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Biomedical subjects

J Hopton

Publications and source records attributed to J Hopton.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Prestwich Hospital in the twentieth century: a case study of slow and uneven progress in the development of psychiatric care.

In 1921 Montagu Lomax published his book The Experiences of An Asylum Doctor, in which he used his experiences as a locum at Prestwich Hospital to criticize standards of mental health care in Britain. Lomax's criticisms of Prestwich Hospital led to a Royal Commission and the 1930 Mental Treatment Act. However, many of the circumstances described by Lomax could still be observed at Prestwich in the 1960's and 1970's. The oral testimony of nurses who worked at Prestwich between 1922 and 1975 and documentary sources are considered in an attempt to explain how a hospital which had been the centre of debates about psychiatric reform in the nineteen-twenties failed to emerge as one of the country's more progressive psychiatric hospitals.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1997

Towards a critical theory of mental health nursing.

In this paper, the author argues that, despite the self-image of the mental health nursing profession as innovative, radical and progressive, this is a 'false consciousness'. Mental health nursing is deeply immersed in a crisis of legitimacy which dates from, at least, the publication of Russell Barton's Institutional Neurosis in 1959. However, although mental health nurses responded positively to the insights of Russell Barton, they failed to respond directly to the dissenting voices of the anti-psychiatrists or the damning criticisms of various official inquiries into care in various individual psychiatric hospitals during the 1970s. Instead mental health nursing has uncritically embraced humanistic psychology and vaingloriously promoted a false image of mental health nursing which suggests that it has wholeheartedly embraced sensitive user-centred approaches to care. However, the author suggests that, despite superficial similarities between person-centred psychology and the theories of the anti-psychiatrists, mental health nursing can never develop truly liberating approaches to care unless it widens its focus from purely inter-personal relationships and addresses historical, structural and ideological influences on both mental health services and the causation of mental distress.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

Daily life in a 20th century psychiatric hospital: an oral history of Prestwich Hospital.

Twenty-five loosely structured interviews were conducted with subjects who had been associated with Prestwich Hospital for varying lengths of time between 1922 and 1975. The information which these subjects provided was significant for two reasons. Firstly, it provides an account of what life was like in one large psychiatric institution during the middle years of the twentieth century. Secondly, these accounts revealed that even within one institution there were huge variations in the standard of nursing practice. Furthermore, at the lower end of the continuum of quality of care there was little change in nursing practice until the final quarter of the twentieth century.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1996

Patients' accounts of calling the doctor out of hours: qualitative study in one general practice.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate patients' accounts of calling the doctor out of hours. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with two groups of patients who called their doctors out of hours from one general practice. SUBJECTS: 23 people who had called the doctor on their behalf or on behalf of another adult and 23 people who had called on behalf of a child between 6 pm and 8 am on a week day (omitting the weekend from 6 pm on Friday to 8 am on Monday). RESULTS: although respondents described symptoms as the main reason for the call, they also described a range of other factors that led to the call, including their feelings, concerns about specific illnesses, their responsibility for others, and their previous attempts to manage the problem themselves. They also described past experiences with health services that were important in explaining the current out of hours call or explaining their general approach to using services. CONCLUSIONS: The pursuit of a model of out of hours care based on medical necessity that neglects the psychosocial context of illness may not be appropriate. The importance of previous experiences of health services and contacts with health professionals in explaining current service use requires wider acknowledgement by health professionals across sectors. Separate educational programmes to encourage patients to use out of hours services more appropriately that neglect these issues may be too simplistic.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1996

Reconceptualizing the theory-practice gap in mental health nursing.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key problems in bridging the gap between theory and practice in the education of mental health nurses and to propose a strategy for overcoming these problems. The paper begins by reviewing the existing literature on the subject of the theory-practice gap, and identifying the unique problems which mental health nursing faces in attempting to address them. It then goes on to propose a unified model of clinical nursing practice, nurse education and user involvement, which would place nurse educators at the forefront of radical reform of mental health services.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1995

The 'political correctness' debate and caring in psychiatric nursing.

In recent years the controversy over so-called 'political correctness' has figured prominently in discourses of higher education. In terms of nursing, the issue of 'political correctness' cannot be confined to intellectual word-games, but is of key significance in the debate around the nature of professional caring. This paper is a discussion of the relevance of the controversy around 'political correctness' to the practice of psychiatric nursing. It placed the 'political correctness' debate in the context of the current debate within nursing about definitions of 'caring', and discusses the connections between both these debates and the theoretical imperatives of person-centered psychology. After discussing the particular problems which arise when the three issues of 'political correctness', 'caring' and humanistic psychology are brought together in this way; it proposes a politically focused strategy for the future development of psychiatric nursing. Although it is written from the perspective of psychiatric nursing in Britain and is very much concerned with the use of a particular language; the arguments put forward are equally appropriate to other English-speaking countries, and perhaps also to non-English speaking countries.

Empathy↗
PubMed1995

The application of the ideas of Frantz Fanon to the practice of mental health nursing.

This paper is based on an extensive review of the published literature which refers to the clinical and social psychology of Frantz Fanon, and seeks to establish the relevance of Fanon's psychological thought to the practice of mental health nursing in the 1990s. The writer sets out the key principles of Fanon's clinical and social psychology, and engages with the theoretical problems which arise from the close relationship between Fanon's psychological theories and his involvement with violent revolutionary politics. After discussing the links between Fanon's unique psychology and the work of the anti-psychiatrists of the 1960s and later critiques of mental health care, the writer argues that the development and adoption of a neo-Fanonist approach to the practice of mental health nursing would address many of the problems of current mental health care practice. In particular, the principles of Fanon's psychology address many of the concerns about disempowerment of service users which have been highlighted in work by feminist and anti-racist writers, and by members of the Mental Health Service Users' Movement.

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1995

Control and restraint in contemporary psychiatric nursing: some ethical considerations.

This paper begins with an exploration of current attitudes towards the use of physical restraint in psychiatric nursing, and the contributions which the 1985 Ritchie Report and the 1991 Report of the Committee Of Inquiry Into Ashworth Hospital have made to the debate on the use of control and restraint within psychiatric institutions. The main focus of the paper, though, is an evaluation of the ethical justifications for and the ethical and political objections to the use of physical restraint techniques as a response to aggressive and self-injurious behaviour in contemporary mental health nursing practice. The author concludes that the number of situations where control and restraint techniques are used might be reduced by the development of new therapeutic approaches. Such approaches should allow for more negotiation regarding care between clients and nurses, and acknowledge the potential benefits of clients resisting supposedly therapeutic interventions which they find unhelpful.

Aggression↗
PubMed1990

Health related behaviour in hypertension.

Three groups of patients matched for age and sex were drawn from general practitioner records. One group had been diagnosed as mild hypertensives and were not on any medication, the second group consisted of moderate to severe hypertensives on medication and the third was a quasi-control group consisting of normotensives with no diagnosed medical problem. These three groups were compared with respect to individual behaviours which may affect blood pressure levels. Patients in both hypertensive groups were less likely to be current smokers. They were also more likely to be controlling their weight than people in the control group: well over 50% of men and women in both hypertensive groups as compared with about one-third in the control group. There were no differences between the three groups with respect to reported frequency or amount of alcohol use, frequency of exercise or strategies for coping with stress, although men in the control group were significantly less likely to describe themselves as not very active. We suggest that more advice is needed for hypertensive patients concerning the adverse effects of alcohol, the benefits of exercise and successful methods of weight control. However, the greater propensity of normotensives to smoke may put them more at risk of cardiovascular disease than the hypertensive individuals.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Towards anti-oppressive practice in mental health nursing.

Working in Partnership, the Department of Health's report on the 1994 review of mental health nursing, implies that mental health nurses should develop anti-oppressive approaches to nursing practice. There is a notable absence of articles within the nursing literature which specifically address this issue. This is possibly because the historical and ideological issues which have informed the development of mental health nursing are complex and difficult to unravel. However, an integration of the theories of David Cooper and Frantz Fanon may provide an appropriate starting point for the development of a theory of anti-oppressive practice which addresses some of the issues specific to mental health nursing.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The contradictions of mental health nursing.

A widely-held belief among mental health workers is that they provide a patient-centred, non-institutionalised service to their clients. In this article, the author points out the contradictions between this belief and the reality of the care. He argues that the blame lies with nursing's inability to formulate its own model of care.

Humanism↗