Book reviews
Exercise, health and mental health: emerging relationships
A WRAP workbook for kids: Wellness Recovery Action Plan
Five ways to wellbeing: the evidence
Making space for spirituality: how to support service users
Nature cure: overcoming depression through a love of nature and a reawakening of the imagination
What works for you? How to help colleagues through tough times
Focus on generosity: what can we do to promote generosity in New Zealand?
Mental Health promotion: a lifespan approach
The answer, how nature can help you when life seems too hard
How to look after your mental health using exercise
Exercise, health and mental health: emerging relationships
Faulkner, G., & Taylor, A. (2005)
For those of us who are looking for the evidence base that supports exercise as a mental health promotion activity, here it is. Holistic approaches that do not separate the different determinants of health already describe the benefits of good physical health for mental health. However this book delves into the challenges of producing an evidence base on which funding could be applied for and services provided to those who could benefit from exercise. This book covers a wealth of ground, including reviews of evidence in relation to dementia, schizophrenia, alcohol and drug addictions, heart failure, HIV, cancer, nicotine, sleep, social inclusion and crime reduction. As a tool for mental health promotion, it is a powerful advocate for many approaches already being utilized but goes one step further in ensuring that there is a definitive and clearly explained link to mental health benefits. Each chapter includes a table of the significant research in that area, a summary of ‘what we know' and ‘what we need to know', and a full reference list for that specific area. An engrossing book that really motivates the reader to get on their bike!
Reviwed by: Merryn Statham, Director of SPINZ
A WRAP workbook for kids: Wellness Recovery Action Plan
Copeland, M., Smith, E., & Wheelcock, H. (2007)
This is a short and easy-to-read wellness recovery action plan, specifically designed to suit children. The workbook is a very appropriate tool for children to learn what they can actively do to support themselves emotionally, as well as setting easy goals to achieve each day. The book uses examples from two children, showing how they wrote their WRAP plan and what it means to them. This workbook will help children to learn about their feelings and deal with them in a very positive ways.
Reviewed by: Ivan Yeo, Like Minds, Like Mine Project Worker
Making space for spirituality: how to support service users
Mental Health Foundation UK (2007).
If you need a booklet to learn what constitutes spirituality, this is the one to begin with. It gives an overview of how spirituality can be interpreted by different individuals, as well as giving practical examples on how to support other people who have a strong spiritual belief, as a support worker. Also included are ideas such as how professionals can explore their own spirituality. If you just need a 101 type book, this will be a great and safe read, which does not try to impose any belief system over one's own.
Reviewed by: Ivan Yeo, Like Minds, Like Mine Project Worker
Five ways to wellbeing: the evidence
Aked, J., Marks, N., Cordon, C., & Thompson, S. (2008).
Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Learn, Give: Why these concepts, rather than ‘be kind to each other', ‘care for our children', ‘promote world peace' etc? Well, there is a particularly large amount of evidence that supports these specific things, and this is the document that summarises it. If you want to be able to say ‘this is why we are doing what we are doing,' then this is the MHAW document for you.
It contains the distilled wisdom of a very big document: the UK Government's Foresight 2008 Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project. This giant piece of research aims to analyse the most important drivers of feeling good and functioning well to maximise mental capital (people's cognitive and emotional resources) and wellbeing throughout the UK population. The UK Government's Office for Science undertook the project precisely because of recognition that levels of mental illness were likely to grow in the future.
Five Ways to Wellbeing: the evidence manages to condense hundreds of pages of Foresight research down to 20 pages, plus references. It is clear, interesting and accessible. It can even be downloaded from the internet for free.
This piece opens with a summary page of the five ways, including activity ideas. The document then goes on to describe the Foresight project, explain why the five key activities were selected and the evidence for them and suggest how they can be communicated.
The great thing about the five activities is that they are generically good ideas for most people most of the time. My minor concern that the document does not mention some of the caveats, e.g. informal care-giving can result in increased depressive symptoms (Give) and high intensity exercise can have a negative effect on the moods of those with a history of low activity (Be active). However, ultimately we have five simple things, which we can all do at our own level, and that are highly likely to help us feel better.
Reviewed by: Philippa Fletcher, Public Health Analyst, Community and Public Health, Canterbury District Health Board
Nature cure: overcoming depression through a love of nature and a reawakening of the imagination
Mabey, R. (2005)
Judging by the title of this book, one might expect a standard self-help book with personal examples on how to engage with the non human-made world to improve mental health and wellbeing. In fact it is a deeper, more thoughtful and even ambivalent approach to the subject, by an author who has been described as Britain's ‘greatest living nature writer'.
Mabey gives a brief but intensely personal account of his experience of depression. In midlife, as a busy and successful author, his invalid mother died (he was her carer) and he finished writing his latest book. With these two immense events over with, feelings of emptiness and being in an emotional rut became overwhelming, leading into two years of depression where he did little more than stay in bed and blocked his pain with alcohol. The family house he inherited had to be sold as his money ran out and after several stays in a psychiatric hospital he moved from his beloved wooded Chiltern Hills in Southern England, to the flatlands of East Anglia to begin his recovery with the help of old friends.
The main focus of the book is on the first year of Mabey's new life in East Anglia. He looks back and sees his period of depression a kind of ‘rite of passage', comparing it to the dangerous annual journey experienced by migrating birds he almost obsessively observes. A connection, which continues throughout the book, is made with the life of the nature poet John Clare (1793 - 1864), who spent his final 23 years in Northhampton General Lunatic Asylum, but wrote some of his most famous works there, notably the poem I Am!.
As Mabey finds his love of nature again his perspective is changed by his own experience. He finds wisdom in the ecology of the East Anglian fens and explores the relationship between humans and other species that live there. He challenges modern western thinking that has us separate from and above nature.
This is not a quick read. The book is full of metaphors, folklore and literary references and is part lyrical ecology diary. Mabey's descriptions of the rhythms of the seasons and species that inhabit the fens are calming and reassuring. The human condition of being poised to immediately get on and do the ‘next thing', as well as anxieties about the past and future, melt away against the reminder of the gradual evolution of life in all its forms. And with all this Mabey doesn't say that nature ‘cured him'. Of more significance were the friends and his new found love, now partner Poppy, who helped lead him through his ‘rite of passage'.
In the end Mabey is not suggesting that if we have depression we should go out into nature for a ‘natural high' and expect a cure. At least for him, it is more complicated than that. But the book is positive. Depression is not just some random problem to be fixed, something that has attacked us from the outside, but a key element of our own internal ecology. We want to grow beyond depression, but we can deeply learn from it too.
Reviewed by: Hugh Norris, Director of Policy & Development, MHF
What works for you? How to help colleagues through tough times
Mental Health Foundation UK (2008)
This UK booklet addresses the issue of ways to support a work colleague if they become mentally unwell. Interestingly the title can be a bit misleading. Helping people ‘through tough times' doesn't necessarily equate to experience of mental illness. The inner document though does clearly focus on mental health.
The pamphlet starts with a short overview of different mental health issues that are common in society. It then goes on to talk about what signs you may notice if someone is experiencing mental health issues. Although it lists the signs and symptoms for specific illnesses, there is a definite emphasis on the colleague not needing to be a clinician nor a therapist, which would be reassuring for someone without mental health training.
The pamphlet also points out that people with mental health issues may experience discrimination, which has been supported by recent New Zealand research, and then goes on to dispel some common misconceptions; for example, it explains that people with mental health problems are more likely to be victims of violence or to harm themselves than be violent towards other people.
However, one of the problems with an overseas publication is that all the references to support are mostly not relevant to New Zealand readers e.g. the Samaritans phone number in the UK. The section on "What does the law say?" also relates obviously to UK law and needs a New Zealand amendment. This is where a New Zealand edition would be very useful and could be a project for a New Zealand mental health organisation.
The general parts of the booklet, however, have suggestions that can be applied universally. Overall, it is a useful companion for all workplaces and good reading.
Reveiwed by: Jade Caulfield, Like Minds, Like Mine Project Worker and Grant Cooper, Mental Health Promoter
Focus on generosity: what can we do to promote generosity in New Zealand?
Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Volunteering NZ & Philanthropy New Zealand(2009).
More of an overview of the theme than a comprehensive review, this paper is part of a series that intends to stimulate discussion around generosity and its promotion, rather than present new research.
The paper sets out proposals from the Generosity Hub - made up of representatives from the community and private sectors, as well as government departments - to promote generosity. Generosity is defined as acts of giving, whether time, money or kindness, and givers can be anyone from an individual or business. The paper quickly acknowledges a difficulty in investigating generosity: there is little data on generosity trends, meaning that the information it imparts largely comes from observation and anecdotes.
Despite this research gap, however, it raises some interesting points, such as how different cultures perceive generosity and volunteering in different ways and therefore any promotion of generosity needs to take this into account. It also explores how one benefit of giving, for the giver themselves, can be connecting to others.
While reading the paper doesn't elicit much excitement, the paper does reach its aim of creating a good foundation for further discussion, and as the Generosity Hub asks for feedback on its proposals, it could well act as a springboard for some innovative thinking.
Reviewed by: Carrie Briffett, Communications Officer, MHF
Mental Health promotion: a lifespan approach
Cattan, M., & Tilford, S. (2006).
One of the great things about mental health work is that it will always have a bit of mystery associated with it. We are using our minds to understand our minds. It is a little like the product trying to understand its producer, or a piece of music trying to understand its composer. Not surprisingly, this makes it a bit tricky.
Something about the ‘trickiness' is revealed by this textbook. Over eight chapters the book, produced largely by academic staff from Leeds Metropolitan University and published by the Open University Press, examines mental health promotion across the lifespan. There is plenty of useful information: great bibliographies at the end of each chapter, glossary or ‘need to understand' terms, appendices of helpful contacts and definitions, and a plethora of knowledge about theories, evidence and examples of what has worked.
Then comes the trickiness bit. This is a difficult book to rave about. Maybe it's because it's hard to get excited about it unless one is writing an essay about mental health promotion. Maybe it's the use of the individual as the unit of analysis. Maybe it's because a whole lot of important words are notably absent from the index - examples include creativity, spirituality, psyche, recovery, holistic, music, and indigenous. Maybe it just shows up how far Aotearoa / New Zealand culture has moved from that of ‘Mother England'. It's a little like the well-meaning authors have tried too hard, and somewhere along the line the book has lost its soul. Somehow the spirit of mental health promotion is missing.
Reviewed by: Phillipa Fletcher, Public Health Analyst, Canterbury District Health Board
The answer, how nature can help you when life seems too hard
Dawson, L., & Whillans, T. (2007)
This is a beautiful book with words of wisdom. It comprises nature images with a brief story, just a few lines per page, which can be browsed by anyone feeling stressed out. If you like something that is small in size but gives you lots of space to think, this would be a wonderful book to choose. It is easy-to-read with amazing photographs and words of wisdom for life. The Answer would also be a great book to give a loved one.
Reviewed by: Ivan Yeo, Like Minds, Like Mine Project Worker
How to look after your mental health using exercise
Mental Health Foundation UK (2009)
This little booklet covers all the basics about why exercise could help you feel better and how to get started. It gently encourages starting where you can and emphasizes the pleasure and the widespread benefits that come from being more active, including how exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication in treating mild to moderate depression. It also names the commonly identified barriers to exercising that we all must have experienced at one time or another. The booklet reminds readers that they don't have to wear lycra or join a gym but that everyday activities all contribute. The focus is very much on enjoying the physical activities that you are getting into, which is an important message for being able to sustain them. Except for the references to UK websites and services, this is a highly practical resource for those looking for motivation to get moving.
Reviewed by: Merryn Statham, Director of SPINZ
Mindfulness and mental health
Chris Mace Routledge 2007
An apt and interesting topic, reviewed by the Britsh Journal of Psychiaitry.
