Mental health risk management research earns prestigious journal coverage

Mental health risk management research earns prestigious journal coverage

Research into clinical risk management in mental health services led by Professor Michael Doyle at the University of Huddersfield has been given a prestigious publication in a leading mental health nursing journal.

Professor Doyle's work on developing best practice principles in an area that has not seen guidance on a national level since 2009 is now available via Open Access from the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing.

He collaborated with colleagues from universities in London, Manchester, Exeter and Dublin as well as Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust to publish Clinical Risk Management in Mental Health Services: 10 Principles for Best Practice, which has already had positive feedback from organisations in Australia and Europe.

More emphasis has been placed on caring for mental health patients in the community rather than on in-patient units over recent decades, and Professor Doyle and colleagues felt it was timely to consider the guidance for managing risks.

"Moving people with mental disorder into the community is to be welcomed," says Professor Doyle. "Moving people away from asylums and inpatient units is less restrictive and promotes independence and recovery.

"There has always been an association between mental disorder and risk. What has changed in recent years is that people have been expected to explain and articulate more about how they actually assess and manage risks, as concerns are raised in practice as well as in the media and amongst the general public.

Professor Michael Doyle

Professor in Mental Health Research

...has attracted significant research funding and published and presented widely on psychosocial risk assessment, formulation and interventions, forensic mental health nursing and related subjects.

"There has been a lot of debate about how risk assessments should be conducted. The guidance was limited in England and Wales until publication of national guidance in 2007, which was then updated in 2009. Since then, there has been limited national guidance. Therefore, we reviewed it here at Huddersfield as part of our postgraduate clinical risk management module for people working in mental health settings."

Research already having an impact in UK and overseas

The review of the guidelines revealed that while some were still relevant, many needed updating. Ten principles of best practice were arrived at following feedback from mental health service users and since being published in the journal, Professor Doyle has received positive comments from several areas, including NHS England and mental health service leaders.

"The original principles were shared and then shaped again by service users, and these are the agreed principles," Michael adds, "The principles will be useful as national guidelines are on clinical risk management are being updated. I have had responses from senior academics and clinicians in Europe and Australia saying how helpful they could be. It's very encouraging, and I hope we can promote much-needed progress in this area."

Darryl Thompson, Chief Nurse and Director of Quality and Professions at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust commented, "This publication contributes a step-change in the approach to working alongside people who are accessing mental health services, and how we can best keep them and others safe.

"It highlights what the evidence guides us to do as best practice, and crucially how to apply this in practice in a way that will focus on values, strengths and partnership.

"It moves the narrative on from being an assessment of risk done to the person, to managing safety with the person. This will underpin key conversations in training, supervision, learning from incidents and policy review."

Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash