Intersectionalities: Intimate Partner Domestic Violence and Mental Health Within the European Context

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseThe article highlights the traumatic impact of intimate partner domestic violence (IPDV) on women, the complexity of their responses to it, its impact on their identities, and their resulting social position in Europe. An exploration of the intersectionalities between IPDV and mental distress within the context of negative social attitudes toward IPDV victims follows, highlighting the psychosocial significance of experiencing IPDV for the internalized social exclusion of victims of this type of violence. In this context it is further attempted to understand the seemingly contradictory behaviour of women experiencing IPDV in disclosing their experience and in living with, and leaving, the perpetrator. Prevalence statistics indicate the high rate of mental distress among IPDV women victims, as well as the types such distress takes. The relevance of these intersectionalities for mental health providers and workers in domestic violence services is further explored, including their distancing stance toward women experiencing both IPDV and mental distress. A case is put forward for applying the new meaning of recovery in mental health to women experiencing IPDV. That approach has the potential to provide a positive contribution, enabling them to move from being victims to becoming survivors, while taking into account several related intersectional connectionsPeer reviewe

The Place of Social Recovery in Mental Health and Related Services

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).This article looks at the place of social recovery in mental health and social care services, alongside personal recovery. Despite its conceptual and practice centrality to the new meaning of recovery, social recovery has remained a relatively neglected dimension. This article attempts to provide an updated critical commentary based on findings from fifty nine studies, including a variety of research methodologies and methods. Definitions of social recovery within the new meaning of recovery are looked at. This is followed by outlining the development and significance of this dimension as reflected in the key areas of shared decision making, co-production and active citizenship, re-entering employment after experiencing mental ill health, being in employment, poverty and coping with poverty, the economic and the scientific cases for social recovery. The article highlights the connections between service users’ experiencing mental health and social care systems, and the implications of ideologies and policies reflecting positions on social recovery. The complexity of social recovery is indicated in each of these areas; the related conceptual and methodological frameworks developed to research this dimension, and key achievements and barriers concerning everyday practice application of social recovery. The summary indicates potential future development perspectives of this dimension.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Family Group Conferences as a Shared Decision-Making Strategy in Adults Mental Health Work

© 2021 Ramon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).Family Group conferences (FGC) provide a system by which a client and their family reach jointly key intervention decisions, from a number of options proposed by professionals. The system originated in child protection social work. Conceptually FGC is based on the assumption that the family is potentially a supportive social system for an individual with a variety of difficulties, including mental ill health. Reaching a family network agreement can lead to long term positive outcomes in self-confidence and social relationships. This strategy of shared decision making (SDM) can re-unite the family around the client's needs and wishes. It fits well the strengths based and the recovery-oriented approaches to mental ill health. Methodologically, this article provides a narrative review of existing empirical research about FGC in the context of adult mental health. In addition, two community case studies consisting of videos of a mother experiencing mental ill health and a daughter are analysed in terms of their subjective experience of the FGCs they were involved in, and looks at both the process and the outcomes of FGCs. The key findings demonstrate a high level of satisfaction from participating in the FGC meeting, while the evidence pertaining to the outcomes is inconclusive. Only very few systematic review studies, or comparative studies of different approaches to family decision making, exist, and there are no studies which offer cost effectiveness analysis. Discussion: The observed gap between the satisfaction from the process of FGC by the participants vs. the inconclusive outcomes relates to the implementation phase, in which the decisions made by the family are tested. Evaluating FGC processes and outcomes is complex. A systematic and comprehensive research of the implementation process is missing at this stage. In conclusion, FGC is a promising strategy of SDM in adult mental health. The research evidence indicates the need for further exploration of its implementation process, evaluative methodology and methods.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Blame the victim? Domestic violence as covered in The Sun and The Guardian

This material has been published in The Conversation, November 2016. It is reproduced and made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way

Service users and carers’ involvement in social work education: lessons from an English case study (Implicarea beneficiarilor de servicii sociale si a sustinatorilor lor in pregatirea profesionala a asistentilor sociali: un studiu de caz britanic)

Within the larger context of the search to improve social work practice in Europe, this article presents a case study of a UK innovation in social work education with the potential to radically change social work practice. Following governmental requirements, Anglia Ruskin University has introduced systematic involvement of service users and carers in the training of a new undergraduate degree since September 2003. The conceptual and value base, the structure, staffing, and main activities are outlined; the main achievements and obstacles are highlighted. Mindful of the danger of slipping into tokenistic involvement, the project has included an action research evaluation component exploring the views of all the project’s stakeholders thus establishing the project as an evidence-based educational innovation. The findings highlight the value of service users and carers’ involvement on the qualifying social work degree, of the action research design of the evaluation, and the steps needed for the cultural change required for such an involvement to become more comprehensive and embedded in the degree

EVALUATING THE PROJECT EMPOWERING YOUNG LGBT ADULTS: METHODOLOGY AND KEY FINDINGS OF A EUROPEAN ACTION RESEARCH

© 2016 Romanian Society of Experimental Applied Psychology. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.The article focuses on the evaluation of a training programme aimed to empower young LGBT adults in Ireland and the UK, constituting one component of a larger EU funded project on this issue which took place in six sites. The programme offered an interactive exploration in small groups of the impact of social stigma due to minority gender and sexual identity on the participants. It further enables looking at and developing new modes of resilience, as well as relevant knowledge. A pre, immediate post, and follow up post programme evaluation took place, including changes in demographic data, perception of stigma, and strategies to handle it more constructively. Methods included responses to questionnaires and focus groups. Nvivo analysis was applied to the qualitative data, while SPSS analysis was applied to the quantitative data. Key findings highlight the value of the groups to increasing self and other understanding among the participants and the ease of trusting each other. Participants began to put themselves in the place of others in the group and outside it in order to improve understanding, empathy, reflecting back, and consider the range of possible and effective responses. Political activism emerged as a response in Ireland, but not in the UK. Thus the effectiveness of the training programme has been demonstrated cross-culturally. The main limitation of the study is the lack of measurement of external outcomes.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

“Work with me”: service users’ perspectives on shared decision making in mental health

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Heather Castillo, and Shulamit Ramon, "“Work with me”: service users’ perspectives on shared decision making in mental health", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 22(3):166-178, July 2017. The Version of Record is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-01-2017-0005. © Emerald Publishing Limited 2017.Purpose: While shared decision making (SDM) in general health has proven effectiveness, it has received far less attention within mental health practice with a disconnection between policy and ideals. The purpose of this paper to review existing developments, contemporary challenges, and evidence regarding SDM in mental health with a particular focus on the perspectives of service users. Design/methodology/approach: This is a review of international papers analysed using narrative synthesis of relevant databases. Findings: The review shows significant barriers to the utilisation of SDM including ethical and legal frameworks, accountability and risk. The medical model of psychiatry and diagnostic stigma also contributes to a lack of professional acknowledgement of service user expertise. Service users experience an imbalance of power and feel they lack choices, being “done to” rather than “worked with”. Practical implications: The paper also presents perspectives about how barriers can be overcome, and service users enabled to take back power and acknowledge their own expertise. Originality/value: This review is the first with a particular focus on the perspectives of service users and SDM.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Researching Domestic Violence: Findings from a European project on domestic violence and mental health and project on media representations of domestic violence

© 2016 The Author(s). This an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This presentation outlines an EU funded Daphne III project entitled ‘Empowering Women and Providers: Domestic Violence and Mental Health’ led by the University of Hertfordshire. It describes the key findings from this project and how they provided the stimulus for a second project examining media representations of domestic violence in the UK. Findings from this latter project then follow.Peer reviewe