Surveillance, Security and Violence in a Mental Health Ward

This paper discusses the potential relationship between surveillance techniques, the enactment of security measures, and patient violence in mental health wards. The paper draws upon data from an ethnographic study conducted in a purpose-built mental health unit containing two wards (one locked and one open) in South Australia, and argues that acts of violence observed in the unit were typically preceded by an incident within the unit that was related to the implementation of security measures aimed at controlling non-compliant behaviours. The paper argues that if a relationship between security measures and violence does exist in mental health wards, then close attention must be paid to the ways in which forms of surveillance may arguably exacerbate, rather than prevent, the need for security measures

Computer security · Criminology · Ethnography · Mental health · Occupational safety and health · Political science · Psychiatry · Public relations · Sociology · Unit (ring theory · Child Abuse and Trauma · Computer Science · Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Law

• Carnivalesque collaborations

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• Using thematic analysis in psychology

  Open Access•Braun, Virginia Braun et al.•Qualitative Research in Psychology•2006

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• Service users' strategies for managing risk in the volatile environment of an acute psychiatric ward

  Open Access•Alan Quirk, Paul Lelliott et al.•Social Science & Medicine•2004

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