Jerome Ndolesha
Dual Diagnosis-Specialist, UK
Title: An Exploratory Qualitative Research on the Perceptions of Dual Diagnosis among the Bangladeshi Community in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Biography
Biography: Jerome Ndolesha
Abstract
Confusingly, ‘Dual Diagnosis’ describes innumerable physical, psychological/developmental co-morbidity. However, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2016) defines the phenomenon as the coexistence of severe mental illness and licit/illicit psychoactive substance misuse, embracing patients who meet the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Forth Edition (2000) (DSM-IV), and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (2016) (ICD-10). Nevertheless, since Dual Diagnosis is NOT a diagnosis in itself, inconsistent drug/alcohol misuse operational definitions and diagnostic classifications exist within the DSM-IV (and DSM-V) and the ICD-10. Such uncertainties contribute to making Dual Diagnosis a significant global clinical problem, often closely associated with increased risk of socio-economic exclusion, serious physical illness, self-harm, frequent re-hospitalization, poor treatment outcomes suicide/premature death, staff difficulties and management problems.