The Therapeutic Waiting Room: Therapist and Service User Perspectives on the Psychologically Supportive Dimensions of Architectural Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
Stephanie Liddicoat
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service User ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Waiting Room ◽  
Symbolic Content ◽  
Perceptions Of Care

Background: Waiting areas in healthcare settings play an important role in reassuring or potentially further distressing service users. The effects of the designed environment on mental health service users specifically are regarded by health professionals as having a considerable influence on treatment outcomes, experiences, and perceptions of care. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore service user and practicing therapist perspectives of waiting areas in mental health service settings and how the design of these spaces affects anxiety levels, comfort, therapeutic relationships, outcomes, and perceptions of care. Methods: The methodology for this exploratory phenomenological study was developed in order to preserve the integrity of participant voices in the essences of experiences, during explorations of their encounters with therapeutic waiting areas. Fieldwork undertaken by the author involved a series of focused in-depth interviews with service users of mental health services and practicing therapists, counselors, and psychologists. Results: Key themes identified through data analysis include (1) space acting as symbolism, (2) interpersonal relations which are threatening, and (3) sensory modulation. Design implications in relation to each theme are presented. Conclusions: This study uncovered a set of findings in relation to symbolic content inferred by spatial design aspects and the ways in which design can afford, or mitigate, development of interpersonal agencies, psychological safety, and negative stigmas. Future transdisciplinary research directions are suggested, including (1) examination of other relationships, beyond the service user–therapist dyad, which may influence waiting area experiences and (2) examination of the applicability of design suggestions to different contexts.

Service users’ experiences of participation in clinical psychology training

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 337-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meadhbh Campbell ◽  
Charlotte Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Service User ◽  
Psychology Training ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Clinical Psychology Training ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Psychology Course

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore mental health service users’ experiences of involvement in a clinical psychology course. Design/methodology/approach Five participants were recruited from a service user and carer group aligned to a university professional clinical psychology course. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and data were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings Four superordinate themes, group processes, advocating, transforming and power, were drawn from the data, with ten subthemes emerging capturing experiences on the personal, professional and group levels. Research limitations/implications The study is not generalisable and has a small number of participants. However, many of the themes have resonance with existing literature. Practical implications Service user initiatives need to consider the personal and contextual issues that service users may have experienced prior to their involvement. The needs of service user initiatives may change over time. Such initiatives must evolve in conjunction with the personal and political journeys of participants. Originality/value Few studies have explored the experiences of mental health service users in clinical psychology training using a robust methodology. The current study suggests that eliciting these experiences highlights factors that facilitate involvement as well as the barriers.

Irish Mental Health Social Movements: A Consideration of Movement Habitus

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewen Speed
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Service User ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Mental Health Service User ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Consumer Model

There has been a lack of any concerted mental health service users‘ movement within the Republic of Ireland. Mental health service users’ movements elsewhere have a marked orientation towards strategies of empowerment and the provision of peer advocacy and support for mental health service users. Two potential user habituses (drawn from the literature) are expounded and discussed, in a context of transformations they have effected in the mental health field. Through an analysis of Department of Health and Children literature and literature offered by mental health service user groups (such as Schizophrenia Ireland and AWARE) service user habitus in Ireland are delineated and explored. A comparison between the habitus drawn from international literature and the Irish literature illustrates that the dominant Irish mental health social movement habitus is a consumer habitus. This analysis demonstrates that Irish governmental psychiatric policy is driven by a consumer model that in turn is adopted by mental health social movement organisations, resulting in a dominant consumer habitus.

scholarly journals Psychiatric drugs: reconsidering their mode of action and the implications for service user involvement

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Marc Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service User ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Service User Involvement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Psychiatric Drugs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine two competing pharmacological models that have been used to understand how psychiatric drugs work: the disease-centred model and the drug-centred model. In addition, it explores the implications of these two models for mental health service users and the degree to which they are meaningfully involved in decisions about the use of psychiatric drugs. Design/methodology/approach The approach is a conceptual review and critical comparison of two pharmacological models used to understand the mode of action of psychiatric drugs. On the basis of this analysis, the paper also provides a critical examination, supported by the available literature, of the implications of these two models for service user involvement in mental health care. Findings The disease-centred model is associated with a tendency to view the use of psychiatric drugs as a technical matter that is to be determined by mental health professionals. In contrast, the drug-centred model emphasises the centrality of the individual experience of taking a psychiatric drug and implies a more equitable relationship between practitioners and mental health service users. Originality/value Although infrequently articulated, assumptions about how psychiatric drugs work have important consequences for service user involvement in mental health care. Critical consideration of these assumptions is an important aspect of seeking to maximise service user involvement in decisions about the use of psychiatric drugs as a response to their experience of mental distress.

Overcoming challenges in service user involvement in an older people’s mental health service

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-155
Author(s):  
Sophie Smith ◽  
Maria Abbas ◽  
Ariane Zegarra
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service User ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Service User Involvement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Group Members

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe how an older people’s mental health service involves service users in research and service improvement projects, the value of this work and the ways in which barriers to user-led research have been approached and handled. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a reflective review of their experiences of running “ResearchNet”, a group aimed at putting service users’ perspectives at the heart of service improvement projects, which benefits from and develops its members’ related skills. The authors explore overcoming barriers to service user involvement in research. Findings This paper identified the following key elements that enabled ResearchNet to overcome barriers which might be found in service user–led research: recruitment processes; identifying research projects; building confidence, sustaining motivation and overcoming setbacks; developing service user’s research skills; keeping multiple views in mind; involving people with dementia; being responsive to group members’ needs; and keeping the group safe. Practical implications Oxleas National Health Service is currently looking at integrating with the quality improvement team to provide further structure and training to group members. Originality/value This paper explores an under-represented area of research – service user inclusion in older adult mental health research and service improvement. It provides much needed clinical implications for clinicians seeking to increase clients’ involvement in research and service development projects.

Continuing the dialogue

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Ellen Copeland ◽  
Shery Mead
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service User ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Psychiatric Crisis

We consider the value of dialogue between healthcare professionals and mental health service users with severe mental illnesses. Discussion with the service user before, during and after a psychiatric crisis should help services to offer choice even to individuals under compulsory detention.

On becoming a student mental health nurse

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Clarke ◽  
Frances Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service User ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Mental Health Nursing ◽  
Mental Health Nurses ◽  
Health Nurse ◽  
Health Nursing

This chapter is all about helping you to understand what mental health nursing is. To this end, we will consider what you must know and do when you first meet people with mental health problems. We will introduce a personal account from a mental health service user early in the chapter in order to help you begin to understand what working with people with mental health problems is like and what service users want from mental health nurses. In an effort to help you become familiar with what mental health nursing is, we will explore the following issues: what is a profession; what is nursing; what beliefs and values inform nursing; why is it important for mental health nurses to be self-aware; and what do mental health nurses need to know? In the final part of this chapter we explore the nature of boundaries in professional relationships and the implications of this for practice as a mental health nurse. Before you read any further we would encourage you to recognize that mental health service users are, quite rightly, the real experts in their care and needs. It is vitally important that you listen and really attend to what they are saying to you. We have asked a service user, Deborah Living, to represent for you some of the important issues that she would like mental health nurses to be aware of, and Deborah is going to tell you part of her own life story. I consider myself to be a survivor…not just a survivor of mental health difficulties but also a survivor of mental health services. I feel I am a survivor because I have reclaimed my life after more than ten years of mental health diagnoses and treatments: diagnoses from clinical depression to cyclothymia (described as a ‘milder’ form of manic depression); antidepressants and mood stabilisers from prozac to lithium; and interventions from counselling to psychiatry, through ECT to being an inpatient. It took me over a decade and a 12-month stay in a residential therapeutic community to stop the ‘revolving door’ approach within the mental health service, whereby I would gain short-term stability only to relapse yet again.

scholarly journals Speaking Truth to Power: Mental Health Service Users’ Experiences of Participation in their Diagnosis and Treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Gloria Kirwan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Service User ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Diagnosis And Treatment ◽  
Service Users

In a qualitative study, long-term mental health service users shared their views on the concept of ‘participation’ as shaped by their personal histories of contact with mental health services in Ireland. Adopting a narrative methodology, the study participants were asked to draw on their experiences with mental health services to illustrate their general views on participation by service users in mental health care contexts.In this study, the research participants recounted positive experiences of participation in which their expressed views regarding their symptoms and treatment needs were incorporated into the service responses they received. The data revealed that service users perceived open and inclusive communication by service providers as an important factor in optimising their ability to participate in help-seeking, diagnosis and treatment plans. However, the study also illuminated the chilling effect on participation when service users’ views were not heeded or acknowledged by service providers. The findings highlight how the failure to include service users’ insights can negatively encroach on service user participation. The service user narratives collected in this study exposed the often uneasy juxtaposition of the service user’s personally held ‘truth’ regarding their lived experience of mental distress versus the powerful system of expert diagnosis and treatment. This article focuses on reporting selective findings from the study regarding participation in the contexts of help-seeking, diagnosis and treatment decisions.

scholarly journals Mental health service user and worker experience of psychosocial support via telehealth through the COVID­19 pandemic: A qualitative study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Venville ◽  
Sarah O'Connor ◽  
Hannah Roeschlein ◽  
Priscilla Ennals ◽  
Grace McLoughlan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service User ◽  
Psychosocial Support ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Worker Experience ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Relationship

BACKGROUND The Covid-19 pandemic saw telehealth rapidly become the primary way to receive mental health care. International research has validated many of the benefits and challenges of telehealth known pre-pandemic for specific population groups. However, if telehealth is to assume prominence in future mental health service delivery, greater understanding is needed about its capacity to provide psychosocial support for people with complex and enduring mental health conditions. OBJECTIVE Focusing on an Australian community-managed provider of psychosocial intervention and support, this qualitative study aimed to understand the service user and worker experience of psychosocial support via telehealth through the COVID­19 pandemic. METHODS This research was jointly developed, and conducted by people with lived experience of mental ill health and/or distress, mental health service providers, and university-based researchers. Semi structured interviews conducted between August and November 2020 explored participant experiences of receiving or providing psychosocial support via telehealth platforms including telephone, text, and video conferencing. Qualitative data was analysed thematically, quantitative data was collated and analysed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS Twenty service users and eight workers completed individual interviews via telephone or video conferencing platform. Sixty percent (n=12) of service users received psychosocial support services by telephone, 30% (n=6) by videoconferencing, and 10% (n=2) through a blend of telephone and videoconferencing. Of note, 55% (n=11) of service user participants stated a future preference for in-person psychosocial support services, 30% (n=6) preferred to receive a mixture of in-person and telehealth, and 15% (n=3) elected telehealth only. Two meta- themes emerged as integral to worker and service user experience of telehealth during the pandemic: (1) creating safety and comfort, and (2) a whole new way of working. The first meta-theme comprises sub-themes relating to a sense of safety and comfort while using telehealth; including trusting in the relationship, and having and exercising choice and control. The second meta-theme contains sub-themes reflecting key challenges and opportunities associated with the shift from in-person psychosocial support to telehealth. CONCLUSIONS Overall, our findings highlighted that most service users experienced telehealth positively, but this was dependent on them continuing to get the support they needed in a way that was safe and comfortable. Whilst access difficulties of a subgroup of service users should not be ignored, most service users and workers were able to adapt to telehealth by focusing on maintaining the relationship and using choice and flexibility to maintain service delivery. Although most research participants expressed a preference for a return to in person psychosocial support, or hybrid in-person and telehealth models, there was a general recognition that intentional use of telehealth could contribute to flexible and responsive service delivery. Notably, challenges to telehealth provision of psychosocial support identified in this study are yet to be fully understood.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document