Open access

Mental Health Literacies for Interprofessional Collaboration: Youth Workers’ Perspectives on Constraining and Supporting Factors

Publication: Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
22 December 2016

Abstract

Interprofessional relationships between youth workers and mental health service providers are now understood as an integral aspect of mental health literacy and care provision. This paper reports on findings from an online survey exploring youth workers’ (N = 74) perceptions of mental health literacy, specifically in regards to interprofessional relationships in Canada. Discourse analysis of participants’ qualitative responses revealed three themes: constructing us/them binaries, differential positioning contributing to collaboration, and hierarchical differential positioning contributing to learned helplessness. Constraining and supporting conditions for collaboration include organizational structures and policies that support the development of interprofessional relationships, knowledge of different professions’ roles and responsibilities, and respectful experiences during collaboration.

Résumé

Les relations interprofessionnelles entre les travailleurs auprès des jeunes et les fournisseurs de services de santé mentale sont aujourd’hui envisagées comme faisant partie intégrante de la culture de la santé mentale et de la prestation de soins connexes. Le présent article rend compte des résultats d’un sondage en ligne explorant la perception de travailleurs auprès des jeunes (N = 74) à l’égard de la culture de la santé mentale, particulièrement en ce qui concerne les relations interprofessionnelles au Canada. Une analyse du discours portant sur les réponses qualitatives des participants révèle trois thèmes : l’établissement d’une classification binaire « nous/eux »; un positionnement différentiel contribuant à une collaboration; et un positionnement différentiel hiérarchique contribuant à une impuissance acquise. Les conditions limitant et favorisant la collaboration comprennent les structures et les politiques organisationnelles qui appuient le développement de relations interprofessionnelles, la connaissance du rôle et des responsabilités de différentes professions ainsi que les expériences fondées sur le respect durant ladite collaboration.

Formats available

You can view the full content in the following formats:

References

Booth C. L. Experiences and wisdom behind the numbers: Qualitative analysis of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Research Prioritization Taskforce stakeholder survey American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2014 47 3 S106 -S114
Carson, H. (2011). The delivery of youth mental health services in group homes: Working towards a facilitating therapeutic environment (Master’s thesis, Carleton University, Ottawa).
Catania L. S., Hetrick S. E., Newman L. K., and Purcell R. Prevention and early intervention for mental health problems in 0–25 year olds: Are there evidence-based models of care? Advances in Mental Health 2011 10 1 6 -19
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Gharabaghi K. Relationships within and outside the discipline of child and youth care Child & Youth Services 2008 30 3–4 235 -255
Hoskins M. Not-knowing or knowing naught: Revisiting the concept of collaboration and expertise in child and youth care practice Child & Youth Services 2011 32 2 124 -134
Jansen H. The logic of qualitative survey research and its position in the field of social research methods Forum: Qualitative Social Research 2010 11 2 Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1450/2946
Jorgensen, M., & Phillips, L. J. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jorm A. F., Korten A. E., Jacomb P. A., Christensen H., Rodgers B., and Pollitt P. “Mental health literacy”: A survey of the public’s ability to recognize mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment Medical Journal of Australia 1997 166 182 -186
Kutcher S., Davidson S., and Manion I. Child and youth mental health: Integrated health care using contemporary competency-based teams Paediatrics & child health 2009 14 5 315
Kutcher S., Wei Y., McLuckie A., and Bullock L. Educator mental health literacy: A programme evaluation of the teacher training education on the mental health & high school curriculum guide Advances in school mental health promotion 2013 6 2 83 -93
Kraemer S. Liaison and co-operation between paediatrics and mental health Paediatrics and Child Health 2010 20 8 382 -387
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. ([1985] 2001). Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics (2nd ed.). New York: Verso.
Lochhead A. Reflecting on professionalization in child and youth care Child and Youth Care Forum 2001 30 2 73 -82
Mann-Feder V. R. and Litner B. A normative re-educative approach to youth work education: Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University Child & Youth Care Forum 2004 33 4 275 -286
Mellin E. A., Anderson-Butcher D., and Bronstein L. Strengthening interprofessional team collaboration: Potential roles for school mental health professionals Advances in School Mental Health Promotion 2011 4 2 51 -60
Mouffe, C. (2005). On the political. New York: Routledge.
Nadeau L., Jaimes A., Rousseau C., Papazian-Zohrabian G., Germain K., Broadhurst J., and Measham T. Partnership at the forefront of change: Documenting the transformation of child and youth mental health services in Quebec Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2012 21 2 91
Nadeau L., Rousseau C., and Measham T. Integrated networks in child and youth mental health: A challenging role transformation for child psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals? Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2012 21 2 83
Nixon A. and Power C. Towards a framework for establishing rigour in a discourse analysis of midwifery professionalisation Nursing Inquiry 2007 14 1 71 -79
Powers J. D., Webber K. C., and Bower H. A. Promoting school mental health with a Systems of Care approach: Perspectives from community partners Social Work in Mental Health 2011 9 3 147 -162
Ranahan P. “Why did you call for them?” Child and youth care professionals’ practice of flooding the zone during encounters with suicidal adolescents Child Care in Practice 2013a 19 2 138 -161
Ranahan P. Being with: Child and youth care professionals’ practice with suicidal adolescents Relational Child and Youth Care Practice 2013b 26 1 6 -17
Ranahan P. Watching in child and youth care suicide interventions: The potential for observation practices to be disengaging International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies 2014 5 1 4 -23
Ranahan, P. (2015). Mental health literacies in the context of youth work practice with suicidal adolescents. In D. Begoray & E. Banister (Eds.), Adolescent Literacy and Learning (pp. 119–134). New York: Nova.
Ranahan P., Blanchet-Cohen N., and Mann-Feder V. Moving towards an integrated approach to youth work education International Journal of Child, Youth & Family Studies 2015 6 4 516 -538
Ranahan P., Fogarty C., Henderson J., Kornberger K., Palm D., Phillips H., and Scott K. Braiding narratives of relating, being and growing: A metissage of students’ experiences in pre-service child and youth care education Relational Child & Youth Care Practice 2012 25 4 13 -24
Ranahan P. and Pellissier R. Youth workers in mental health care: Role, mental health literacy development, and framing future research Journal of Child and Youth Care Work 2015 25 229 -247
Rickwood D., Deane F. P., and Wilson C. When and how do young people seek professional help for mental health problems? The Medical Journal of Australia 2007 187 7 Suppl S35 -S39
Salhani D. and Charles G. The dynamics of an interprofessional team: The interplay of child and youth care with other professions within a residential treatment milieu Relational Child & Youth Care Practice 2007 20 4 12 -20
Shaw S. E. and Bailey J. Discourse analysis: What is it and why is it relevant to family practice? Family Practice 2009 26 413 -419
Street, B. V. (2009). The future of ‘social literacies.’ In M. Baynham & M. Prinsloo (Eds.), The future of literacy studies (pp. 21–37). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stuart, C. (2013). Foundations of child and youth care (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
Wei Y., Hayden J., Kutcher S., Zygmut A., and McGrath P. The effectiveness of school-based mental health literacy programs to enhance knowledge, change attitudes and improve help-seeking behaviours in youth: A systematic review Early Intervention Psychiatry 2013 7 2 109 -121
Wood, L. A., & Kroger, R. O. (2000). Doing discourse analysis: Methods for studying action in talk and text. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wright K. B. Researching internet-based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 2006 10 3

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health
Volume 35Number 3December 2016
Pages: 69 - 81

History

Version of record online: 22 December 2016

Key Words

  1. interprofessional collaboration
  2. youth work
  3. mental health literacy
  4. discourse analysis

Mots-clés

  1. collaboration interprofessionnelle
  2. travail auprès des jeunes
  3. culture de la santé mentale
  4. analyse du discours

Authors

Affiliations

Patti Ranahan [email protected]
Tieja Thomas

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cite As

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

There are no citations for this item

View Options

View options

PDF

View PDF

Login options

Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Subscribe

Click on the button below to subscribe to Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health

Purchase options

Purchase this article to get full access to it.

Restore your content access

Enter your email address to restore your content access:

Note: This functionality works only for purchases done as a guest. If you already have an account, log in to access the content to which you are entitled.

Media

Media

Other

Tables

Share Options

Share

Share the article link

Share on social media