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Distress or disability? Proceedings of a symposium held at Lancaster University 15-16 November 2011
- Authors:
- ANDERSON Jill, SAPEY Bob, SPANDLER Helen, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Lancaster University. Centre for Disability Research
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 113p.
- Place of publication:
- Lancaster
This symposium was organised jointly by Mental Health in Higher Education, the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University, and the School of Social Work at the University of Central Lancashire. The symposium was by invitation only and brought together academics, activists and research students from the north-west of England to explore the issues that arise from trying to situate mental distress or ’madness’ within the social model of disability, focussing specifically on psychosis, hearing voices and other extra-ordinary experiences. Participants at the symposium were asked to build upon a discussion document ‘Distress or Disability?’ written in 1994 by Anne Plumb for the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People. In this paper she argued for the autonomy of mental health system survivor activism and highlighted some of the difficulties of integrating mental distress within broader disability politics. After reproducing Plumb’s paper, this e-book draws together the papers presented at the symposium in order to collate and disseminate the ideas that were shared.
Mapping arts and mental health projects
- Authors:
- SPANDLER Helen, et al
- Journal article citation:
- A Life in the Day, 10(3), August 2006, pp.8-12.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The authors report on the first phase of a project to map arts and mental health projects in England. The project, commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport in partnership with the Department of Health, aims to evaluate the benefits of arts projects in terms of participants' mental health and how well they promote social inclusion, both in promoting peer friendships and networks and in supporting the development of links with the wider community.
Opportunities for independent living using direct payments in mental health
- Authors:
- SPANDLER Helen, WICK Nicola
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 14(2), March 2006, pp.107-115.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Mental health service users have yet to reap the benefits of greater choice, control and independent living, which direct payments have facilitated in other groups of community care users, particularly people with physical disabilities. To redress this imbalance a national pilot to promote direct payments to people with mental health needs in five local authority sites across England was set up and evaluated. The evaluation used a multi-method approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data, including individual semi-structured interviews and group discussions with key stakeholders across the pilot sites. This article draws on findings from the pilot evaluation to provide a preliminary understanding of how applicable the independent living philosophy is to mental health and what opportunities direct payments offer for service users. When given the opportunity, service users were able to use direct payments creatively to meet a range of needs in ways which increased their choice, control and independence. This suggests that the benefits of greater independent living through direct payments may be realisable in mental health. However, a number of ways in which the principles of direct payments in mental health could be 'downgraded' were identified. The evaluation results indicate that a thorough understanding of the independent living philosophy needs to be developed in the context of mental health.
Enabling access to direct payments: an exploration of care co-ordinators decision-making practices
- Authors:
- SPANDLER Helen, VICK Nicola
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Mental Health, 14(2), April 2005, pp.145-155.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- London
This study considers how workers have responded to direct payments in practice and how they can enable or limit greater access. The analysis is primarily based on 20 in-depth interviews with care co-ordinators who took part in an evaluation of a national pilot to implement direct payments in mental health. Three key responses were identified which mediated care co-ordinators' pursuit of direct payments as an option for clients: using selective criteria; incorporating it into a dominant framework (of ‘providing services’) and re-conceptualizing their role as enabling greater capacity for choice and control. In order to make sense of these responses it was necessary to examine their conflicting work context. The authors conclude that initiatives such as direct payments suggest the need to re-appraise the role of care co-ordinators and may require a significant shift in the focus of their practice. Whilst tensions inherent in their role may make this shift difficult, the analysis also suggests that it could lead to opportunities for putting into practice ideas about user empowerment which should be central to their practice.
Asylum to action: Paddington Day Hospital, therapeutic communities and beyond
- Author:
- SPANDLER Helen
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 171p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Asylum to Action offers an alternative history of a libertarian therapeutic community at Paddington Day Hospital in West London in the 1970s. Helen Spandler recaptures the radical aspirations, as well as the conflicts, of the early therapeutic community movement, radical psychiatry and the patients' movement. The author's account of the formation of the Mental Patients' Union, the first politicised psychiatric survivors group in the UK, raises questions about the connections between the service user movement, therapeutic communities, critiques of psychiatry and psychoanalytic models of intervention. In particular, Spandler challenges the dominant account of the subject. She points out that some of the key difficulties that beset Paddington Day Hospital persist in modern therapeutic community practice and, indeed, in mental health services in general. Arguing that these dilemmas require sustained attention, Asylum to Action also informs a wider analysis of the significance of social movements, social action and critical social theory.