Primary Healthcare

Biography

Biography: Brian Littlechild

Abstract

This presentation examines the causes and consequences of violence from mental health patients on staff, the patients themselves, and others in their formal and informal networks. It addresses how best to respond to staff and patients after such incidents, and the potential for jointly produced solutions to the problem. The presentation is based on analysis of the evidence arising from a review of the research and wider literature, and how we might analyse this evidence in order to produce best practice in policy guidance and direct work with patients, including the evidence and recommendations from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NIHCE) Guideline Development Group’s systematic review on ‘Violence and Aggression: The short-term management of violent and physically threatening behaviour in mental health, health and community settings’ (2015). The presentation will consider how the use of restorative justice and mediation techniques can be used as a nuanced approach to heal the damaging effects on staff and others, in conjunction with the use of co-production approaches with service users and staff, in order to encourage staff groups, agencies, and personal learning for patients and staff involved to reduce the risk of further such situations. The presentation will take into account a key feature of health care policies in the United Kingdom, concerning service user involvement in patient care. Key issues in taking this approach are addressed, with methods for how to do this in practice covered, with a model proposed for enacting such approaches.