Rethinking risk: a narrative approach
Purpose The assessment and management of risk is central to contemporary mental health practice. The emergence of recovery has contributed to demands for more service user centered approaches to risk. This paper examines the potential of narrative as a framework for understanding risk and safety i...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Emerald
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48951/ |
| _version_ | 1848797886882512896 |
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| author | Felton, Anne Stickley, Theodore |
| author_facet | Felton, Anne Stickley, Theodore |
| author_sort | Felton, Anne |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Purpose
The assessment and management of risk is central to contemporary mental health practice. The emergence of recovery has contributed to demands for more service user centered approaches to risk. This paper examines the potential of narrative as a framework for understanding risk and safety in mental health care.
Design/methodology/approach
Narrative theory is adopted to structure a debate examining the potential role of a narrative approach to risk assessment and inform future practice.
Findings
There is a danger that even within services, people with mental health problems are understood in terms of their riskiness perpetuating an image of service users as ‘dangerous others’. This is confounded by a disconnection with individual context in the risk assessment process. Narrative centralizes the persons’ subjective experience and provides a contemporaneous self-account of their identity. This situates risk within a context and creates possibility for greater understanding of coping, strengths and resilience.
Originality/value
There has been a call for new ways of working with risk in mental health which facilitate safety and recovery. There is limited examination of what this might actually look like. This paper presents narrative as an approach that may achieve these aims. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:11:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-48951 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:11:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Emerald |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-489512020-05-04T19:24:29Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48951/ Rethinking risk: a narrative approach Felton, Anne Stickley, Theodore Purpose The assessment and management of risk is central to contemporary mental health practice. The emergence of recovery has contributed to demands for more service user centered approaches to risk. This paper examines the potential of narrative as a framework for understanding risk and safety in mental health care. Design/methodology/approach Narrative theory is adopted to structure a debate examining the potential role of a narrative approach to risk assessment and inform future practice. Findings There is a danger that even within services, people with mental health problems are understood in terms of their riskiness perpetuating an image of service users as ‘dangerous others’. This is confounded by a disconnection with individual context in the risk assessment process. Narrative centralizes the persons’ subjective experience and provides a contemporaneous self-account of their identity. This situates risk within a context and creates possibility for greater understanding of coping, strengths and resilience. Originality/value There has been a call for new ways of working with risk in mental health which facilitate safety and recovery. There is limited examination of what this might actually look like. This paper presents narrative as an approach that may achieve these aims. Emerald 2018-01-01 Article PeerReviewed Felton, Anne and Stickley, Theodore (2018) Rethinking risk: a narrative approach. Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, 13 (1). pp. 54-62. ISSN 2042-8707 Narrative Mental health Risk Recovery Other http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JMHTEP-06-2017-0043 doi:10.1108/JMHTEP-06-2017-0043 doi:10.1108/JMHTEP-06-2017-0043 |
| spellingShingle | Narrative Mental health Risk Recovery Other Felton, Anne Stickley, Theodore Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title | Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title_full | Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title_fullStr | Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title_short | Rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| title_sort | rethinking risk: a narrative approach |
| topic | Narrative Mental health Risk Recovery Other |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48951/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48951/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48951/ |