Rajan Nathan, Laura Cramond, Andrew Brown, Bernadette McEllin and Richard Whittington
The profile of personality disorder in forensic clinical practice has been raised by key developments over the last decade, although services remain in the large part piecemeal…
Abstract
Purpose
The profile of personality disorder in forensic clinical practice has been raised by key developments over the last decade, although services remain in the large part piecemeal and disconnected. This paper aims to describe the lessons learnt from the development of one specialist service for personality disordered offenders.
Design/methodology/approach
The policy context in which the service was developed, the challenges of working in this area, and data relating to the clinical and risk profile of referred cases are presented.
Findings
Data demonstrate extensive comorbidity and heterogeneity amongst those referred to the service. With reference to the experience gained in the first four years of the service, it is suggested that a systematic and formalised model of “understanding” the psychology of the individual should be the core process of future developments for this group of offenders, and subsequently recommendations are made to enhance the practical utility of such formulations rate.
Research limitations/implications
Conclusions are mostly based on expert opinion and upon one particular service provision, and therefore care should be exercised in generalising the results of this study to existing services. The need for further research in order to enhance knowledge and understanding of this complex group is highlighted.
Practical implications
The heterogeneity and comorbidity within this group of offenders emphasises the need for services to offer a range of assessment methods and interventions to meet individuals' requirements.
Originality/value
The experiences and recommendations in this paper are valuable to professionals working with personality disordered offenders and to the development of more extensive services for such individuals.
Details
Keywords
Using oceanographer Rachel Carson's study The Edge of the Sea (1955) to contextualise tidal spaces, this chapter discusses how constantly shifting and eroding coastlines act as a…
Abstract
Using oceanographer Rachel Carson's study The Edge of the Sea (1955) to contextualise tidal spaces, this chapter discusses how constantly shifting and eroding coastlines act as a site for writing, re-writing and performing acts of cultural and personal memory. It also considers the ecological impact of human activity on tidal spaces and their more-than-human inhabitants.
14-18 NOW's Pages of the Sea, directed by Danny Boyle, invited communities around the United Kingdom to meet on their local beach to commemorate those who were lost in World War I by marking portraits in the tidal sands. Choreographer Chloë Smith's Tidal, performed in Berwick-upon-Tweed in 2015, was commissioned as a commemorative work but became an act of personal memorialising when Smith's brother drowned prior to the event. Performance company Curious's Out of Water (2012–2014), invites participants on a dawn-walk to the shoreline exploring memory, time, genealogy and water through song and movement. My own collaborative site-responsive work, Tide Times (2018), created with electroacoustic composer Tim Cooper for the tidal island of Cramond, explores the multiple identities of place over time. Tide Times encouraged audiences to create their own tidal poems and artworks through a series of invitations in treasure chests hidden around the island.
In explicating these aforementioned artworks, which explore ideas of remembrance using tidal spaces, this chapter will also acknowledge the forgetting that is implicit in performing these actions. What can the legacy of commemorations traced in such a transient and precarious space as a tidal zone be? This chapter argues that while shorelines provide sites for large and small scale acts of public remembering, they are simultaneously acts of forgetting as the twice daily tides cause inevitable erasure.
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Laura Jane Wintour and Trish Joscelyne
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has been described as “in crisis” and “not fit for purpose”. CAMHS services have undergone a multitude of changes, including…
Abstract
Purpose
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has been described as “in crisis” and “not fit for purpose”. CAMHS services have undergone a multitude of changes, including policy initiatives, recent growth in demand, decreases in resources and increased pressure. This study aims to explore the experiences of clinical psychologists (CPs) working in CAMHS, leaving CAMHS and working independently with children and families.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative design with semi-structured interviews of ten participants was used. Interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings
Results are represented within 5 themes and 14 sub-themes. Participants felt that over time there had been undesirable changes in CAMHS, which left them reminiscing about the past. Participants felt unable to do their job in CAMHS, meet the needs of children and young people and use their psychology skills. Participants emphasised the importance of colleagues and being part of an multidisciplinary team, which had been missed since working independently, but they also highlighted difficult relationships with managers. Participants felt that working at CAMHS had negatively impacted their emotional and physical well-being and their family life. In contrast, participants felt that working independently meant they could do the job they had wanted to be doing as a CP and had a better work–life balance.
Originality/value
This study had implications for services, where it would be beneficial for the experiences of CPs to be considered in relation to current practice with the view of improving the experiences of staff. Future research would benefit from exploring the experiences of CAMHS staff further.