Everyday Ethics

Voices from the Front Line of Community Psychiatry

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23398443
AutoresPaul Brodwin (autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Páginas248
Fecha de publicación2019-12-31
Open AccessNo
TipoBOOK
RevistaEveryday Ethics (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/9780520954526
OpenAlexW4230137967
Open LibraryOL29668184M
ISBN9780520954526
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas83

This book explores the moral lives of mental health clinicians serving the most marginalized individuals in the US healthcare system. Drawing on years of fieldwork in a community psychiatry outreach team, Brodwin traces the ethical dilemmas and everyday struggles of front line providers. On the street, in staff room debates, or in private confessions, these psychiatrists and social workers confront ongoing challenges to their self-image as competent and compassionate advocates. At times they openly question the coercion and forced-dependency built into the current system of care. At other times they justify their use of extreme power in the face of loud opposition from clients. This in-depth study exposes the fault lines in today's community psychiatry. It shows how people working deep inside the system struggle to maintain their ideals and manage a chronic sense of futility. Their commentaries about the obligatory and the forbidden also suggest ways to bridge formal bioethics and the realities of mental health practice. The experiences of these clinicians pose a single overarching question: how should we bear responsibility for the most vulnerable among us?

Sociology · Ethics in medical practice · Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Philosophy · Community mental health services · Community Psychiatry · Ethics · Professional ethics · Psychiatrists