NCJ Number
134103
Editor(s)
W L Parry-Jones,
N Queloz
Date Published
1991
Length
138 pages
Annotation
This series of papers on the impact of the urbanization process on the mental health of people living in towns addresses the scope and nature of problems, aspects of the urban process, mentally ill offenders in cities, and programs for the future.
Abstract
Papers on the scope and nature of the problems provide an overview of urban living and mental health and discuss environmental characteristics of inner cities; the methodology and study of the relationships between health and the urban environment, with reference to a United Nations urban ecosystem program; mental health and the development of children and adolescents in cities; inner cities and chronic psychiatric patients; and the prevalence and types of mental and neurological disorders in African cities. Four papers on aspects of the urban process consider the urban process and its role in strengthening social disadvantages, inequalities, and exclusion; vandalism as an urban phenomenon; migrant acculturation and mental health; and the weakening and change of social networks. Five papers on mentally ill offenders in cities focus on mental disorders and criminal behavior, the criminal justice system's response to mentally ill offenders, needs for the psychiatric care of mentally ill offenders, the management of mentally ill offenders in developing countries (particularly in Africa), and Chinese legal protection for mentally ill persons. Six papers on programs for the future describe international innovations in prevention and treatment; the contribution of architecture to the prevention of deviance; a developmental epidemiological research program for the prevention of mental distress and disorder, heavy drug use, and violent behavior; hospital and community psychiatric care in Italian cities after the reform law; mental health and primary health care for urban populations in the European region of the World Health Organization; and a global, healthy cities project.