Incidence, Racial Disparities and Factors Related to Psychosis among Black Individuals in Canada: A Scoping Review.

OBJECTIVE: Black communities are increasingly concerned about psychosis, a worry echoed by provincial health-care systems across Canada. Responding to the lack of evidence on psychosis in Black communities, this scoping review examined the incidence and prevalence of psychosis, access to care (pathways to care, coercive referrals, interventions, etc.), treatments received, and stigma faced by individuals with psychosis. METHOD: To identify studies, a comprehensive search strategy was developed and executed in December 2021 across 10 databases, including APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Subject headings and keywords relating to Black communities, psychosis, health inequalities, Canada and its provinces and territories were used and combined. The scoping review was conducted in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) reporting standard. RESULTS: A total of 15 studies met the inclusion criteria, all of them conducted in Ontario and Quebec. Results highlight different disparities in psychosis among Black communities. Compared to other Canadian ethnic groups, Black individuals are more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis. Black individuals with psychosis are more likely to have their first contact with health-care settings through emergency departments, to be referred by police and ambulance services, and to experience coercive referrals and interventions, and involuntary admission. Black individuals experience a lower quality of care and are the ethnic group most likely to disengage from treatment. CONCLUSION: This scoping review reveals many gaps in research, prevention, promotion and intervention on psychosis in Black individuals in Canada. Future studies should explore factors related to age, gender, social and economic factors, interpersonal, institutional and systemic racism, and psychosis-related stigma. Efforts should be directed toward developing trainings for health-care professionals and promotion and prevention programs within Black communities. Culturally adapted interventions, racially disaggregated data, and increased research funding are needed.

The Judiciarization of People Living with Mental Illness: A Grounded Theory on the Perceptions of Persons Involuntary Admitted in Psychiatric Institution.

The involvement of people living with mental illness in the judicial process, whether in civil or criminal justice system, is a growing phenomenon that can be defined as judiciarization. Such over-representation of people with mental illness in the justice system is related to several issues, including stigma, experienced coercion, loss of autonomy and social isolation. To explore this understudied phenomenon in nursing research, we conducted a study to better understand how judiciarization affects people living with mental illness. The specific objectives were: 1) to understand how insertion into a judicial process affects people living with mental illness; 2) to explore the perception of these people and their lived experience within the judicial trajectory. For the methodology, grounded theory was used as a research model. The theoretical framework of the total institution, proposed by Erwin Goffman, was used conceptually. Participants were recruited from a university-affiliated hospital. Hospitalized persons who had been involved in the justice system were interviewed (n = 10). Three conceptualizing categories were identified through the analyzed data: 1) Diversity of Judicial Trajectories; 2) Involuntary Psychiatric Admission Process; 3) Judiciarization Lived as a Complex Experience. The results of this research can be used to better inform nurses, clinicians, and policy makers about the impacts of the judiciarization of mental illness, and how clinical practices can be better adapted to populations with very complex health needs.

Intervening against the patient's wishes: pro re nata medication and the phenomenological experience of nurses working in a forensic psychiatry environment / Intervenir contre le gré du patient : médication pro re nata et vécu phénoménologique du personnel infirmier exerçant en milieu psycholégal

In forensic psychiatry environments, nurses are regularly confronted with the use of restrictive measures such as chemical restraints and are forced to constantly navigate between care and social control. The debate over the ethics of coercion and the use of control measures for violence in psychiatric settings is far from resolved. The objective of this study is to understand the ethical experience of nurses in a Canadian forensic psychiatry environment when administering PRN (when required) medication against the patient's will. The experiences of 14 nurses are analyzed from a critical ethical perspective through interpretive phenomenological analysis. Across the three main categories-certainties, paradoxes, and learning-the results show that nurses must simultaneously commit their allegiance to the patient, to the justice system, and to the culture of the "total" institution. These multiple allegiances generate paradoxes that affect the way nurses actualize their professional role.

En milieu psycholégal, les infirmières sont régulièrement confrontées à l'utilisation des mesures restrictives, telles que la contention chimique, et doivent constamment naviguer entre soin et contrôle. Le débat portant sur l'éthique de la coercition et de l'usage des mesures de contrôle pour la violence en contexte de psychiatrie est loin d'être résolu. L'objectif de cette étude est de comprendre le vécu éthique d'infirmières exerçant dans un milieu psycholégal canadien au moment d'administrer un pro re nata (PRN, médicament au besoin) contre le gré du patient. Le vécu de quatorze infirmières est analysé dans une perspective éthique critique grâce à l'analyse interprétative phénoménologique. À travers les trois catégories principales, certitudes, paradoxes et apprentissage, les résultats montrent que les infirmières doivent engager simultanément leur allégeance au patient, au système de justice et à la culture de l'institution totale. Ces allégeances multiples génèrent des paradoxes qui affectent la manière dont les infirmières actualisent leur rôle professionnel.

Exploring Social Interactions in the Context of Justice System Involvement: Perspectives of Patients and Psychiatric Nurses.

Psychiatric nurses who work with people who are involved with the justice system experience ethical and moral tension arising from their dual role (care and control). This is known to significantly affect the development of a therapeutic relationship between nurses and patients. (a) better understand how justice system involvement affects people living with mental disorders and the nurses who work with them; (b) explore the influence of judiciarization on social interactions between these actors. Grounded theory (GT) was used as the qualitative methodology for this research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants. The study was carried out in three different units of a psychiatric institution: Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Department, and Brief Intervention Unit. A sample of 10 patients and 9 psychiatric nurses was recruited (n = 19). Theoretical sampling was used to recruit participants. We followed the iterative steps of qualitative GT analysis (open coding, axial coding, constant comparison, and modelization). Three main themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (a) Experience of Justice System Involvement, (b) Crisis, (c) Relational Aspects and Importance of the Approach. These results will inform nurses and healthcare providers about the impacts of justice system involvement on people living with mental illness and how clinical practices can be better adapted to this population with complex health needs.

[Keep an Eye on, Control and Treat: Consent to Care at the Quebec Review Board]. / Surveiller, contrôler et traiter : le consentement aux soins à la Commission québécoise d'examen.

Objectives The right to refuse care for accused persons found criminally not responsible on account of mental disorder or unfit to stand trial is recognized and strictly regulated by the legal mechanisms of Quebec civil law, and Canadian criminal law does not allow them to be treated against their will. Review Boards, which are responsible for ruling on and periodically re-evaluating their situation, cannot prescribe treatment, but have the authority, with the consent of the accused, to impose a condition relating to treatment. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to document the discourse and practices of the Quebec Review Board in this area. Method The research material consists of observations from the hearings of the Quebec Review Board (n = 70), file observation grids completed by defense lawyers (n = 191), interviews with psychiatrists (n = 7) and defense lawyers (n = 7) and the study of one hundred court decisions from 2018, randomly selected. Results Our study shows that the practices of the Quebec Review Board make it possible, directly or indirectly, through the ambiguity of conditions or the pressure exerted by certain treatment teams, to override the accused's refusal of care and to impose treatment. The implications of these findings for the evolution of knowledge and practices in forensic psychiatry are discussed. Conclusion While the Review Boards are supposed to manage the risk to public safety, they are in fact, in the context of the State's disengagement in social matters, exercising surveillance and control, in particular via the conditions relating to treatment.

[Psychiatric medication as restraint: between autonomy and protection, is there place for a legal framework?]. / La médication psychiatrique comme contention : entre autonomie et protection, quelle place pour un cadre juridique ?

The use of chemical restraint has been regulated for the past ten years in Quebec. However, clinical, ethical and legal issues, sometimes contradictory, have not really been considered during the legislative process leading to consolidation in its current form. The author supports that, because of the absence of consent and the effects of medication, a specific legal framework to the use of medication is necessary in a context of unplanned intervention to protect both patients and medical staff. This framework would prescribe good practice, take into account the non-medical aspects of consent to care and formalize the practice as an exception to the rule. In addition, the symbolism of law, through which social solidarity can be expressed, must not be underestimated.