Uncertainty work as ontological negotiation

Adjudicating Access to Therapy in Clinical Psychology

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2249661
AutoresMartyn Pickersgill (0000-0001-9807-9148, Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society Edinburgh Medical School University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume42
FascículoS1
Páginas84-98
Data de publicação2020-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.13029
PMID31769615
OpenAlexW2991484118
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas28

Across the UK, wide-ranging efforts have been made to enhance citizen access to psychological therapy. Clinical psychologists are key providers of and gatekeepers for therapy. This article is concerned with how clinical psychologists foster access (or not) to psychological care. More specifically, it interrogates how psychologists manage, and make decisions around, patient referrals. Following a referral, psychologists must resolve an uncertain situation: should they accept a referral and continue with an assessment? Thereafter, they must decide whether a patient is suitable for their service - and for therapy more generally. Certainty is synthesised against a backdrop of sometimes powerful pressures to meet service targets. Taking cues from medical sociology and science and technology studies (STS), this article interrogates some of the uncertainties around access to psychological therapy, and how decisions made by clinical psychologists involve negotiations of patient, service and professional ontologies. To do so, it draws on interviews with 40 psychologists across England and Scotland. The paper spotlights a professional group that is often absent from or only dimly lit within sociological observation and analysis: clinical psychology. Through attending to the discourses of psychologists, I extend conversations about uncertainty through a distinctive case study

Epistemology · Negotiation · Psychotherapist · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Engineering · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Occupational Therapy Practice and Research · Philosophy · Psychiatric care and mental health services · Psychology