Approved mental health professionals: A jack of all trades? Hybrid professional roles within a mental health occupation

Abstract

This article presents findings from the Hybrid Identities Project that investigated the professional role and identities of ten multi-professional Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) from social work, mental health nursing and occupational therapy backgrounds as hybrid professionals. Hybrid professionals are professionals of a mixed origin who work across several roles and areas of expertise within public services. AMHPs have a legal role within the Mental Health Act 1983 (2007) in England and Wales to plan the assessment of individuals who require care and treatment for a mental disorder. An intrinsic case study approach was undertaken with data generated through semi-structured interviews that examined professional hybridisation, illustrated through AMHPs’ enactment of eight hybrid roles. The article contributes to empirical understandings of AMHP professional practice through advancing ideas about role hybridisation within a previously under-researched mental health occupation.

Decision Making by Practitioners in the Social Professions Involved in Compulsory Admission to Mental Health Hospital: A Scoping Review

“…AMHPs, ASWs and MHOs all work under a legal mandate to bring a social perspective to the decision, as an important counterbalance to the perspective of medical professionals involved. This is the defining feature of the social professional role and so unsurprisingly the extent to which this social focus in fact informs their decisions in practice has been a key preoccupation of researchers (Barnes et al, 1990;Buckland, 2016;Sheppard, 1990;Morgan et al, 1999;Peay, 2003;Campbell et al, 2006;O'Hare et al, 2013;Hall, 2017;Karban et al, 2020;Leah 2020). Differing findings can be found in the included studies.…”

Dual Agency in Hospitals: What Strategies Do Managers and Physicians Apply to Reconcile Dilemmas Between Clinical and Economic Considerations?

“…It occurred in the United Kingdom upon the establishment of hospital trusts 54 and in other countries upon the adoption of DRG-like payments 30 in the 1990s, and then expanded to other contexts and settings such as primary care, mental health, and non-health contexts. 53,[55][56][57] Most of the literature explores how physicians adopt managerial roles. 51,54,55,[58][59][60] This body of literature is helpful to understand our findings, because it explores the misalignment between management and medicine, and dilemmas that these professionals face due to their dual roles.…”

“…In these cases, hospital professionals are not only “dual agents” committed to more than one principal, but also ‘professional hybrids.’ The concept of professional hybrids originated in the literature of sociology of professions, with the introduction of market-like mechanisms to public services 51 and describe professionals that perform duties outside their profession, ie, managers who combine a professional background with managerial skills and responsibilities, or clinicians who are also managers or leaders. 1 , 52 Generically, it refers to professionals occupying hybrid roles, with complex identities embedded in different professional groups 53 or two institutional logics that develop and coexist in one organization. 51 In the context of health providers, the concept of ‘professional hybrids’ emerged with the introduction of managerial tasks to hospital physicians when hospitals started bearing financial responsibility.…”

“…It occurred in the United Kingdom upon the establishment of hospital trusts 54 and in other countries upon the adoption of DRG-like payments 30 in the 1990s, and then expanded to other contexts and settings such as primary care, mental health, and non-health contexts. 53 , 55 - 57 Most of the literature explores how physicians adopt managerial roles. 51 , 54 , 55 , 58 - 60 …”

‘Waiting for the verdict’: the experience of being assessed under the Mental Health Act

“…Due to a paucity of research, there is little understanding of this process (Hall, 2017;Matthews et al, 2014). Where research does exist, it has been dominated by examination of professional roles and experiences (Leah, 2020;Morriss, 2016;Stone, 2019;Vicary et al, 2019) with a lack of focus on service user experience (Akther et al, 2019). In view of NICE guidance (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), 2011) calling for increased service user involvement in development of services, it is key that we have an understanding of the subjective experience of the MHAA.…”