Beyond the Risk Paradigm in Mental Health Policy and Practice

by Sonya Stanford, Elaine Sharland, Nina Rovinelli Heller, Joanne Warner

Overview

Modern society is increasingly preoccupied with fears for the future and the idea of preventing 'the worst'. The result is a focus on attempting to calculate the probabilities of adverse events occurring - in other words, on measuring risk. Since the 1990s, the idea of risk has come to dominate policy and practice in mental health across the USA, Australasia and Europe.

In this timely new text, a group of international experts examines the ways in which the narrow focus on specific kinds of risk, such as violence towards others, perpetuates the social disadvantages experienced by mental health service users whilst, at the same time, ignoring the vast array of risks experienced by the service users themselves. Benefitting from the authors' extensive practice experience, the book considers how the dominance of the risk paradigm generates dilemmas for mental health organizations, as well as within leadership and direct practice roles, and offers practical resolutions to these dilemmas that both satisfy professional ethics and improve the experience of the service user.

Combining examination of key theories and concepts with insights from front line practice, this latest addition to Palgrave's Beyond the Risk Paradigm series provides an important new dimension to debates on mental health provision.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137441355
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/29/2017
Series:	Beyond the Risk Paradigm
Edition description:	1st ed. 2017
Pages:	202
Sales rank:	990,973
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Sonya Stanford is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
Nina Rovinelli Heller is Dean, Director of the Doctoral Program, and Zachs Professor of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, USA.
Elaine Sharland is Professor of Social Work Research at the University of Sussex, UK.

Joanne Warner is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Kent, UK.
Sonya Stanford is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

Nina Rovinelli Heller is Dean, Director of the Doctoral Program, and Zachs Professor of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, USA.

Elaine Sharland is Professor of Social Work Research at the University of Sussex, UK.

Joanne Warner is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Kent, UK.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Historical Context of the Risk Paradigm in Mental Health Policy and Practice: How Did We Get Here? Joanne Warner, Nina Rovinelli Heller, Elaine Sharland and Sonya Stanford
Chapter 2 Understanding Risk and Coercion in the Use of Community Based Mental Health Laws. Jim Campbell and Gavin Davidson
Chapter 3 Risk Thinking and the Priorities of Mental Health Social Work Organizations. Chris Lee, Catherine Hartley and Elaine Sharland
Chapter 4 Moving Beyond Neoliberal Rationalities of Risk in Mental Health Policy and Practice. Sonya Stanford, Nina Rovinelli Heller, Elaine Sharland and Joanne Warner
Chapter 5 Directions for Policy and Practice from the Lived Experience of Mental Health Problems. Gerry Bennison and Dawn Talbot
Chapter 6 The Limits and Possibilities of Risk Assessment: Lessons from Suicide Prevention. Nina Rovinelli Heller
Chapter 7 Working with People who have Psychotic Illness: Balancing Risk and Recovery. Robert Bland and Marianne Wyder
Chapter 8 Negotiating the Interface between Risk Management and Human Rights Based Care. Anne-Maree Sawyer
Chapter 9 Leadership, Critical Reflection and Politics: the Management of Risk in Mental Health Organizations. Catherine Hartley, Chris Lee and Jim Campbell
Chapter 10 Beyond Social Media Panics for 'At Risk' Youth in Mental Health Practice. Natalie Ann Hendry, Brady Robards and Sonya Stanford
Chapter 11 Mental Health Risk, Political Conflict and Asylum: A Human Rights and Social Justice Issue. Shepard Masocha and Kim Robinson
Chapter 12 Conclusion: Remoralizing Risk in Mental Health Policy and Practice. Elaine Sharland, Nina Rovinelli Heller, Sonya Stanford and Joanne Warner