Understanding offender managers’ views and experiences of psychological consultations
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
| Author | Julie Moore,Michael Petalas,Mark Walton,Victoria Blinkhorn,Sarah Kane,Julie Carlisle,Frank McGuire |
| DOI | 10.1177/2066220320976112 |
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
2021, Vol. 13(2) 95 –110
https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320976112
European Journal of Probation
© The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/2066220320976112
journals.sagepub.com/home/ejp
Understanding offender
managers’ views and
experiences of psychological
consultations
Victoria Blinkhorn
Liverpool John Moores University
Michael Petalas
Mark Walton
Julie Carlisle
Frank McGuire
Merseycare NHS foundation Trust
Sarah Kane
Julie Moore
National Probation Service of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service
Abstract
Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of the psychological consultation process
specifically for offender managers. This study involves a total of 23 offender managers’
views and perceptions of the consultation process within four areas of the North West
of England. Within each location, a focus group was conducted involving between four
and eight participants and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse
the responses. The analysis revealed four main themes: validation of thoughts, feelings
and practice; professional support; a personal touch; and room for improvement. These
findings are discussed along with implications for further research.
Keywords
Consultation, offender management, personality disorder, PICS, probation
Corresponding author:
Victoria Blinkhorn, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L2 2QP, UK.
Email: V.J.Blinkhorn@ljmu.ac.uk
976112EJP0010.1177/2066220320976112European Journal of ProbationBlinkhorn et al.
2020
Original Article
96 European Journal of Probation 13(2)
2 European Journal of Probation 00(0)
Introduction
The Department of Health (DH) and the National Offender Management Service
(NOMS) jointly commissioned the offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway in
2011. Its aims were to provide a pathway of psychologically informed services for a
highly complex and challenging offender group, those likely to have traits of personality
disorder (PD) and pose a high risk of harm to others, or a high risk of reoffending in a
harmful way. It is widely acknowledged that the development of PD traits can be the
result of adverse life events (e.g. Bandelow et al., 2005; Pagano et al., 2004) or develop-
mental conditions (e.g. Grant et al., 2008), and as such, impacts upon the individual’s
psychology, biology and social functioning. These individuals find it difficult to relate to
others, particularly those in positions of authority, which sometimes results in compro-
mised risk management. It is important to point the reader to the wider debate surround-
ing the reification of PD, and the stigmatising effects of such labels. There is an
increasingly vocal community of professionals and service users advocating an alterna-
tive viewpoint to that of psychiatric diagnostic nomenclature. Namely, that behaviour
associated with the PD diagnosis may be better explained and responded to as an under-
standable reaction to trauma (see, for example, Johnstone et al., 2018).
In 2013, the OPD pathway commissioned a psychologically informed consultation
service (PICS) for the Merseyside and Cheshire National Probation Service (NPS) areas.
The service offers offender managers (OMs; also known as probation officers) the option
of accessing a consultation and a case formulation; aiding a psychological understanding
of the offender and his or her risk; and, where appropriate, the identification of appropri-
ate pathways, which meet the needs of the individual. The service seeks to develop a more
psychologically informed workforce by providing knowledge and understanding of the
bio psychosocial framework in an accessible way, thus improving the quality of the pro-
fessional relationship with the offender and the management across services in custody
and the community. The PICS is explicit in approaching PD from a trauma and attachment
framework. The main aims of the PICS are to facilitate OMs identification of offenders’
needs and risk; to identify appropriate pathways; to up-skill the workforce via teaching
and training; and to promote the psychological wellbeing of OMs and offenders.
The use of psychological formulation sits at the heart of PICS. Psychological formu-
lations may be defined as descriptive maps of clients’ cognitive, affective and behav-
ioural patterns, which describe the origins and maintenance of presenting problems
(Eells, 2007). Mental health practitioners use formulation with individuals, couples,
families and groups and there has been a growing trend for using formulation within
multi-disciplinary teamwork (Division of Clinical Psychology, 2011). Team formulation
is recognised as a key role within clinical psychology (Division of Clinical Psychology,
2011) to lead on psychological formulation within teams (Skinner and Toogood, 2010).
As highlighted within the Good Practice Guidelines on the use of psychological formula-
tion (Division of Clinical Psychology, 2011), a number of studies have highlighted the
benefits of this type of working, including helping teams adopt a psychological under-
standing in relation to service users, reducing negative staff perceptions of service users,
processing staff counter-transference reactions and helping staff to manage risk (Berry
et al., 2009; Christofides et al., 2011; Clarke, 2008; Craven-Staines et al., 2010; Hood,
2009; Kennedy, 2009; Lake, 2008; Summers, 2006; Wainwright and Bergin, 2010;
To continue reading
Request your trial