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Shaping the Future of Mental Health Policy and Legislation in Northern Ireland

The Impact of Service User and Professional Social Work Discourses

Bibliographic Data

ID10898255
AuthorsGeorge Wilson (0000-0002-6620-9427, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author), M Daly (0000-0003-1697-8794)
Year2007
Volume37
Issue3
Pages423-439
Publication date2007-03-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0045-3102 • E-ISSN: 1468-263X
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjsw/bcm021
OpenAlexW2141552936
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited10

This paper explores the complex interrelationship between service user and professional social work discourses and provides a critical commentary on their respective contributions to the recent review of mental health policy and legislation in Northern Ireland. The analysis indicates that dominant trends in mental health care, as mediated through service structures and institutional identities, have tended to prioritize the more coercive aspects of the social work role and reinforce existing power inequalities with service users. It is argued that such developments underline the need for a ‘re-focusing’ debate in mental health social work to consider how a more appropriate balance can be achieved between its participatory/empowering and regulatory/coercive functions. Whilst highlighting both congruence and dissonance between respective discourses, the paper concludes that opportunities exist within the current change process for service users and social workers to build closer alliances in working together to reconstruct practice, safeguard human rights and develop innovative alternatives to a traditional bio-medical model of treatment.

Art history · George (robot) · Legislation · Media studies · Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Queen (butterfly) · Service (business) · Social policy · Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · History · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

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    Barbara Hatfield, Valerie Antcliff•The Journal of Social Welfare Law•2001

  • Northern Ireland

    Open Access•John Ditch, J S Ditch et al.•Social Policy and Administration•1992

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    Open Access•Pauline M Prior, PAULINE PRIOR•Social Policy and Administration•1993

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Unique citing works7
Citations per year0,41
Citation span2009 - 2025 (17)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 7
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