Mental Health Practice, a risky business? (PDF)

Risk is a core aspect of mental health practice that remains high on the agenda for mental health services and professionals. However, the growth of the recovery philosophy in mental care has raised new questions about the impact of risk assessment and management approaches, creating the need for critical debate surrounding risk. This ebook draws on a wide range of expertise, to examine theoretical, professional and service user perspectives on risk and mental health. It aims to promote recovery orientated practice through critique and the exploration of new ways of working with risk.Until recently the majority of literature on risk and mental health focused on the evidence base of risk calculation with debates centred on the validity of clinical judgements and risk assessment tools. More recently a small but growing voice has demanded the need to recognise the limitations of these approaches to understanding risk. There has been increased recognition of the damaging impact the process of risk assessment and the consequences, often in terms of restrictive practices can have on service users. Mental health services face challenges in order to adopt ways of working with risk that promote rather than undermine the principles of recovery. A shift in practice involves acknowledging the expertise of lived experience and the importance of people with mental health problems having access to opportunities through positive risk taking and collaborative approaches to safety planning. Risk can dominate service users' identity and adopting these approaches has the potential to challenge the influence of risk in peoples' lives. However, professionals remain under pressure to provide accurate predictions of future events and satisfy organisational demands.The ebook draws together international work of practitioners, academics and service users to first offer a critical examination of risk in the context of mental health services before considering the role of recovery and the adoption of more person-centred approaches to promoting safety and managing risk.