The Treatment of a Patient Who Is Also a Mental Health Practitioner: Special Considerations and Recommendations

Perspectives of experts-by-experience: an exploration of lived experience involvement in social work education

“…Fox (2011) similarly reflects on how she was empowered by describing her own journey of recovery and hoped that these accounts would positively influence service improvement in mental health. This is echoed in the experiences of many user involvement experts as they seek to change practice (Goldberg et al, 2020;Mazanderani et al, 2020).…”

“…155-156) Increasingly, service users are involved in mental health research, (Pinfold et al, 2015), and have a long history of participating, designing and influencing services (Rose et al, 1998). The experiences and perspectives of people with lived experience is of growing importance in all health and social care contexts (Fox, 2016;Goldberg et al, 2020;Mazanderani et al, 2020).…”

“…The members prized the confidential nature of their involvement and their privacy; thus, they preferred to be acknowledged as part of the wider expert group. The importance of understanding this dual identity is explored by Goldberg et al (2020) who illuminate the experiences of one author, who is a mental health practitioner who also became a hospital inpatient. This paper discusses the need to manage both personal and professional boundaries for this practitioner and to understand her needs for confidentiality about her health condition in her working and professional environment; thus, similarly, the SUCI experts wanted to preserve their anonymity and the confidentiality of their social care experiences.…”

In This Issue: October 2020

“…The topic of mental health treatment-and its stigma-for students and health care professionals is also addressed in Goldenberg and Wilkins' [6] thoughtful reflection on the challenges to privacy and boundaries when a medical student becomes an inpatient on a teaching service. Goldberg et al [7] also address some of the complex dynamics of treating a fellow professional, but they shift the focus to the realm of providing outpatient therapy for other therapists. We in academic psychiatry are often aware of the need to maintain a boundary, lest psychotherapy supervision shade into psychotherapy treatment of the trainee.…”

“…Although these papers offer guidance for academic psychiatrists when we are in the "treater" position, they may have the greatest benefit in helping break down the barriers to seeing ourselves in the "patient" role. Goldberg et al [7] describe this situation as the "us vs. them" sense-the wish to manage our anxiety by dividing people into the categories of those who suffer mentally and those who help them. Many of us know from direct and compelling experience how false this dichotomy is.…”