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While limited in numbers, unionized workers at the two psychiatric hospitals in Honduras have had an important impact in the evolving struggle to improve conditions in their facilities and their country. In the 57 years since the union was formed, its members have modified their strategies in response to major political changes, including the implementation of neoliberal policies led by international financial institutions, and the 2009 coup. The union has fought to achieve better conditions for workers and patients while facing serious challenges, including a context of institutional psychiatry that has dramatically failed to meet the mental health care needs of the Honduran population over the past century and neoliberal policies that have increased structural vulnerability, trauma, and the incidence of associated embodied manifestations—including mental illness—among Hondurans while increasing stigma against the mentally ill and drastically weakened the infrastructure and quality of health care through defunding and privatization. Aunque limitados en número, los trabajadores sindicalizados en los dos hospitales psiquiátricos de Honduras han tenido un impacto importante en la lucha progresiva por mejorar las condiciones en las instalaciones y su país. En los 57 años transcurridos desde la formación del sindicato, sus miembros han modificado sus estrategias en respuesta a los principales cambios políticos, incluyendo la implementación de políticas neoliberales liderada por instituciones financieras internacionales, y el golpe de estado de 2009. La lucha militante del sindicato por mejorar las condiciones para los trabajadores y los pacientes ha enfrentado serios desafíos. Estos incluyen un contexto de psiquiatría institucional que ha fracasado dramáticamente, probándose incapaz de satisfacer las necesidades de atención de salud mental de la población hondureña durante el siglo pasado, así como las políticas neoliberales que han aumentado la vulnerabilidad estructural, el trauma y la incidencia de manifestaciones somáticas asociadas (como las enfermedades mentales) entre los hondureños. Al mismo tiempo el neoliberalismo ha aumentado el estigma contra los enfermos mentales, mientras que la infraestructura y la calidad de la atención a la salud se han debilitado drásticamente a raíz de la desfinanciación y la privatización. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence-based interconnection between mental health with lifestyle medicine practice is discussed. The extent to which physical health, and mental and behavioral health overlap are significant, and their interaction is seen in many ways. These bidirectional influences form a continuous thread through all lifestyle medicine pillars. The intersection of mental health and lifestyle should be considered and applied to provide optimal evidence-based lifestyle medicine for all patient populations who will benefit from the specific attention to diet, physical activity, relationships, stress, sleep, and substance use. Lifestyle medicine can be utilized to directly address and treat a range of mental health symptoms and disorders, and physical illnesses. In addition, behavior change skills and addressing the psychological factors contributing to barriers are crucial to helping patients reach their lifestyle medicine goals. Approaches to practice that attend to, and address, mental and behavioral health are relevant to and necessary for all types of providers who work within the lifestyle medicine framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A position statement regarding COVID-19 and Canadian psychiatry, developed by the Public Policy Committee of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and approved by its board of directors on November 1, 2020, is presented. Topics covered include burden of the COVID-19 disease among people with psychiatric illness, general care for psychiatric patients, and public health policies.