Avoidable Harm in Mental Health Social Care
This user-led study explores the question: How do mental health service users in England conceptualise and experience social and psychological ‘avoidable harm’ in social care and what are their recommendations for its minimisation in practice?
With service users and practitioners, the research team is investigating the social and psychological harm in social care that could be avoided if mental health social care professionals understood service user experiences better and listened to their advice on how to reduce this type of harm in services.
The research is being conducted to support the implementation in practice of the safe care and treatment within social care services, which appears in legislation as Regulation 12 in the Health, and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
Key objectives
The key objectives of the study are to identify, gather, analyse and formalize a body of existing experiential knowledge of social and psychological harm and its minimisation in adult mental health social care from the perspective of service users and survivors.
Following a literature review and an analysis of service user testimony published online, the researchers will work with service users in focus groups and through a survey, and with practitioners to produce a model of avoidable harm and its minimisation for application in mental health social care practice.
To maximise research impact in social care practice, training and education, service user and practitioner collaborators will work with the research team and a service user media company to produce a digital online learning resource.
Dates
October 2019 – October 2021
Researchers
- Dr Sarah Carr, University of Birmingham (Principal Investigator)
- Dr Angela Sweeney, St George’s University of London (Co-Investigator)
- Tina Coldham, Independent Survivor Researcher, Winchester (Co-Investigator)