Don’t worry – it’s not as bad as all that!
Do you work in mental health care? Do you have separate mugs, cups and other crockery for staff at work?
Have you ever stopped to consider what that says about you and about your practice?
Stop it. Stop it now!
Personality disorder may be one of the most misunderstood diagnoses in mental health. Those diagnosed with it may be the most unfairly treated too!
If anxiety is a call to action, depression is the need to stop.
Have you ever wondered why doctors, social workers and psychologists seem to be speaking different languages?
Wonder no more…
Without risk life becomes meaningless. Our whole quality of life depends upon a balance between risk and reward. This is as true for our patients and service-users as it is for us.
Genuinely helpful care must involve positive, therapeutic risk-taking.
It is not the task of mental health workers to take away another person’s individuality.
Many people are confused about the exact nature of their Duty of Care toward the people they look after. To a large extent this is because they think that they are somehow accountable for the actions of other people (in this case the client or service-user). This makes people think they are:
Hanged if they do
and
Hanged if they don’t
In reality, you are responsible only for what you do, not for what your client does. If you do all that you LEGALLY can to minimise risk, to help them to make decisions in their best interests and to help them cope effectively then you have fulfilled your duty of care… whatever the outcome might be.
However there really is a ‘do’ and there really is a ‘don’t’…
Do all that you reasonably can
Don’t break the law.