Mental health communication between service users and professionals: disseminating practice‐congruent research
| Pages | 31-39 |
| Date | 03 November 2009 |
| Published date | 03 November 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200900019 |
| Author | Paul Crawford,Brian Brown |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 14 Issue 3 September 2009 © Pier Professional Ltd 31
RESEARCH
Paul Crawford
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy, University of Nottingham, UK
Brian Brown
School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Mental health communication
between service users and
professionals: disseminating
practice-congruent research
Abstract
This paper considers the demand for evidence-based practice in mental health communication and describes
how evidence from studies of health communication, as well as recommendations from educational models,
professional bodies and policy directives have been incorporated into our ‘Brief, Ordinary and Effective’
model for communication in nursing. A key challenge in putting evidence to work in health care and bridging
the theory–practice gap concerns the social and organisational context that may not always work to sustain
new initiatives. Accordingly, we will describe an attempt to support and consolidate awareness of the role
of evidence in health care communication via a Managed Innovation Network and the development of the
Brief, Ordinary and Effective model of health care communication. This enables us to align the quest for
new knowledge and insights that are practice-congruent with the kinds of applicability criteria that modern
health care providers set out. This has yielded important insights about how research can be embedded
in informed practice and how evidence-based communicative practice can be nurtured and made viable in
communication in mental health care.
Key words
Mental health, language, evidence, managed innovation, theory, practice
There is currently no coherent program to promote
evidence-based mental health communication
worldwide. While there has been a growing
literature in this field, it is demonstrably
fragmented and is often profession specific (Hassan
et al, 2007). In our day-to-day work as clinicians,
health communication academics and educators, it
is possible to detect multiple organisational barriers
that prevent research evidence from informing
mental health practices.
This paper is based on an attempt in the UK
to bring together the demands of evidence-based
practice, the organisational imperatives of health
care institutions and insights from studies of
health communication. We will describe the
development and evidence base of what we have
called the Brief, Ordinary and Effective (BOE)
model for health communication (Crawford et al,
2006). This initiative emerged from findings on
the barriers and promoting factors for evidence-
based practice in mental health (Crawford et al,
2002), work to advance ‘evidence-based research’
(Brown et al, 2003) and a drive to advance
‘evidence-based health communication’ (Brown et al,
2006).
The context: evidence-based
practice in health care
Developing an initiative that responds to the
demands of evidence-based health care and is
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