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Chapter 3 - Ethical Issues in Global Volunteering: An Ethicist’s Perspective

from Section 1 - Key Principles, Theory and Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2023

By
Ayesha Ahmad
Edited by
Sophie Thomson ,
Peter Hughes  and
Sam Gnanapragasam
Sophie Thomson
Affiliation:
World Psychiatric Association
Peter Hughes
Affiliation:
Springfield University Hospital, London
Sam Gnanapragasam
Affiliation:
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
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Summary

Travelling with the purpose of volunteering in mental health involves recognising and responding to those who are suffering. The motivations for such global movements in mental health are clear when considering the moral sense of justice, rights and values that form the backbone of medicine’s history and practice. However, psychiatry presents us with complex particularities that challenge our ethical reflection of global volunteering in mental health. This chapter explores the ways that the fundamental principles of medical ethics and dilemmas from the perspective of a western-trained volunteer are embroiled and embedded in the concepts of the mind, self, suffering and surrounding worlds.

Type
Chapter
Information
Volunteering in Global Mental Health
A Practical Guide for Clinicians
 , pp. 28 - 31
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

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Venkatapuram, S. Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach. John Wiley & Sons; 2013.Google Scholar

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