Values and Ethics in Mental Health: An Exploration for Practice

Description

Mental health is the one area of health care where people are often treated against their will, with the justification that it is in their own interest. This raises significant ethical questions and value dilemmas; questions of autonomy, human rights, power and treatment. An understanding of how values matter is of vital importance across all disciplines working within the mental health field. This book provides a comprehensive and exploratory text for practitioners, students and all those interested in developing a knowledge of both ethics and the wider framework of values-based practice. It is unique in being fully co-written by authors representing both service user and service provider perspectives. This exciting new text will enable the mental health practitioner to work more co-productively with service users within a humane and just approach to care. With an emphasis on rights-based compassionate care throughout, this book: - Tackles the issues of how mental health is understood through key theoretical debates about mental distress, values and labelling; - Encourages readers to think critically about their understanding of key issues such as recovery, autonomy, power, knowledge, diagnoses and empathy; - Draws on a wide range of case examples and exercises to help readers deepen their knowledge of values-based practice and ethics in mental health.

Alastair Morgan is Senior Lecturer in Mental Health in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Manchester, UK. Anne Felton is Assistant Professor in Mental Health at the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK. Bill Fulford is a Fellow of St Catherine's College and Member of the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health at the University of Warwick, and Director of The Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice, St Catherine's College, Oxford, UK. Jayasree Kalathil runs Survivor Research, a virtual collective of mental health user/survivor researchers and activists. She is an independent researcher and survivor activist. Gemma Stacey is Assistant Professor in Mental Health in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. She is the lead for the Critical Values Based Practice Network.

This book is clearly written, it is well-paced and it balances explanation with a cosntant invitation to reflect for the reader. All mental health trainees would benefit from using it and exploring its content. - David Pilgrim, Professor of Health and Social Policy, University of Liverpool (UK)