Daniela Ivanova, Andrew John Howe, Patricia Burns and Merryn Jones
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the therapeutic community and to look at the potential changes that some patients may experience following treatment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the therapeutic community and to look at the potential changes that some patients may experience following treatment at the therapeutic communities (TC).
Design/methodology/approach
A thematic analysis was conducted on an e-mail sent by an ex-patient of the TC. The text was reviewed multiple times and codes were generated. Based on the data found, three themes were identified. The e-mail was sent to the patient’s primary therapist, who was asked to provide an account of the e-mail. The therapist was sent six questions created by the authors of the paper; the responses were used to compare the two perspectives.
Findings
The main findings entailed the changes the patient went through after her treatment at the TC. The patient’s account described her inability to process the adversities she had been through at the time and therefore her inability to communicate them. However, the impact the service had on the patient, according to the e-mail was evident years later. The lack of a support network during treatment at the TC and evidence of one following treatment seemed to be the key factor in the patient’s improvement.
Originality/value
The authors confirm that the research presented in this paper is their original work. The authors hereby acknowledge that all material included in this piece of work, that has been published or written by another person has been referenced accordingly.
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Merryn Jones and Andrew John Howe
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected psychotherapy practice. A common change is a move to online sessions over video calls. In their therapeutic community (TC) for those with…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected psychotherapy practice. A common change is a move to online sessions over video calls. In their therapeutic community (TC) for those with personality disorders, the authors have used video calls but not all clients could work in this way. The authors decided to meet patients outside and walked with them while adhering to government guidelines. This study aims to present the authors’ experience with one client who was interviewed afterwards about the experience.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 10 walking therapy sessions of 60-min duration were conducted with the patient. After the sessions, both the patient and therapist were interviewed about their experience. The resulting interviews with both patient and therapist were thematically analysed independently by both authors.
Findings
There were common themes to both the client and therapist’s account following thematic analysis. These were: modelling and normalising in the real world, replacing what COVID-19 had taken away from the TC experience, changes at home, therapist disclosure, outcomes and good endings and being outside of the clinical environment.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have presented a single case of the patient and therapist experience of outdoor therapy sessions in a TC context response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are not generalisable and can only provide a suggestion at the positive potential for working in this way. The authors hope that the positive effects of outdoor therapy noted here may inspire other clinicians to consider similar novel approaches in their work.
Originality/value
This study describes a novel way that a TC has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Merryn Gott, Tony Stevens, Neil Small and Sam Hjelmeland Ahmedzai
Facilitating user involvement is regarded as a significant factor in advancing the overall quality of health care provision. The wish to develop user involvement is present in…
Abstract
Facilitating user involvement is regarded as a significant factor in advancing the overall quality of health care provision. The wish to develop user involvement is present in White Papers, government reports and policy guidance. The reform of cancer services consequent on the implementation of the Calman Hine Report creates opportunities for meaningful user involvement in cancer care. Draws on research conducted in the Trent Region of the NHS and examines how far user groups have been involved, which groups may be excluded and what remains to be done to elevate user views in planning and evaluation of cancer services. Many commissioners and providers of health care are currently establishing the infrastructure to encourage the development of user involvement. Suggests the experience in relation to cancer can offer a model for others.
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Maria Tsouroufli, Mustafa Özbilgin and Merryn Smith
Attempts to modernise the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK involve promoting flexible approaches to work and training, restructuring postgraduate training and increasing…
Abstract
Purpose
Attempts to modernise the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK involve promoting flexible approaches to work and training, restructuring postgraduate training and increasing control and scrutiny of doctors' work. However, the medical community has responded with expressed anxiety about the implications of these changes for medical professionalism and the quality of patient care. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on literature on nostalgia, gender, identity and organisations, the paper explores the narratives of 20 senior NHS hospital doctors to identify ways in which doctors use nostalgia to react to organisational and professional challenges and resist modernisation and feminisation of medicine.
Findings
This paper illustrates how senior hospital doctors' nostalgic discourses of temporal commitment may be used to constitute a highly esteemed professional identity, creating a sense of personal and occupational uniqueness for senior hospital doctors, intertwined with gendered forms of othering and exclusionary practices.
Practical implications
Nostalgia at first sight appears to be an innocuous social construct. However, this study illustrates the significance of nostalgia as a subversive practice of resistance with implications for women's career and identity experiences. Change initiatives that seek to tackle resistance need also to address discourses of nostalgia in the medical profession.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this study is that we illustrate how supposedly neutral discourses of nostalgia may sometimes be mobilised as devices of resistance. This study questions simplistic focus on numerical representation, such as feminisation, as indicative of modernisation and highlights the significance of exploring discourses and head counts for understanding resistance to modernisation.
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SOME amount of loss by enemy action has occurred in libraries since our last writing, but none of it has been on such a scale as we had to record earlier. This may be due to the…
Abstract
SOME amount of loss by enemy action has occurred in libraries since our last writing, but none of it has been on such a scale as we had to record earlier. This may be due to the more restricted raiding of the winter months, and, as we have so often remarked, is no assurance that more and great damage may not be endured—for it will be endured—when the boasted offensive takes place. It is gratifying to know that readers in heavily bombed areas continue faithful to libraries. Books have taken an even higher place lately, and if in these areas the circulation figures are smaller, it is because the populations are smaller. Individual readers use more books than ever.