Nicole S. Gevaux and Stephanie Petty
The purpose of this paper is to investigate optimal resources to promote resilience in staff working in inpatient mental health services. The study also provides an example of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate optimal resources to promote resilience in staff working in inpatient mental health services. The study also provides an example of card sorting methodology used as an efficient way to identify the most helpful resources for resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 25 clinical staff participated in the study. A preliminary focus group and brief literature search identified resources used in two tasks. Two card sorting tasks identified resources participants found helpful vs unhelpful and abundant vs scarce, and resources they would find valuable to use more often.
Findings
The results indicate that most resources helpful to resilience and available to staff were personal resources (relating to positive outlooks or ways of working), whereas resources valuable to resilience but scarce in the working environment were organisational resources (relating to management or social workplace culture). Resources found to not be valuable to resilience were largely personal tangible resources (e.g. smoking, massages).
Practical implications
The findings and method may be generalisable to other mental health services, giving insight into promoting resilience within individuals and organisations. This information could serve as guidelines to streamline the allocation of organisational resources to best promote resilience across various mental health settings.
Originality/value
Staff resilience to working in mental health services contributes to high-quality, sustainable patient care. This study provides further insight into how personal and organisational resources are both vital to resilience in staff working in highly challenging environments.
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Stephanie Petty, Amanda Griffiths, Donna Maria Coleston and Tom Dening
Improving hospital care for people with dementia is a well-established priority. There is limited research evidence to guide nursing staff in delivering person-centred care…
Abstract
Purpose
Improving hospital care for people with dementia is a well-established priority. There is limited research evidence to guide nursing staff in delivering person-centred care, particularly under conditions where patients are emotionally distressed. Misunderstood distress has negative implications for patient well-being and hospital resources. The purpose of this study is to use the expertise of nurses to recommend ways to care for the emotional well-being of patients with dementia that are achievable within the current hospital setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted in two long-stay wards providing dementia care in a UK hospital. Nursing staff (n = 12) were asked about facilitators and barriers to providing emotion-focused care. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Nursing staff said that resources existed within the ward team, including ways to gather and present personal information about patients, share multidisciplinary and personal approaches, work around routine hospital tasks and agree an ethos of being connected with patients in their experience. Staff said these did not incur financial cost and did not depend upon staffing numbers but did take an emotional toll. Examples are given within each of these broader themes.
Research limitations/implications
The outcome is a short-list of recommended staff actions that hospital staff say could improve the emotional well-being of people with dementia when in hospital. These support and develop previous research.
Originality/value
In this paper, frontline nurses describe ways to improve person-centred hospital care for people with dementia.
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Rosie Blagg and Stephanie Petty
The purpose of this paper is to explore how staff attend to their well-being when working in an inpatient mental health setting with older adults with dementia and complex mental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how staff attend to their well-being when working in an inpatient mental health setting with older adults with dementia and complex mental health needs; how staff understand the link between their well-being and the well-being of patients.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi-structured group interview was held with 11 members of two multidisciplinary teams. The discussion was audio-recorded and analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Staff reported managing their well-being by both connecting with and avoiding the difficult emotions of the work. The team avoided the gravity of the work through humour, a task-focus, an absence of thinking and the displacement of workplace frustrations onto an outgroup. Connecting with emotions was done in tolerable ways: in contained reflective spaces, in the presence of supportive others, through genuine connections with patients as people and when the organisation demonstrated care for the staff.
Practical implications
Avoidant strategies appeared to represent short-term ways of maintaining staff well-being, while connecting with the gravity of the work appeared to represent what we hope is a more sustainable approach to managing well-being. A crucial premise for staff well-being is teams embedded within organisations that care for their employees.
Originality/value
Poor staff well-being can have serious consequences for an organisation, particularly in the existentially challenging environment of dementia care. This study offers a unique opportunity to explore staff well-being in a UK inpatient mental health setting with older adults with dementia and complex mental health needs.
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Samantha Rankin and Stephanie Petty
The perspectives of frontline clinical staff working with individuals in later life within an inpatient mental health setting, of their role in recovery, have not yet been…
Abstract
Purpose
The perspectives of frontline clinical staff working with individuals in later life within an inpatient mental health setting, of their role in recovery, have not yet been explored. The purpose of this paper is to understand what recovery means within an inpatient mental health setting for older adults. The authors address clear implications for clinical practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 multidisciplinary participants across two specialist older adult recovery units at an independent hospital in the UK. Thematic analysis was applied to the transcripts.
Findings
Three main themes were identified: participants identified their normative task as the promotion of “moving on” (clinical recovery) and their existential task as personal recovery. The context in which recovery happens was highlighted as the third theme. These represented competing workplace goals of clinical and personal recovery. This highlights the need to give permission to personal recovery as the process that enables mental health recovery in older adults.
Originality/value
Staff working in a inpatient mental health service for older adults discussed the meaning of recovery and their role in enabling recovery. This has implications for sustainable clinical practice in this setting. Recovery-orientated practice in this setting is required but the detail is not yet understood.
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Adopting a sense of critical enquiry when examining historical sources, it is possible to gain a richer and broader sense of present practice. The aim of this study is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Adopting a sense of critical enquiry when examining historical sources, it is possible to gain a richer and broader sense of present practice. The aim of this study is to emphasise the importance of historical research to present practice in teasing out the different elements at work and how they developed. A core assumption is that our consciousness depends on our interactions with others.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is part of ongoing research into the historical background of the practice of discerning compassion. The methods used include archival research and the reading of primary and secondary literature.
Findings
In particular, it becomes clear that this way of working is always going to be problematic for political authorities as it promotes the questioning of accepted beliefs. This study emphasises that the core concepts underlying enabling community practice reach deep into the past and involve events not usually associated with the traditional histories of the approach. In particular, exploring outside of the traditional mental hospital background reveals a greater involvement of women than previously demonstrated. There are processes that have deep historical roots, the culture of enquiry, the benefits of mutual support and the understanding that people flourish better interacting with each other in a supportive and trusting environment rather than through coercion and instruction.
Research limitations/implications
As with all historical research, this paper is limited by the resources available to examine particular events.
Practical implications
Recognition of the importance of historical enquiry as relevant to present-day practice.
Social implications
Historical enquiry helps to acknowledge the importance of social events in shaping our present understanding. As W.H. Rivers argues, we have to understand what happened in the past before comprehending why present sociological events occur.
Originality/value
This paper is a unique enquiry into the early historical antecedents of enabling community practice. It is intended to stimulate more research into the field and to stimulate debate about the relevance of particular aspects of practice. It refers to sources that are not usually part of such discussions and, by implication, suggests that there is more to be explored. It is not an exhaustive account and is to be supplemented by another paper on leadership.
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Although the idea of a therapeutic community (TC) has lost none of its dynamism, there are many modern‐day environments in which the original TC model has been unable to make…
Abstract
Although the idea of a therapeutic community (TC) has lost none of its dynamism, there are many modern‐day environments in which the original TC model has been unable to make headway. In recent years, new ideas have been emerging for the development of institutions and services that can be adapted to a wide range of psychological needs and settings, such as homelessness hostels and refuges. The psychologically‐informed environment (PIE) arises from the scope for reflective practice, leading to changes in day‐to‐day working ‐ including a more planned variant for high secure services. The PIE approach seems to offer greater flexibility in scope than the TC model. Nevertheless, such new approaches may yet need a clear values base; and the next article in this series will explore new ideas for the creation of ‘enabling environments’ in a still wider range of settings.
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This paper aims to examine reform of mental health legislation in England and Wales. It covers the period from the introduction of the 1983 MHA to the proposed reforms outlined in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine reform of mental health legislation in England and Wales. It covers the period from the introduction of the 1983 MHA to the proposed reforms outlined in the Wessley Review that was published in December 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a literature-based project.
Findings
Reform of the mental health legislation reflects two potentially conflicting strands. One is the state’s power to incarcerate the “mad”, and the other is the move to protect the civil rights of those who are subject to such legislation. The failures to development adequately funded community-based mental health services and a series of inquiries in the 1990s led to the introduction of Community Treatment Orders in the 2007 reform of the MHA.
Research limitations/implications
The development of mental health policy has seen a shift towards more coercive approaches in mental health.
Practical implications
The successful reform of the MHA can only be accomplished alongside investment in community mental health services.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the tensions between the factors that contribute to mental health legislation reform.
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This paper seeks to grasp the nettle of developing a “checklist” of standards that can be used to accredit a therapeutic community, which are concrete enough to be objectively…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to grasp the nettle of developing a “checklist” of standards that can be used to accredit a therapeutic community, which are concrete enough to be objectively assessed as present to a greater or lesser degree, but at the same time reflect the daily living learning experience of a therapeutic community in a way that practitioners will recognise as a true picture of what they do or try to do.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes the development of a set of auditable standards for democratic therapeutic communities, and the results of an initial pilot study. The original 60‐item checklist is attached.
Findings
The Kennard‐Lees Audit Checklist (KLAC) was developed out of an accreditation structure proposed to the ATC by Morris in 1998. This was developed by the present authors into 42 specific items which were posted for comment and suggestions on the ATC website in October 1999. A modified version was then discussed with the Prison Service, as a result of which a number of further items were added, resulting in the 60 items versions that was published on the ATC website in October 2000.
Originality/value
The checklist provides a set of auditable standards acceptable to managers, practitioners and residents of TCs. This early work acts as a measure for how things have changed since 2001.
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Reexamination and reinterpretation of the process of deinstitutionalization of public mental hospital inpatients.
Abstract
Purpose
Reexamination and reinterpretation of the process of deinstitutionalization of public mental hospital inpatients.
Methodology/approach
A comprehensive review of related research is presented and lessons learned for the sociology of mental health are identified.
Findings
The processes of both institutionalization and deinstitutionalization were motivated by belief in the influence of the social environment on the course of mental illness, but while in the early 19th century the social environment of the mental hospital was seen as therapeutic, later in the 20th century the now primarily custodial social environment of large state mental hospitals was seen as iatrogenic. Nonetheless, research in both periods indicated the benefit of socially supportive environments in the hospital, while research on programs for deinstitutionalized patients and for homeless persons indicated the value of comparable features in community programs.
Research limitations/implications
While the process of deinstitutionalization is largely concluded, research should focus on identifying features of the social environment that can maximize rehabilitation.
Practical implications
The debate over the merits of hospital-based and community-based mental health services is misplaced; policies should instead focus on the alternatives for providing socially supportive environments. Deinstitutionalization in the absence of socially supportive programs has been associated with increased rates of homelessness and incarceration among those most chronically ill.
Originality/value
A comprehensive analysis of deinstitutionalization that highlights flaws in prior sociological perspectives and charts a new direction for scholarship.
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The purpose of this paper is to explain that an integration of cognitivism with sociotherapy is possible and appropriate to help severe BPD cases. What follows is both an outline…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain that an integration of cognitivism with sociotherapy is possible and appropriate to help severe BPD cases. What follows is both an outline and a rationale of this integration.
Design/methodology/approach
Recovery programs for serious BPD represent a challenge because they require complex answers in three problematic areas: interdependent relationships, emotional intensity and identity, virtually at the same time. This prompted Raymond Gledhill Community the opportunity to integrate recovery programs with treatments that have yielded proven results for each cluster. Schema therapy and Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving have been integrated with sociotherapy.
Findings
This integration has led to considerable results including: increased motivation among the resident community, the adoption of a shared language, improved communication levels in the community, greater mutual support, increased trust in, and empathy toward, fellow residents, and more self-awareness – even among the facilitators.
Originality/value
It is the belief that the integration of cognitive tools with sociotherapy can indeed target recovery for people with BPD in a much more efficacious and cost effective manner.
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Brendan James Dunlop and Mark Andrew McFetridge
There is evidence that attachment style and clinical outcomes are related within Therapeutic Communities (TCs). This paper aims to examine any possible relationships between…
Abstract
Purpose
There is evidence that attachment style and clinical outcomes are related within Therapeutic Communities (TCs). This paper aims to examine any possible relationships between self-reported adult attachment style, therapy programme engagement and measures of psychological distress and dissociation on admission and discharge within a residential TC.
Design/methodology/approach
Ex-clients of the TC were contacted by post and invited to take part in this service evaluation. Additional data were sourced from a database of routinely collected outcome measures. Of 281 ex-clients, the final sample in this study was N = 32.
Findings
When attachment style is conceptualised dimensionally, participants identified most strongly with a fearful attachment style, and least with a preoccupied or secure style. A range of attachment styles were reported. A significant association was apparent between self-reported secure attachment and reduced levels of psychological distress upon discharge from the TC. The potential for changes in client attachment patterns following TC membership is discussed.
Research limitations/implications
The small sample size and correlational nature of this study means that results should be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, results are of clinical relevance for inpatient or residential therapy programmes (including TCs). Such programmes should routinely assess client attachment style to ensure appropriate interventions and adaptions are implemented.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date, this is the first known study to report on the relationship between self-reported adult attachment style and psychological outcomes specifically for women with self-defeating behaviours within a TC.
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ONE OF THE NEWER FIELDS of librarianship is that of the hospital librarian. It is advancing rapidly. My special province was a psychiatric hospital, until I resigned for domestic…
Abstract
ONE OF THE NEWER FIELDS of librarianship is that of the hospital librarian. It is advancing rapidly. My special province was a psychiatric hospital, until I resigned for domestic reasons. I found several differences almost immediately in this work as against the public library in which I had been trained.
Mental health disorders, namely, anxiety and depression, have reached an unprecedented peak; recent research demonstrates that these disorders have increased by 70 per cent over…
Abstract
Purpose
Mental health disorders, namely, anxiety and depression, have reached an unprecedented peak; recent research demonstrates that these disorders have increased by 70 per cent over the last 25 years. Additionally, developments in the field of environmental psychology have elicited that the built environment is a crucial factor affecting mental health. It is, therefore, necessary for architects to address the issue when designing, thereby using a holistic approach to promote general well-being. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The project, Asylum: A Place of Refuge, seeks to create a reinterpretation of the eighteenth century asylum, through which the intervention of nature – vast pastures and bucolic settings – believed it had the power to cure the human psyche while, simultaneously, offering redemption. This paper examines the project in relation to multiple books and readings conducted prior and while designing. These references, many of which are considered staples in the field, refer to the important role and impact architecture and landscape have on mental health. Additionally, it discusses the ways architects can consciously design to promote physiological well-being and ensure positive psychological experience through adoption of a comprehensive approach that bridges the gap between the body and mind. Finding sources related to environmental psychology was also crucial as the research conducted in this field provides scientific reasoning to support design decisions.
Findings
By employing strategies from the readings as well as creating a stimulating space that challenges the conception of architecture, the project: Asylum: A Place of Refuge, was born. The use of a powerful, specific and emotive language inherent to the setting as well as a constant relationship between nature and the built environment creates a safe haven for people to resort to, away from the pressures and stresses of everyday life amplified by bustling cities. The ethos of the project is essentially inspired upon Ebenezer Howard’s concept introduced in his book, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, where he states that “human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together. The two must be made one” (Howard, p. 48).
Research limitations/implications
The application and the validity of the project are limited to a conceptual proposal leading to speculative results. Although the research paper is based on architecture-related readings and research conducted in the field of environmental psychology, to verify how this project would function in a real-world setting, it is essential to build it.
Social implications
Applying these findings and this approach to architecture can enhance the quality of life. These ideas can be applied to many different building types including, but not limited to, living spaces, workplaces and recreational spaces.
Originality/value
This paper is based on an architecture project that was created by the author as part of their undergraduate thesis. As a result, this paper and proposal is fully original.
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Warwick Funnell, Valerio Antonelli, Raffaele D’Alessio and Roberto Rossi
The purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by accounting in managing an early nineteenth century lunatic asylum in Palermo, Italy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by accounting in managing an early nineteenth century lunatic asylum in Palermo, Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is informed by Foucault’s studies of lunatic asylums and his work on governmentality which gave prominence to the role of statistics, the “science of the State”.
Findings
This paper identifies a number of roles played by accounting in the management of the lunatic asylum studied. Most importantly, information which formed the basis of accounting reports was used to describe, classify and give visibility and measurability to the “deviance” of the insane. It also legitimated the role played by lunatic asylums, as entrusted to them in post-Napoleonic early nineteenth century society, and was a tool to mediate with the public authorities to provide adequate resources for the institution to operate.
Research limitations/implications
This paper encourages accounting scholars to engage more widely with socio-historical research that will encompass organisations such as lunatic asylums.
Originality/value
This paper provides, for the first time, a case of accounting applied to a lunatic asylum from a socio-historical perspective.
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Peter Gilbert and Natalie Watts
For many people with mental health problems, spirituality is an essential part of their recovery. This is something that mental health services are beginning to recognise. Peter…
Abstract
For many people with mental health problems, spirituality is an essential part of their recovery. This is something that mental health services are beginning to recognise. Peter Gilbert and Natalie Watts outline the role and aims of the NIMHE spirituality project and the issues it aims to address.
George L. De Feis and Donald Grunewald
Later in the discussion, the options for long run strategy in dealing with a possible takeover offer and other strategic options can be discussed by the class. Lack of familiarity…
Abstract
Theoretical basis
Later in the discussion, the options for long run strategy in dealing with a possible takeover offer and other strategic options can be discussed by the class. Lack of familiarity by students with the role of the outside potential acquirer of the camp (in this case, a hotel chain) and the lack of familiarity with the role of an investor who is a family investor, who may wish to sell stock and use the proceeds for another purpose, or a small investor who invests because he or she uses the camp and takes advantage of the stockholder’s discount will probably preclude role playing, except in executive MBA classes where students have sufficient experience in possible takeover situations or in investment management, Emphasis should probably be placed on discussing the major issues, such as social and cultural issues and on marketing and public relations issues and on financial issues, including the options available in the event of a possible takeover effort. All of these issues are impacted fully by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research methodology
Instructors will need to play an active role in teaching this case. It is recommended that the instructor give a short lecture or discussion at the beginning as to how a camp such as Camp Teddy functions. The authors recommend that the instructor then begin the case discussion by asking students questions about such issues as social and cultural issues and marketing and public relations issues.
Case overview/synopsis
Camp Teddy is a seasonal camp for families in rural Connecticut adjacent to New York City and suburbs in New York and Connecticut. It is technically a for-profit organization but operates more like a nonprofit organization because many of the campers own shares and have used the camp sometimes for several generations. The camp has traditions that are liked by many of the shareholders and campers. Although net income has increased in the past year, there does not seem to be enough funds to support necessary capital expenditures to improve facilities for the future. The largest stockholder has recently died. His immediate heirs’ control 300 of the 1,000 shares and other family members control 400 shares with the remaining 300 shares in the hands of small shareholders, many of whom use the camp each summer. A large hotel chain is interested in possibly acquiring the camp through a buyout or perhaps a hostile takeover, with a potential large gain to shareholders. The board of directors must consider a number of issues to insure good occupancy of the camp in the future and must decide what to do about a potential takeover attempt.
Complexity academic level
This case can be used in several courses, including investment management, hospitality management, corporate finance and business strategy. There are ethical and societal issues in the case, so that the case might also be used in courses looking at business, environment or business ethics. The case is best used at the graduate level, but it might be suitable for some advanced undergraduate courses.
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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the evolution of discerning compassion and how it was used in the Ingrebourne Therapeutic Community.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the evolution of discerning compassion and how it was used in the Ingrebourne Therapeutic Community.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is derived from a PhD thesis which was researched through interviews and archival research. The fundamental finding was that the therapeutic community approach was almost unique in providing a structured approach to implementing discerning compassion.
Practical implication
The therapeutic community approach for discerning compassion, in which the response to distress aims to promote flourishing.
Social implications
This paper offers a model that has implications on how care is delivered in other settings.
Originality/value
There is little literature that explores the role of compassion in therapeutic communities or in care environments of any form. The approach taken here places compassion in a historical and philosophical setting and contrasts it with the kindness expressed in traditional psychiatric care that promoted “tranquility”.