Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation

Mental health professionals are frequently tasked with balancing care, safety and security. They are obliged to meet professional, organisational and institutional standards. Yet, these roles, expectations and practices are often in contention, whilst personal feelings and values are often ignored....

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Main Author: Hui, Ada M.L.
Other Authors: Middleton, Hugh
Format: Book Section
Published: Palgrave Macmillan 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47540/
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author Hui, Ada M.L.
author2 Middleton, Hugh
author_facet Middleton, Hugh
Hui, Ada M.L.
author_sort Hui, Ada M.L.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Mental health professionals are frequently tasked with balancing care, safety and security. They are obliged to meet professional, organisational and institutional standards. Yet, these roles, expectations and practices are often in contention, whilst personal feelings and values are often ignored. This raises questions as to what the processes are in attempting to reconcile personal, professional and organisation conflict, how workers manage their emotions, and ultimately, what impacts these have upon those conducting such work, as well as those receiving care. Forensic psychiatry is a pluralistic institution where care and containment are precariously balanced. High secure hospitals offer a unique context in which to study such tensions. The social theories of institutional and emotion work provide useful frameworks from which to study the interactions between institutions, emotions and actions in psychiatry. Interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Workers’ feelings and experiences were explored in relation to their professional roles, organisational expectations and wider institutional contexts. In doing so, the relationships between institutions, emotions and actions may be better understood and institutional and emotion work theories developed, thus providing important iterative connections between sociology and psychiatry.
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spelling nottingham-475402020-05-04T18:34:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47540/ Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation Hui, Ada M.L. Mental health professionals are frequently tasked with balancing care, safety and security. They are obliged to meet professional, organisational and institutional standards. Yet, these roles, expectations and practices are often in contention, whilst personal feelings and values are often ignored. This raises questions as to what the processes are in attempting to reconcile personal, professional and organisation conflict, how workers manage their emotions, and ultimately, what impacts these have upon those conducting such work, as well as those receiving care. Forensic psychiatry is a pluralistic institution where care and containment are precariously balanced. High secure hospitals offer a unique context in which to study such tensions. The social theories of institutional and emotion work provide useful frameworks from which to study the interactions between institutions, emotions and actions in psychiatry. Interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Workers’ feelings and experiences were explored in relation to their professional roles, organisational expectations and wider institutional contexts. In doing so, the relationships between institutions, emotions and actions may be better understood and institutional and emotion work theories developed, thus providing important iterative connections between sociology and psychiatry. Palgrave Macmillan Middleton, Hugh Jordan, Melanie 2017-02-17 Book Section PeerReviewed Hui, Ada M.L. (2017) Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation. In: Mental health uncertainty and inevitability: rejuvenating the relationship between social science and psychiatry. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 137-165. ISBN 9783319439693 https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319439693
spellingShingle Hui, Ada M.L.
Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title_full Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title_fullStr Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title_full_unstemmed Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title_short Institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
title_sort institutional and emotion work in forensic psychiatry: detachment and desensitisation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47540/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47540/