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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on November 15, 2007
British Journal of Social Work 2009 39(3):467-487; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcm129
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

Mental health, risk communication and data quality in the electronic age

Joan Langan

Joan Langan is a Lecturer in the School for Policy Studies. She has with Vivien Lindow undertaken research on the involvement in risk assessment and management of mental health service users considered by professionals to pose a risk to other people. She teaches on a Masters programme in social work. Her teaching and research interests are in mental health and mental capacity policy and practice services. The research cited in the section ‘Problems with information quality’ was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Correspondence to Joan Langan, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK. E-mail: J.Langan{at}bris.ac.uk


  Abstract

This paper discusses the impact on mental health service users of the computerised healthcare programme currently being developed by the NHS that aims to make healthcare information available on a much wider basis than is currently the case. The potential benefits of electronic health records are considerable in terms of enhancing effective and safe healthcare. Yet electronic databases, whatever their purported aim, open up the potential for greater surveillance in a state where dissidence is becoming less easily tolerated and technological advances allow greater inroads into private lives. With a specific focus upon service users considered to pose a risk to other people, and drawing upon qualitative research jointly conducted by the author, this paper focuses upon the use of risk assessments in practice, the accuracy of information about risk, service users’ rights re access to information, their involvement in risk assessment and the objectivity of risk information. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible outcomes for mental health service users and professionals.

Keywords: electronic records, risk information, risk assessment, service user involvement


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