Abuse in mental health services: some theoretical considerations
| Pages | 32-39 |
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200000021 |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Author | Jennie Williams,Frank Keating |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
32 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 2 Issue 3 • September 2000
Concern about abuse within mental health services
(Williams & Keating, 1999; Warner & Ford, 1998) has
been slow to emerge compared to other contexts, such as
children’s services (Bloom, 1992), services for people with
learning disabilities (Brown & Stein, 1997) and services for
older people (Decalmer & Glendenning, 1997). Within the
field of mental health the focus has lain mainly with the causal
role of abuse in psychological distress and disturbance, not
with the replication or perpetuation of abuse in services. One
implication of the limited attention given to this problem is
that people working within mental health services can draw
upon experience gained elsewhere. However, there are risks
as well as opportunities associated with such borrowing.
Here we caution against placing too much initial reliance
upon the ‘adult protection’ paradigm, and suggest that there
are convincing reasons for starting with explicit consideration
of the troubled relationship between mental health services
and oppression within our society.
Adult protection paradigm
The ‘adult protection’ paradigm is clearly detailed by Brown
et al. (1999) in the first issue of this Journal. While this
approach is valid for use in a range of settings, and offers clear
direction to those involved in managing incidents of abuse,
we have some reservations about its widespread application
to the field of mental health.
First, the approach is solution-driven and as such distracts
attention from a thorough analysis of the problem in its
Abuse in mental health
services: some theoretical
considerations Jennie Williams
Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, Tizard
Centre, University of Kent at Canterbury
Frank Keating
Lecturer in Mental Health, Tizard Centre,
University of Kent at Canterbury
Policy and practice overview
key words
mental health
abuse of power
adult abuse
social inequalities
abstract
The mental health field is
viewed by some as reluctant to
tackle the problem of abuse.While
‘adult protection’ offers one way
forward, the authors of this paper
caution against over-enthusiastic
borrowing from this paradigm.
Instead they argue that mental
health services will only become
intolerant of abuse when there is
widespread acceptance of the role
of power abuse in psychological
distress and disturbance.
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