ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2017
Ordinary risks and accepted fictions: how contrasting and competing priorities work in risk assessment and mental health care planning.
Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Conceptual and practical challenges associated with understanding patient safety within community-based mental health services.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Pooled it
- Mental health professionals' perceived barriers and enablers to shared decision-making in risk assessment and risk management: a qualitative systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Ethnic variations in compulsory detention under the Mental Health Act: a systematic review and meta-analysis of international data.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Co-Design in the Adaptation of a Clinical Decision Support System to Aid Violence Risk Assessment and Management: A Case Study.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025Article
- Safety for Recovery During Admission to Acute Mental Health Hospitals: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study to Support Safety-Focused Recovery-Oriented Care in the Context of Risk Management Constraints.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Article
- What does 'safe care' mean in the context of community-based mental health services? A qualitative exploration of the perspectives of service users, carers, and healthcare providers in England.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Navigating the ethical complexities of severe and enduring (longstanding) eating disorders: tools for critically reflective practice and collaborative decision-making.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Review
- Barriers and enablers to shared decision-making in assessment and management of risk: A qualitative interview study with people using mental health services.PLOS mental health · 2024Article
- Synthesis of the Evidence on What Works for Whom in Telemental Health: Rapid Realist Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2022Review
- Commentary: Caring for a violent relative with severe mental illness: a qualitative study.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2020Article
- A qualitative exploration of mental health service user and carer perspectives on safety issues in UK mental health services.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020Article
- Involving carers in risk assessment: a study of a structured dialogue between mental health nurses and carers.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2019Article
- Quality of life, recovery and decision-making: a mixed methods study of mental health recovery in social care.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2019Article
- Recovery-focused mental health care planning and co-ordination in acute inpatient mental health settings: a cross national comparative mixed methods study.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
- A cross-sectional survey of mental health service users', carers' and professionals' priorities for patient safety in the United Kingdom.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2018Article
- Care Coordination as Imagined, Care Coordination as Done: Findings from a Cross-national Mental Health Systems Study.International journal of integrated care · 2018Article
- Is it time to abandon care planning in mental health services? A qualitative study exploring the views of professionals, service users and carers.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2018Article
- Service user perspectives on coercion and restraint in mental health.BJPsych international · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCommunication and information sharing are considered crucial to recovery-focused mental health services. Effective mental health care planning and coordination includes assessment and management of risk and safety.
objectiveUsing data from our cross-national mixed-method study of care planning and coordination, we examined what patients, family members and workers say about risk assessment and management and explored the contents of care plans.
designThematic analysis of qualitative research interviews (n = 117) with patients, family members and workers, across four English and two Welsh National Health Service sites. Care plans were reviewed (n = 33) using a structured template.
findingsParticipants have contrasting priorities in relation to risk. Patients see benefit in discussions about risk, but cast the process as a worker priority that may lead to loss of liberty. Relationships with workers are key to family members and patients; however, worker claims of involving people in the care planning process do not extend to risk assessment and management procedures for fear of causing upset. Workers locate risk as coming from the person rather than social or environmental factors, are risk averse and appear to prioritize the procedural aspects of assessment.
conclusionsDespite limitations, risk assessment is treated as legitimate work by professionals. Risk assessment practice operates as a type of fiction in which poor predictive ability and fear of consequences are accepted in the interests of normative certainty by all parties. As a consequence, risk adverse options are encouraged by workers and patients steered away from opportunities for ordinary risks thereby hindering the mobilization of their strengths and abilities.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.