field has been virtually ignored in the academic realm of medical ethics. In the past decade, the ethical questions in psychiatry which have attracted the most scrutiny are derived from the "dramatic" issues of psychiatrist-patient sexual relationships, the tradition's practice of involuntary commitment, and the therapist's duty to warn potential victims at the expense of breaching a client's confidentiality (Eth, 1990; Dyer, 1988; Bloch, Chodoff, 1991). Yet the "pragmatic," and more pervasive, ethical tensions which arise in the daily practice of community psychiatrists have warranted little attention. Both medical ethics and community psychiatry suffer as a result. Nonetheless, ethical reasoning is intricately entwined in the decisions and relationships which make up the community mental health setting. For example, trying to determine what is the "right" thing to do for a client inevitably entails judgments about moral, social and legal matters. In other words, no decision in the clinical setting is purely psychiatric (Perlin, 1989).

Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗