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‘I was personally fairly familiar with and committed to the underlying thesis and found much that resonated with my values. That is, the essence of ethical practice is a lot about values, but values demonstrated rather than merely espoused. After reading this text, I felt better able to articulate the issues and found myself recommending it (or particular chapters) to students. It deserves a wide readership, as it will surely assist people to develop ethical sensitivity and importantly to ponder the important questions that confront anyone working within mental health services.’ – Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
'Well written, accessible and thought provoking...if you are undertaking any study that stimulates discussion around the working practices of your profession, a great deal of what it contains will be relevant despite the mental health emphasis.' – MIDIRS
'Represents a considerable addition to the literature in this field.' – Nursing EthicsProduct Description
All human behaviour is, ultimately, a moral undertaking, in which each situation must be considered on its own merits. As a result ethical conduct is complex. Despite the proliferation of Codes of Conduct and other forms of professional guidance, there are no easy answers to most human problems. Mental Health Ethics encourages readers to heighten their awareness of the key ethical dilemmas found in mainstream contemporary mental health practice.
This text provides an overview of traditional and contemporary ethical perspectives and critically examines a range of ethical and moral challenges present in contemporary ‘psychiatric-mental’ health services. Offering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective, it includes six parts, each with their own introduction, summary and set of ethical challenges, covering:
- fundamental ethical principles;
- legal issues;
- specific challenges for different professional groups;
- working with different service user groups;
- models of care and treatment;
- recovery and human rights perspectives.
Providing detailed consideration of issues and dilemmas, Mental Health Ethics helps all mental health professionals keep people at the centre of the services they offer.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an important book. It takes a unique approach to the ethical issues of mental health work. It is challenging and confronting. Conventional wisdom is deconstructed and sacred cows are defrocked.
The basic premise of Prof Barker's approach is that those who are called mentally ill are treated differently to all other people simply because they are called mentally ill and that this concept is inherently flawed. Therefore, everything that flows from this flawed concept is also suspect and needs to be examined. The arguments presented are carefully constructed and well written but require careful reading due to the complex and subtle nature of the issues and the fact that any affront to our accepted ways of thinking takes time to understand and appreciate. The topics covered are wide ranging and cover issues such as diagnosis, medications, ECT, restraint, suicide and compulsory treatment. Different age groups and treatment settings are also discussed. The opening chapter addresses moral philosophy and the history of ethics and provides some pointers to potential solutions for ethical dilemmas.
This is an edited text and this results in some unevenness of approach. Not all authors seem to accept the basic premise and continue to argue conventional wisdom and use conventional language and concepts. Some take an oblique approach to ethics and it is difficult to discern the ethical issues under discussion. However, given the nature of the topic this is not unexpected. There are no rights or wrongs in ethics, no opinion is sacred or unquestioned and this diversity of approaches adds to the richness of the discussion.
This is not an ethics manual or workbook. Difficult questions are asked but answers are scant. Prof Barker states at the outset that ethics is personal and that moral undertakings are personal and in keeping with this approach all answers must be personal. We can only do what we each believe is good and right in response to the needs of others," so that we need not look back with regret in the future." (Barker, 1999, pg199). All who read this book will be effected in some way. I think it would be impossible to be complacent about mental health ethics after considering the arguments presented here. You may agree or not but you will need to take a stand one way or another and this is the real value of this work.
The basic premise of Prof Barker's approach is that those who are called mentally ill are treated differently to all other people simply because they are called mentally ill and that this concept is inherently flawed. Therefore, everything that flows from this flawed concept is also suspect and needs to be examined. The arguments presented are carefully constructed and well written but require careful reading due to the complex and subtle nature of the issues and the fact that any affront to our accepted ways of thinking takes time to understand and appreciate. The topics covered are wide ranging and cover issues such as diagnosis, medications, ECT, restraint, suicide and compulsory treatment. Different age groups and treatment settings are also discussed. The opening chapter addresses moral philosophy and the history of ethics and provides some pointers to potential solutions for ethical dilemmas.
This is an edited text and this results in some unevenness of approach. Not all authors seem to accept the basic premise and continue to argue conventional wisdom and use conventional language and concepts. Some take an oblique approach to ethics and it is difficult to discern the ethical issues under discussion. However, given the nature of the topic this is not unexpected. There are no rights or wrongs in ethics, no opinion is sacred or unquestioned and this diversity of approaches adds to the richness of the discussion.
This is not an ethics manual or workbook. Difficult questions are asked but answers are scant. Prof Barker states at the outset that ethics is personal and that moral undertakings are personal and in keeping with this approach all answers must be personal. We can only do what we each believe is good and right in response to the needs of others," so that we need not look back with regret in the future." (Barker, 1999, pg199). All who read this book will be effected in some way. I think it would be impossible to be complacent about mental health ethics after considering the arguments presented here. You may agree or not but you will need to take a stand one way or another and this is the real value of this work.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In `Mental Health Ethics: The Human Context' Barker presents a critical often raw critique of the psychiatric context profoundly influencing routine clinical decision making. Both he and the additional authors masterfully stitch a rich ethical tapestry drawn from clinical practice, research, academic and wider literature, personal experience and service user perspectives. The reader is provoked at every level to more fully engage with familiar moral and ethical issues and in revisiting these, prompted to act on a deeper appreciation of the relevance of ethics to everyday psychiatric/mental health care.
As a lecturer in mental health nursing, I found that the text touched all of the obvious bases required of either novice or seasoned ethical thinkers. Readers are implored to put common ethical tensions back under the psychological microscope. The chapters related to therapeutic relationships and ECT should be essential reading for all people either considering or involved in delivering mental health care. Further, I found the text to be a timely addition to the bookshelf, particularly for psychiatric/mental health nurses. As nursing takes its first tentative steps towards becoming a degree based occupation and the changing professional scene set to further reduce skill mix, it is essential that nurses equip themselves with the aptitude to think through and act upon ethically risky or problematic situations, demonstrating an ability to act righteously but more importantly humanly if not with heart.
Whilst some chapters focus more generally upon where respective professions might best position themselves ethically and morally in relation to psychiatry, the wider, re-occurring and more intense theme within the book is to locate responsibility for ethical decision making at the level of the individual. For the most part, I found that the book maintained a close focus on the human perspective. In so doing, it ensures that the reader is in no doubt of the Editors view that in moral and ethical terms the enemy is more often located within than without. As such, the book often resonates uncomfortably and powerfully. In a closing summary chapter entitled 'The Elephant in the Room' Phil Barker summarises his audacious thesis which is as vivid and engaging as the Banksy image of the same name. In so doing, Barker made me mindful yet again that `Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason, but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others' (Jostein Gaarder).
As a lecturer in mental health nursing, I found that the text touched all of the obvious bases required of either novice or seasoned ethical thinkers. Readers are implored to put common ethical tensions back under the psychological microscope. The chapters related to therapeutic relationships and ECT should be essential reading for all people either considering or involved in delivering mental health care. Further, I found the text to be a timely addition to the bookshelf, particularly for psychiatric/mental health nurses. As nursing takes its first tentative steps towards becoming a degree based occupation and the changing professional scene set to further reduce skill mix, it is essential that nurses equip themselves with the aptitude to think through and act upon ethically risky or problematic situations, demonstrating an ability to act righteously but more importantly humanly if not with heart.
Whilst some chapters focus more generally upon where respective professions might best position themselves ethically and morally in relation to psychiatry, the wider, re-occurring and more intense theme within the book is to locate responsibility for ethical decision making at the level of the individual. For the most part, I found that the book maintained a close focus on the human perspective. In so doing, it ensures that the reader is in no doubt of the Editors view that in moral and ethical terms the enemy is more often located within than without. As such, the book often resonates uncomfortably and powerfully. In a closing summary chapter entitled 'The Elephant in the Room' Phil Barker summarises his audacious thesis which is as vivid and engaging as the Banksy image of the same name. In so doing, Barker made me mindful yet again that `Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason, but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others' (Jostein Gaarder).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mental Health Ethics
The human context
Edited by Phil Barker (2011)
This was certainly a challenging read. The book began with a historical walk through the history of ethics, then on to ethics in psychiatry. Barker as usual was challenging in his thinking and wording of his chapter on Who cares anymore anyway? This chapter really set the stage for the discussion to come.
I was disappointed by chapter 5 on The mental health nurse. This chapter could have set the stage beautifully for the key issues discussed later on the professional relationship, restraint and coercive practice, ECT and medication. Mental health nurses are on the frontline of care particularly in acute care settings so these issues could have been raised and discussed in a less convoluted way.
Section 3 was well executed. The topics covered such as Psychiatric Diagnosis, Professional relationships, Restraint, ECT and informed consent and Medication were all extremely well thought through and written. Barkers chapter on ECT and informed consent is a must read for anyone working within the mental health system particularly the private sector where legal restrictions are not as rigid as in the public sector.
Section 4 again covered a diverse range of topics and well executed by the authors. The complex issues that arise when working with diverse populations such as age variation as well as cultural aspects were well covered. Cutcliffe and Links provided a thought provoking chapter on Suicide. Why is there so little comment from mental health nurses on this topic?
The finishing section 6 left you with more questions than answers. It is like a good mystery novel that leaves you guessing Who done it? This book is an essential read for any professional working in mental health services. Barker has been as challenging as ever in getting us thinking about perhaps the most important issues in mental health...How do we help those who we see in mental distress regain or maintain their personhood and slip back into life?
The human context
Edited by Phil Barker (2011)
This was certainly a challenging read. The book began with a historical walk through the history of ethics, then on to ethics in psychiatry. Barker as usual was challenging in his thinking and wording of his chapter on Who cares anymore anyway? This chapter really set the stage for the discussion to come.
I was disappointed by chapter 5 on The mental health nurse. This chapter could have set the stage beautifully for the key issues discussed later on the professional relationship, restraint and coercive practice, ECT and medication. Mental health nurses are on the frontline of care particularly in acute care settings so these issues could have been raised and discussed in a less convoluted way.
Section 3 was well executed. The topics covered such as Psychiatric Diagnosis, Professional relationships, Restraint, ECT and informed consent and Medication were all extremely well thought through and written. Barkers chapter on ECT and informed consent is a must read for anyone working within the mental health system particularly the private sector where legal restrictions are not as rigid as in the public sector.
Section 4 again covered a diverse range of topics and well executed by the authors. The complex issues that arise when working with diverse populations such as age variation as well as cultural aspects were well covered. Cutcliffe and Links provided a thought provoking chapter on Suicide. Why is there so little comment from mental health nurses on this topic?
The finishing section 6 left you with more questions than answers. It is like a good mystery novel that leaves you guessing Who done it? This book is an essential read for any professional working in mental health services. Barker has been as challenging as ever in getting us thinking about perhaps the most important issues in mental health...How do we help those who we see in mental distress regain or maintain their personhood and slip back into life?
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