Reviews

"This stimulating book looks at care of a person rather than treatment of a patient, emphasising rather than cold clinical procedure, and recovery rather than cure.
Clinical staff, managers and policy makers should pay heed to this book."
- Reviewed by; Community mental health nurse, Wigan. Nursing Standard:: August 8:: vol 21 no 48:: 2007
------------------------------------------------------------- "This book throws out a timely challenge to current practice in the mental health nursing of suicidal people. 'Close observation', driven by a culture of risk assessment, has become the default setting for suicide prevention in inpatient settings, but, as the authors point out, observation isn't synonymous with care.
Based on their own in-depth interviews with suicidal people, the authors argue that nurses must stop watching their patients and start engaging with them, providing intense, human warmth to help people who are profoundly disconnected from social and family contacts to re-engage with humanity. They outline the core psychological processes that can be used to achieve this, and their methodology of grounded theory provided a conceptual overview to aid readers' understanding of this complex subject, with quotes from interviewees as useful illustrations.
I like the down-to-earthiness of the practice discussion points. Who could argue with the propositions that nurses should be comfortable talking about suicide, that they should be prepared to listen rather than talk, and that interpersonal, care-based work should replace risk-orientated work and medication, with nursing care firmly rooted in the recovery model?
The authors also discuss the implications for future research and policy, and ethical and legal issues, while the final chapter addresses the important contribution of suicide survivors to the care of other suicidal people.
This book provides clear messages for qualified nurses and those in training, and for psychiatrists. It should be widely available to all mental health staff."
- Reviewed by Lesley Warner, Mental Health Today, December 2007