AUTONOMY AND CONTROL FACTORS IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE IN JAPAN

AUTONOMY AND CONTROL FACTORS IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE IN JAPAN

World Summit on PSYCHIATRY DISORDERS, MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS
June 24-25, 2019 | Philadelphia, USA

Maree Sugai

Tohoku University of Community Service and Science, Japan

Abstract:

Looking inside the walls of private mental institutions in Japan, this paper explores bioethical concerns for autonomy in a high context culture, amongst people diagnosed with severe mental illness. The objective is to identify contextual components of control in Japanese clinical ethics that affect well-being, including the controversial extended use of bed restraints and to discuss culture-specific values in accommodating respect for autonomy. This paper explores cultural normative ethics of hospital conduct and psychiatric health care in situational context. Central to the paper is exploration of respect for autonomy and what this means for a population of people whose voice is seldom heard, always questioned and who are vulnerable to being second-guessed and abused. This paper calls into focus the roles that socio-cultural constructs, history, politics and cultural values play in a health care system for people with psychosis and aims to contribute inquiry into a global social justice within a culture-bound domain of morals and ethics.

Biography:

Maree Sugai has a Masters Degree in sociolinguistics and a Masters Degree (abt) in Medical Anthropology and has published in 25 journals on the topic of culture in psychiatric care and ethno-psychiatry. She has oral presented at the SfAA and at over 30 medical conferences globally. She was an Associate Professor and Senior lecturer for 30 years in Japan and is on the governing board of a mental health rehabilitation center in Sendai, Japan where she has worked as a volunteer for 18 years. She is also Health Director for the Global Listening Center and a freelance medical writer. She has received awards and certificates for public speaking, community service and contributions to health as a human right.

E-mail: mareesugai@yahoo.com

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