Use of self, "sharing personal mental health lived experience by mental health practitioners with service users"
Martin Webber, presents the research of Jonny Lovell, PhD student - International Centre for Mental Health Social Research at the University of York.
... From anecdote to evidence
In 2013, anecdotal evidence indicated that sharing personal mental health lived experience by mental health practitioners with service users was controversial, though some practitioners and service users thought it might have many potential benefits. In response, the University of York undertook research in Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) and NorthWestern Mental Health (Melbourne, Australia) to investigate whether practitioners and service users perceived sharing personal experience of mental illness as helpful or unhelpful.
See the post here: http://martinwebber.net/archives/2014
Interesting research!! From my experience of speaking across many venues and sharing my lived experience it is unfortunate that professionals don't disclose their lived experience of mental health challenges. It seems to be more prevalent in the addictions field but doctors, nurses, social workers don't regularly share their mental health lived experience with the people they serve.
After speaking to over 300 audiences I've had professionals share their lived experience with me after my presentation, however when I ask them if they've shared their lived experience with the people they serve the answer was "No"!
Stigma, prejudice and discrimination is still very real in our field!
Perhaps, some day, professionals will see the value of sharing their lived experience in a mindful, professional, and empathic manner!!
I'd love the chance to be a participant of this session if every delivered by webinar. I think this topic is very important right now given the opioid overdose crisis and enhanced efforts to decrease stigma and increase compassion amongst the population at large. Also, I'd be very interested in information on how to make decisions around how one might best share lived experiences as well as supporting staff in learning to self-disclosing.
As a provincial systems level, lived experience/family advocate and speaker for mental health, addiction, trauma and bereavement for over a decade- and a mother who lost her child to overdose- I find that disclosure is still a very personal risk. (particularly with substance use/addiction)
I totally agree with Tom that stigma, prejudice and discrimination are still very real. I totally get why a professional would not want to disclose.
I'm going to try to get Jonny Lovell, to join the conversation, but will see as hard to pull people into conversations via a digital one, ie: I made a comment on his blog.
For sure a rich topic, what comes to mind for me is that as Tom says professional's especially in mental health rather than addiction, don't tend to talk "lived experience" whereas maybe we need to frame:
BTW, I trotted out an old not often used term anymore "counter transference" as a tag, a very useful term though, that nods at the relevance of the togetherness involved in care.
I think this all leads to clinical supervision - in various forms where the focus is more on process than the deployment of techniques of an particular evidence based practice.
Hey... we are heading to a new topic, better not!
Indeed a very interesting topic , however self disclosure to your patients/ service user is not as simple as sharing a story . As a Physician when you are making this choice, one does weigh up the harm and the clinical benefit of a hypothesis based on the formulation that he has a clear rational to test out.
Self disclosure in a clinical context is a highly skilled Psychotherapeutic intervention where the provider has good grips on the psychological make up of the service user,their vulnerabilities as well as his own, this also warrants a good handle on experiences like transference, counter transference, projection and other mechanisms involved in Pyschodynamic model of Psychotherapy . Dependency within a therapeutic setting both ways , role reversal ( who is the therapist??), sense of causing a burden to the therapist are some of the few common risks that I am very familiar with however close supervision to the provider may help to minimize the harm if it is considered a risk worth taking.
I think Self disclosure is a clinical judgement ,based on the best interest of the service user taking into consideration the stage of their recovery. This may not be generalized .
When I first learned of the CBC report on the five Nova Scotia 'Mounties' (RCMP) on leave of absence due to PTSD, the On-Site Academy [then only for 'First Responders' in the USA, but now reportedly open to both first responders and 'Human Services Personnel' from anywhere in the world] began their affiliation with "[trauma-informed] Intentional Police Peer Support" programs. Boston and Cambridge Massachusetts Police Departments' IPPS programs 'affiliated' with On-Site Academy. On-Site Academy subsequently moved their 'Crisis/Respite Program' from their administrative office in Gardner, Mass., to a serene/rural farm, with farm animals, etc., a short distance outside Gardner. I think that IPS specialized [limited to specific professions] may be a workable strategy for 'Professions', though I don't yet have "Evidence" of its Efficacy.
A bit late in the day but I eventually signed up to this forum. No longer a PhD student (completed). Full thesis available online here:
http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk...%20Thesis%202017.pdf
Thanks for the invite, Bill.
Jonny
Wow man, thank you for actually having a back burner you use. Looking forward to reading and perhaps ... find ways to link to yea old practice.
A good lesson in trusting time. Good for you on the sign up front as, I find people experience this step as "a leap."
Jonny, you probably saw this call for papers, but others may be interested. Ontario Peer Development enewsletter https://www.opdi.org/news-events/news shared it.
BTW the layout of your thesis helps make it readable on a computer, all 96,000ish words. Looking forward, to a little beach novel reading.
Here is the updated link to the thesis Jonny Lovell - Publications (google.com)
Is there a way to access the post mentioned here? I clicked on the link but it took me to a spam page.