Susan Mcpherson
Biographic Data
| ID | 170948 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susan Mcpherson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susan |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcpherson |
| SIGNATURE | MCPHERSON S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9478-9932 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“An ox sitting on One's chest”
Outcomes, clinical benefits, and cost savings of recurrent care services in the UK
“Recurrent care,” where parents repeatedly appear in care proceedings and have multiple children removed from their care, carries a high cost in both human and financial terms. The objective of this literature review was to identify the evidence of their impact, cost savings generated, and outcomes produced for birth parents. Searches were undertaken to identify evaluations of recurrent care services involving cost savings calculations. Thirteen …
Evaluating a virtual community of practice for recurrent care practitioners
The Supporting Parents Community of Practice supports practitioners and service leads working with birth mothers who have had children removed from their care, with a particular focus on supporting their positive sexual and reproductive health. Its evaluation comprised a mixed methods approach via a baseline survey, follow-up survey and interviews with practitioners. Overall, the CoP was valued by members, their levels of knowledge/skills and con…
Experiences of parents of children with mental illnesses
In this paper, we present a qualitative meta‐ethnographic synthesis of 26 articles reporting experiences of subjective burden in 389 parents of children with mental illnesses. The studies were identified through a systematic literature search of PubMed, CINAHL Ultimate, APA PsycInfo, and MedLine Ultimate. We conducted a quality appraisal and followed the seven stages of meta‐ethnographic synthesis. We developed a line of argument synthesis in the…
Risk of diagnosed and undiagnosed mental distress in coastal and inland English residents
Recent research in the United Kingdom (UK) has highlighted a potential 'coastal effect', whereby residents of coastal areas may be subject to poorer health outcomes, including mental health. This study sought to investigate the coastal effect by comparing the risk of experiencing diagnosed and undiagnosed mental distress in both coastal and inland English adult residents. Data from waves 10-13 (2018-2023) of Understanding Society, a nationally re…
The Iatrogenic Consequences of Medicalising Grief
When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published in 2013, there was a firestorm of controversy about the elimination of the bereavement exclusion. Proponents of this change and of the proposed 'complicated grief' designation believed that this change would help clinicians recognise major depression in the context of recent bereavement. Other researchers and clinicians have raised concerns a…
The relatives of people with depression
Being a close relative of a person with depression can take a heavy toll on the former, but these relatives are increasingly made responsible for taking on extensive carer roles. Research on relatives of people with depression is currently dominated by a focus on “carer burden” and although such a focus can explain many relatives' experiences and daily lives, it provides very limited insight into the everyday life of a person living with someone …
Effective components of services for recurrent care experienced parents
First review of evidence on effective services to support recurrent care parents. • Key are relationship-based practice, trusted relationships and continuity. • Flexible, holistic and client led services, with long duration and a flexible end. • Trauma-informed approach with emotional, therapeutic and practical support. • Skilled multi-disciplinary workforce with robust supervision and ongoing training. Recurrent care services aim to reduce the n…
Multi-disciplinary support for families with complex needs and children on the edge of care in the UK
Families on the 'edge of care' face complex intersecting issues that can work against positive changes and lead to the re-involvement of social care. A multi-disciplinary service working alongside social work and community services teams to respond to the multiple needs of vulnerable families was evaluated. A mixed methods evaluation drew upon service data and cost saving modelling, interviews and a survey of social care practitioners. The evalua…
Conflict and antagonism within global psychiatry
Between 2017 and 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Dainius Puras published three reports that called for significant changes to organisation, funding and service provision in mental health care in ways that emphasise inclusive, rights‐oriented, democratic and sustainable community health services. This article aims to examine formal organisational responses to the UN mental health reports and consider the underlying arguments that either suppo…
Quality-of-life measurement in depression trials
Quality-of-life measurement in depression is advocated as a patient-centred indicator of recovery, but may instead enhance the mimetic authority of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which have been roundly critiqued in mental health. In this paper we draw on the social life of methods approach to extend the well-developed critique of RCTs into the field of quality-of-life measurement. We accomplish this through consideration and critique of the…
Protecting Children, Empowering Birth Parents
This Special Issue presents insights from new interdisciplinary research in the family justice field [...]
War of conscience
The nineteenth century British antivaccination movement attracted popular and parliamentary support and ultimately saw the 1853 law which had made smallpox vaccination compulsory nullified by the 1898 'conscientious objector' clause. In keeping with popular public health discourse of the time, the movement had employed rhetoric associated with sanitary science and liberalism. In the early twentieth century new discoveries in bacteriology were fue…
Psychometric origins of depression
This article examines the historical construction of depression over about a hundred years, employing the social life of methods as an explanatory framework. Specifically, it considers how emerging methodologies in the measurement of psychological constructs contributed to changes in epistemological approaches to mental illness and created the conditions of possibility for major shifts in the construction of depression. While depression was once …
Responsibilisation of caregivers in depression
Non-strategic ignorance
Randomised controlled trials form a central building block within the prevailing evidence-based mental health paradigm. Both methodology and paradigm have been widely problematised since their emergence in the mid-late twentieth century. We draw on the concept of 'strategic ignorance' to understand why the paradigm still prevails. We present focus group data gathered from 37 participants (service users, public, carers, general practitioners, comm…
A Nice game of Minecraft
Categorising mental disorders for purposes of diagnosis, research and practice has historically been justified on philosophical terms as a pragmatic activity; categories which have been subject to wide-ranging philosophical critique have been defended on the grounds that they serve as heuristic devices providing loose representations of shared experiences, not labels for real structures. Hence the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of …
Semantics of patient choice
Several stakeholders, including the National Survivor User Network and the British Psychological Society, have called for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to include an up-to-date review of patient experience research in the new depression guideline. In response, the Guideline Committee (GC) postponed publication, the guideline now due in February 2020. Yet the GC also stated it will not review patient experience resea…
To support and not to cure
Loneliness is associated with numerous detrimental effects on physical health, mental health, cognition and lifestyle. Older adults are one of the groups at highest risk of loneliness, and indeed about 46% of older adults in England feel lonely. Those experiencing loneliness visit their general practitioner (GP) more frequently than those who are not, which has the capacity to put a strain on GPs and primary care waiting lists and costs. This stu…
Risk assessment practice within primary mental health care
From the 1980s onwards, discourses of risk have continued to grow, almost in ubiquity. Ideas and practices of risk and risk aversion have extended to UK mental health care where services are expected to assess and manage risks, and high-quality clinical assessment has been revised to incorporate risk assessment. This article problematises practices of risk assessment in mental health provision, focussing on the base-rate problem. It presents an a…
Evaluating integrative services in edge-of-care work
Children living on ‘the edge-of-care’ are typically known to local safeguarding authorities and are considered likely to face risks to their safety. Many are subject to a child protection plan and/or involved in ‘pre-proceedings’ processes. A growing number of their parents face (un)diagnosed mental health difficulties as well as economic and social precarity. This article draws on a mixed methods evaluation of a pilot service in the East of Engl…
Treatment resistant depression in primary care
Many patients with depression do not recover despite medication or therapy. Individuals with treatment resistant depression often have co-morbid anxiety, personality difficulties and drug or alcohol misuse and have been characterised as difficult, heartsink or problem personalities by general practitioners. Yet critical studies of interaction in medical settings suggest that the context may have a role in constructing the patient. A total of 12 a…
General Practitioner Management of Depression
Understanding how primary care clinicians manage depression is a key backdrop to current and future initiatives to improve detection and treatment of depression. We systematically reviewed, identified, and extracted findings from 13 qualitative studies that examined general practitioner (GP) management of depression. We assessed articles for quality using Critical Appraisal Skills Program guidelines for assessing qualitative research but did not …
Negotiating 'depression' in primary care
On Being “Tempted to Knit”
A range of scholarship has recently broadened the contexts in which life writing can be read; the professionalisation of literature, gender, structures of editing and publishing, print history and
Intrinsic/Extrinsic Measurement
Factor analyses of traditional and age-universal measures of intrinsic and extrinsic religion have identified two subcategories of extrinsicness, suggesting the original scales need revision. In this study, confirmatory multiple group factor analyses confirmed this suspicion, identifying extrinsic items concerned with social relationships (Es) and with personal benefits (Ep). The analyses resulted in a revised intrinsic scale which is now partial…
Social determinants of diagnostic labels in depression
Negotiating 'depression' in primary care
Conflict and antagonism within global psychiatry
Between 2017 and 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Dainius Puras published three reports that called for significant changes to organisation, funding and service provision in mental health care in ways that emphasise inclusive, rights‐oriented, democratic and sustainable community health services. This article aims to examine formal organisational responses to the UN mental health reports and consider the underlying arguments that either suppo…
To support and not to cure
Loneliness is associated with numerous detrimental effects on physical health, mental health, cognition and lifestyle. Older adults are one of the groups at highest risk of loneliness, and indeed about 46% of older adults in England feel lonely. Those experiencing loneliness visit their general practitioner (GP) more frequently than those who are not, which has the capacity to put a strain on GPs and primary care waiting lists and costs. This stu…
General Practitioner Management of Depression
Understanding how primary care clinicians manage depression is a key backdrop to current and future initiatives to improve detection and treatment of depression. We systematically reviewed, identified, and extracted findings from 13 qualitative studies that examined general practitioner (GP) management of depression. We assessed articles for quality using Critical Appraisal Skills Program guidelines for assessing qualitative research but did not …
Semantics of patient choice
Several stakeholders, including the National Survivor User Network and the British Psychological Society, have called for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to include an up-to-date review of patient experience research in the new depression guideline. In response, the Guideline Committee (GC) postponed publication, the guideline now due in February 2020. Yet the GC also stated it will not review patient experience resea…
Evaluating integrative services in edge-of-care work
Children living on ‘the edge-of-care’ are typically known to local safeguarding authorities and are considered likely to face risks to their safety. Many are subject to a child protection plan and/or involved in ‘pre-proceedings’ processes. A growing number of their parents face (un)diagnosed mental health difficulties as well as economic and social precarity. This article draws on a mixed methods evaluation of a pilot service in the East of Engl…
The Iatrogenic Consequences of Medicalising Grief
When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published in 2013, there was a firestorm of controversy about the elimination of the bereavement exclusion. Proponents of this change and of the proposed 'complicated grief' designation believed that this change would help clinicians recognise major depression in the context of recent bereavement. Other researchers and clinicians have raised concerns a…
Quality-of-life measurement in depression trials
Quality-of-life measurement in depression is advocated as a patient-centred indicator of recovery, but may instead enhance the mimetic authority of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which have been roundly critiqued in mental health. In this paper we draw on the social life of methods approach to extend the well-developed critique of RCTs into the field of quality-of-life measurement. We accomplish this through consideration and critique of the…
Psychometric origins of depression
This article examines the historical construction of depression over about a hundred years, employing the social life of methods as an explanatory framework. Specifically, it considers how emerging methodologies in the measurement of psychological constructs contributed to changes in epistemological approaches to mental illness and created the conditions of possibility for major shifts in the construction of depression. While depression was once …
Responsibilisation of caregivers in depression
Non-strategic ignorance
Randomised controlled trials form a central building block within the prevailing evidence-based mental health paradigm. Both methodology and paradigm have been widely problematised since their emergence in the mid-late twentieth century. We draw on the concept of 'strategic ignorance' to understand why the paradigm still prevails. We present focus group data gathered from 37 participants (service users, public, carers, general practitioners, comm…
Risk assessment practice within primary mental health care
From the 1980s onwards, discourses of risk have continued to grow, almost in ubiquity. Ideas and practices of risk and risk aversion have extended to UK mental health care where services are expected to assess and manage risks, and high-quality clinical assessment has been revised to incorporate risk assessment. This article problematises practices of risk assessment in mental health provision, focussing on the base-rate problem. It presents an a…
Treatment resistant depression in primary care
Many patients with depression do not recover despite medication or therapy. Individuals with treatment resistant depression often have co-morbid anxiety, personality difficulties and drug or alcohol misuse and have been characterised as difficult, heartsink or problem personalities by general practitioners. Yet critical studies of interaction in medical settings suggest that the context may have a role in constructing the patient. A total of 12 a…
Intrinsic/Extrinsic Measurement
Factor analyses of traditional and age-universal measures of intrinsic and extrinsic religion have identified two subcategories of extrinsicness, suggesting the original scales need revision. In this study, confirmatory multiple group factor analyses confirmed this suspicion, identifying extrinsic items concerned with social relationships (Es) and with personal benefits (Ep). The analyses resulted in a revised intrinsic scale which is now partial…
On Being “Tempted to Knit”
A range of scholarship has recently broadened the contexts in which life writing can be read; the professionalisation of literature, gender, structures of editing and publishing, print history and
Social determinants of diagnostic labels in depression
Negotiating 'depression' in primary care
General Practitioner Management of Depression
Understanding how primary care clinicians manage depression is a key backdrop to current and future initiatives to improve detection and treatment of depression. We systematically reviewed, identified, and extracted findings from 13 qualitative studies that examined general practitioner (GP) management of depression. We assessed articles for quality using Critical Appraisal Skills Program guidelines for assessing qualitative research but did not …
Treatment resistant depression in primary care
Many patients with depression do not recover despite medication or therapy. Individuals with treatment resistant depression often have co-morbid anxiety, personality difficulties and drug or alcohol misuse and have been characterised as difficult, heartsink or problem personalities by general practitioners. Yet critical studies of interaction in medical settings suggest that the context may have a role in constructing the patient. A total of 12 a…
Evaluating integrative services in edge-of-care work
Children living on ‘the edge-of-care’ are typically known to local safeguarding authorities and are considered likely to face risks to their safety. Many are subject to a child protection plan and/or involved in ‘pre-proceedings’ processes. A growing number of their parents face (un)diagnosed mental health difficulties as well as economic and social precarity. This article draws on a mixed methods evaluation of a pilot service in the East of Engl…
A Nice game of Minecraft
Categorising mental disorders for purposes of diagnosis, research and practice has historically been justified on philosophical terms as a pragmatic activity; categories which have been subject to wide-ranging philosophical critique have been defended on the grounds that they serve as heuristic devices providing loose representations of shared experiences, not labels for real structures. Hence the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of …
Semantics of patient choice
Several stakeholders, including the National Survivor User Network and the British Psychological Society, have called for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to include an up-to-date review of patient experience research in the new depression guideline. In response, the Guideline Committee (GC) postponed publication, the guideline now due in February 2020. Yet the GC also stated it will not review patient experience resea…
To support and not to cure
Loneliness is associated with numerous detrimental effects on physical health, mental health, cognition and lifestyle. Older adults are one of the groups at highest risk of loneliness, and indeed about 46% of older adults in England feel lonely. Those experiencing loneliness visit their general practitioner (GP) more frequently than those who are not, which has the capacity to put a strain on GPs and primary care waiting lists and costs. This stu…
Risk assessment practice within primary mental health care
From the 1980s onwards, discourses of risk have continued to grow, almost in ubiquity. Ideas and practices of risk and risk aversion have extended to UK mental health care where services are expected to assess and manage risks, and high-quality clinical assessment has been revised to incorporate risk assessment. This article problematises practices of risk assessment in mental health provision, focussing on the base-rate problem. It presents an a…
Responsibilisation of caregivers in depression
Non-strategic ignorance
Randomised controlled trials form a central building block within the prevailing evidence-based mental health paradigm. Both methodology and paradigm have been widely problematised since their emergence in the mid-late twentieth century. We draw on the concept of 'strategic ignorance' to understand why the paradigm still prevails. We present focus group data gathered from 37 participants (service users, public, carers, general practitioners, comm…
Protecting Children, Empowering Birth Parents
This Special Issue presents insights from new interdisciplinary research in the family justice field [...]
War of conscience
The nineteenth century British antivaccination movement attracted popular and parliamentary support and ultimately saw the 1853 law which had made smallpox vaccination compulsory nullified by the 1898 'conscientious objector' clause. In keeping with popular public health discourse of the time, the movement had employed rhetoric associated with sanitary science and liberalism. In the early twentieth century new discoveries in bacteriology were fue…
Psychometric origins of depression
This article examines the historical construction of depression over about a hundred years, employing the social life of methods as an explanatory framework. Specifically, it considers how emerging methodologies in the measurement of psychological constructs contributed to changes in epistemological approaches to mental illness and created the conditions of possibility for major shifts in the construction of depression. While depression was once …
Multi-disciplinary support for families with complex needs and children on the edge of care in the UK
Families on the 'edge of care' face complex intersecting issues that can work against positive changes and lead to the re-involvement of social care. A multi-disciplinary service working alongside social work and community services teams to respond to the multiple needs of vulnerable families was evaluated. A mixed methods evaluation drew upon service data and cost saving modelling, interviews and a survey of social care practitioners. The evalua…
Conflict and antagonism within global psychiatry
Between 2017 and 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Dainius Puras published three reports that called for significant changes to organisation, funding and service provision in mental health care in ways that emphasise inclusive, rights‐oriented, democratic and sustainable community health services. This article aims to examine formal organisational responses to the UN mental health reports and consider the underlying arguments that either suppo…
Quality-of-life measurement in depression trials
Quality-of-life measurement in depression is advocated as a patient-centred indicator of recovery, but may instead enhance the mimetic authority of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which have been roundly critiqued in mental health. In this paper we draw on the social life of methods approach to extend the well-developed critique of RCTs into the field of quality-of-life measurement. We accomplish this through consideration and critique of the…
The relatives of people with depression
Being a close relative of a person with depression can take a heavy toll on the former, but these relatives are increasingly made responsible for taking on extensive carer roles. Research on relatives of people with depression is currently dominated by a focus on “carer burden” and although such a focus can explain many relatives' experiences and daily lives, it provides very limited insight into the everyday life of a person living with someone …
Effective components of services for recurrent care experienced parents
First review of evidence on effective services to support recurrent care parents. • Key are relationship-based practice, trusted relationships and continuity. • Flexible, holistic and client led services, with long duration and a flexible end. • Trauma-informed approach with emotional, therapeutic and practical support. • Skilled multi-disciplinary workforce with robust supervision and ongoing training. Recurrent care services aim to reduce the n…
Evaluating a virtual community of practice for recurrent care practitioners
The Supporting Parents Community of Practice supports practitioners and service leads working with birth mothers who have had children removed from their care, with a particular focus on supporting their positive sexual and reproductive health. Its evaluation comprised a mixed methods approach via a baseline survey, follow-up survey and interviews with practitioners. Overall, the CoP was valued by members, their levels of knowledge/skills and con…
Experiences of parents of children with mental illnesses
In this paper, we present a qualitative meta‐ethnographic synthesis of 26 articles reporting experiences of subjective burden in 389 parents of children with mental illnesses. The studies were identified through a systematic literature search of PubMed, CINAHL Ultimate, APA PsycInfo, and MedLine Ultimate. We conducted a quality appraisal and followed the seven stages of meta‐ethnographic synthesis. We developed a line of argument synthesis in the…
Risk of diagnosed and undiagnosed mental distress in coastal and inland English residents
Recent research in the United Kingdom (UK) has highlighted a potential 'coastal effect', whereby residents of coastal areas may be subject to poorer health outcomes, including mental health. This study sought to investigate the coastal effect by comparing the risk of experiencing diagnosed and undiagnosed mental distress in both coastal and inland English adult residents. Data from waves 10-13 (2018-2023) of Understanding Society, a nationally re…
The Iatrogenic Consequences of Medicalising Grief
When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published in 2013, there was a firestorm of controversy about the elimination of the bereavement exclusion. Proponents of this change and of the proposed 'complicated grief' designation believed that this change would help clinicians recognise major depression in the context of recent bereavement. Other researchers and clinicians have raised concerns a…
Psychology (22 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Psychiatry (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Mental health (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Mental Health and Patient Involvement (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Mental Health and Psychiatry (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works)