Therapeutic risk taking: what is it?

Journal title RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA
Author/s Anne Felton
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/3
Language English Pages 16 P. 89-104 File size 2190 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSF2015-003006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Therapeutic risk taking is a collaborative process in which people with mental health problems are supported to make decisions regarding safety and opportunities. Taking risks is an important part of the human experience and can promote growth, self-determination and self-confidence. Research on voluntary risk taking provides useful insights into the social and psychological benefits taking a risk can bring. The development of therapeutic risk taking has been influenced by a normative understanding of risk in society as the prevention of harm. Therapeutic risk taking recognises that risks can be about achieving gains to support people with mental health problems to work towards recovery. However, therapeutic risk taking may be limited as a means to challenge the impact of risk management approaches that promote restrictive practices.

Keywords: Therapeutic risk taking, risk management, recovery, voluntary risk

  1. [1] Anthony WA. Recovery from mental illness: the guiding vision of the mental health system in the 1990’s. Innovation and Research 1996; 2(3): 17-23.
  2. [2] Hamilton C, Adolphs S, Nerlich B. The meanings of “risk” a view from corpus linguistics. Discourse and Society Vol. 18 no. 2 pp.163-181 2007.
  3. [3] Lupton D. Risk. 2nd edition London: Routledge; 2013.
  4. [4] Douglas M. Risk and Blame Essays in Cultural Theory. London: Routledge; 1992.
  5. [5] Muir Cochrane E. Medical co-morbidity risk factors and barriers to care for people with schizophrenia. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing 2006; 13(4): 447-452.
  6. [6] Edwald F. Two Infinities of risk. In: Massumi B, ed. The Politics of Everyday Fear. Minneapolis. MN: University of Minnesota Press; 1993, p. 221-8.
  7. [7] Crowe M, Carlyle, D. Deconstructing risk assessment and management in mental health nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2003; 43 (1): 19-27.
  8. [8] Kettles AM. A concept analysis of forensic risk. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing 2004; 11(4): 484-493.
  9. [9] Beck U. Risk Society; Towards a new modernity. London: SAGE; 1992.
  10. [10] Szmukler G., Rose N. Risk assessment in mental health care: Values and costs. Behavioral sciences & the law 2013; 31(1): 125-140.
  11. [11] Wand T. Investigating the evidence for the effectiveness of risk assessment in mental health care. Issues in mental health nursing 2011; 33(1): 2-7.
  12. [12] Fazel S, Singh J, Doll H, Grann, M. Use of risk assessment instruments to predict violence and antisocial behaviour in 72 samples involving 24,827 people: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal 2012; 345: 1-12.
  13. [13] Godin, P. “You don’t tick boxes on a form”: a study of how community mental health nurses assess and manage risk. Health, Risk and Society 2004; 6(4): 347-360.
  14. [14] Girolamo de G, Bassi M, Neri G, Ruggeri M, Santone G, Picardi A. The current state of mental health care in Italy: problems, perspectives and lessons to learn. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 2007; 257: 83-91.
  15. [15] Davidson L, Rakfeldt J, Strauss J. The Roots of the Recovery Movement in Psychiatry. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell; 2009.
  16. [16] Goodwin S. Comparative Mental Health Policy. From Institutional to Community Care. London: Sage; 1997. [17] Davidson L, Borg M , Marin I, Topor A , Mezzinar & Sells D Processes of Recovery in Serious Mental Illness: Findings from a Multinational Study. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation 2005; 8 (3): 177-201. DOI: 10.1080/1548776050033936
  17. [18] Barnes M, Bowl R. Taking over the asylum; empowerment and mental health. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 2001.
  18. [19] Scull A. Museums of madness. London: Penguin books; 1982.
  19. [20] Foucault M. History of Madness. London: Routledge; 2006.
  20. [21] Basaglia F. Problems of law and psychiatry: The Italian experience. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 1980; 3 (1): 17-37.
  21. [22] Rose N. Powers of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1999.
  22. [23] Galeazzi GM, Mackinnon A, Curci P. Constraints Perceived by Psychiatrists Working in Community Mental Health Services. Development and Pilot Study of a Novel Instrument. Community Mental Health Journal 2007; 43 (6): 609-618.
  23. [24] Kemshall H. Mental health, mental disorder, risk and public protection. In: Reynolds J, Muston R, Heller T, Leach J, McCormick M, Wallcraft J, Walsh M, ed. Mental Health Still Matters. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan; 2009.
  24. [25] Morgan, S. Positive risk-taking: An idea whose time has come. Health Care Risk Report 2004; 10 (10):18–19.
  25. [26] Department of Health. Essential Shared Capabilities: A framework for the whole of the mental health workforce. London HMSO; 2004.
  26. [27] Department of Health. Best practice in Managing Risk: Principles and evidence for best practice in the assessment and management of risk to self and others in mental health services. London TSO; 2007.
  27. [28] Langan J. Challenging assumptions about risk factors and the role of screening for violence risk in the field of mental health. Health, Risk and Society 2010; 12(2): 85-100.
  28. [29] Morgan S. Positive risk-taking: practical ways of working with risk: A practice
  29. based evidence production. UK: Hampshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; 2011.
  30. [30] Deegan P. Recovery as a self-directed process of healing and transformation. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health 2001; 17 (3/4): 5-21.
  31. [31] Higgins A, McBennett. The petals of recovery in a mental health context. British Journal of Nursing 2007; 16(14): 852-856.
  32. [32] Repper J, Perkins P. Recovery and Risk. Mental Health and Social Inclusion. In press, 2015.
  33. [33] Boardman G, Roberts G. Risk, Safety and Recovery, a briefing. ImRoc. Centre for Mental Health. London, NHS confederation; 2014.
  34. [34] Rapp C, Goscha R. The Strengths Model; A recovery orientated approach to mental health services. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012. [35] Bailey C, Clarke C, Gibb C, Haining S, Wilkinson H, Tiplady S. Risky and resilient life with dementia: review of and reflections on the literature. Health, Risk and Society 2013; 15(5): 390-401.
  35. [36] United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Available at
  36. [37] Stalker K. Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Social Work: A literature Review. Journal of Social Work 2003; 3(2)211-233.
  37. [38] Parker J, Stanworth H. “Go for it!” Towards a critical realist approach to voluntary risk-taking. Health, risk & society 2002; 7(4): 319-336.
  38. [39] Zaloom C. The productive Life of Risk. Cultural Anthropology 2004; 19(3): 365-391.
  39. [40] Lupton D, Tulloch J. “Life would be pretty dull without risk”: voluntary risktaking and its pleasures. Health, risk & society 2002; 4(2): 113-124.
  40. [41] Lyng S. A social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking. American Journal of Sociology 1990; 95(4) : 851-886.
  41. [42] Lupton D, Tulloch J. “Risk is part of your life”: Risk epistemologies among a group of Australians. Sociology 2002; 36(2): 317-334.
  42. [43] Zinn J. Towards a better understanding of risk-taking: key concepts, dimensions and perspectives. Health, Risk & Society 2015; 17(2): 99-114.
  43. [44] Godin P. The rise of risk thinking in mental health nursing. In: Godin P, ed. Risk and Nursing Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2006.
  44. [45] Health and Social Care Information Centre (2013). Inpatients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Patients Subject to Supervised Community Treatment, England - 2012-2013,
  45. [46] Priebe S, et al. Reinstitutionalisation in mental health care: comparison of data on service provision from six European countries. Bmj 2005; 330.7483: 123-126.
  46. [47] Morgan A, Felton A. From constructive engagement to coerced recovery In: Coles S, Keenan S, Diamond B, ed. Madness Contested, Power and Practice. Herefordshire: PCCS; 2013.
  47. [48] Robertson JP, Collinson C. Positive risk taking: Whose risk is it? An exploration in community outreach teams in adult mental health and learning disability services. Health, Risk & Society 2011; 13(2):147-164.
  48. [49] Felton A. Psychiatry is a risk business’ the construction of mental health service users as risk objects; a multiple case study inquiry. Unpublished PhD Thesis; 2015.
  49. [50] Langan J, Lindow V. Living with Risk Mental Health service user involvement in risk assessment and management. Bristol, Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Policy Press; 2004. [51] Morgan J. “Giving up culture of blame”. Risk assessment and risk management in psychiatric practice. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists; 2007.

  • Understanding Risk-Taking Jens O. Zinn, pp.1 (ISBN:978-3-030-28649-1)
  • Therapeutic risk-taking: A justifiable choice Anne Felton, Nicola Wright, Gemma Stacey, in BJPsych Advances /2017 pp.81
    DOI: 10.1192/apt.bp.115.015701

Anne Felton, Therapeutic risk taking: what is it? in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2015, pp 89-104, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2015-003006