This seminar, on iatrogenic harm, is of particular significance in light of the recent reports on harm caused by practices in CAMHS in Ireland. Following the tradition established by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, doctors agree to uphold a certain set of values, including the imperative to do no harm. Unfortunately, following our encounters with traditional psychiatric services, for many psychiatric patients, both the ideas and the practice of biomedical psychiatry have proven to be harmful to many of us. Misdiagnosis, compulsory treatment, adverse drug reactions, negligence, overmedicalisation, are all relatively common experiences within psychiatric services. Iatrogenic harm refers to the injury, either physical or psychological, caused inadvertently by the process of treatment. During this seminar we shall explore the phenomena of iatrogenic harm: what is it, how is it caused what can be done about it.
Course Content
Presenter
Jacqui Dillon is an activist, author, and speaker, and has lectured and published worldwide on trauma, abuse, hearing voices, psychosis, dissociation, and healing. She is a key figure in the international Hearing Voices Movement, has co-edited three books, published numerous articles and papers and is on the editorial board of the journal Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. Jacqui is Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, Visiting Research Fellow at The Centre for Community Mental Health, Birmingham City University and a member of the Advisory Board, The Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice in Health and Social Care, St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. Jacqui’s survival of childhood abuse and subsequent experiences of using psychiatric services inform her work, and she is an outspoken advocate and campaigner for trauma informed approaches to madness and distress. Jacqui is part of a collective voice demanding a radical shift in the way we understand and respond to experiences currently defined as psychiatric illnesses. In 2017, Jacqui was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Psychology by the University of East London.
