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Cues and knowledge structures used by mental-health professionals when making risk assessments
- Authors:
- BUCKINGHAM Christopher D., ADAMS Ann, MACE Chris
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Mental Health, 17(3), June 2008, pp.299-314.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- London
Research into mental-health risks has tended to focus on epidemiological approaches and to consider pieces of evidence in isolation. Less is known about the particular factors and their patterns of occurrence that influence clinicians' risk judgements in practice. This research aims to identify the cues used by clinicians to make risk judgements and to explore how these combine within clinicians' psychological representations of suicide, self-harm, self-neglect, and harm to others. Content analysis was applied to semi-structured interviews conducted with 46 practitioners from various mental-health disciplines, using mind maps to represent the hierarchical relationships of data and concepts. Most of the participants were from psychiatric nursing (21)and psychiatry (14), but social workers (3), general practitioners (3), and psychologists (3) were also represented. Strong consensus between experts meant their knowledge could be integrated into a single hierarchical structure for each risk. This revealed contrasting emphases between data and concepts underpinning risks, including: reflection and forethought for suicide; motivation for self-harm; situation and context for harm to others; and current presentation for self-neglect. Analysis of experts' risk-assessment knowledge identified influential cues and their relationships to risks. It can inform development of valid risk-screening decision support systems that combine actuarial evidence with clinical expertise.
Threatened by stability
- Author:
- GEORGE Mike
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 5.3.98, 1998, pp.28-29.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Finds out how two social workers tried to help an aggressive women seen as untreatable by psychiatric services.
Risk, mental disorder and social work practice: a gendered landscape
- Authors:
- WARNER Joanne, GABE Jonathan
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 38(1), January 2008, pp.117-134.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Whilst the importance of gender for social work practice, risk and mental health has been recognized theoretically for some time, few attempts have been made to explore this area empirically. This paper presents findings from a mixed-methods study of social work practice in relation to mental health service users perceived to be ‘high-risk’ in a social services department in the south-east of England. Findings suggest, first, that the concept ‘high-risk’ was gendered because the primary focus in social work practice was on the risks posed by male service users to others. Second, female social workers in the present study were found to have more female service users from their caseloads who had been defined as ‘high-risk’ compared with their male counterparts. The paper goes on to explore this apparent congruence between female social workers and female service users and highlights how the management of risk could be considered gendered because it reflects a worker’s (perceived) capacity in cultural terms to ‘decode’ the nature of the risks that their clients face as gendered subjects. The paper demonstrates how the intersections between risk, mental disorder and social work practice can therefore be understood as a gendered landscape. It concludes by highlighting the implications of these findings for social work practice and research.
Practice methods for working with children who have biological based mental disorders: a bioecological model
- Author:
- TAYLOR Edward
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 84(1), January 2003, pp.39-50.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
Social workers have always provided services for children or youth with serious mental illness and their families. This article offers a treatment model and suggestions for working with children and young people who have severe mental health problems using a bioecological model. The article translates ecological theory and neurobiological concepts into a clinical framework. Also discusses the social worker's role in the medical and medication treatment process.