The history of 'personality disorder' services is problematic to say the least. The very concept of 'personality disorder' is under heavy fire, services are often expensive and ineffective, and many service users report feeling that they have been lied to, stigmatised and excluded. Yet while there are inevitably challenges involved in working with a population that can be complex, demanding and destructive, creative networks of learning do exist - people who are striving to provide progressive, compassionate services for and with this client group. Working Effectively with 'Personality Disorder' shares this knowledge, articulating an alternative way of working that acknowledges the contemporary debate around diagnosis, reveals flawed assumptions underlying current approaches, and argues for services that work more positively, more holistically and with a wider, more socially focused agenda.
JO RAMSDEN is Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for Yorkshire Humberside Personality Disorder Partnership. Jo was a contributor to the Power Threat Meaning Framework, a resource published in 2018 that drew on psychological, biological and sociological knowledge to outline a conceptual alternative to traditional diagnosis-based models of mental health and distress. SHARON PRINCE is Head of Psychology and Psychological Therapies for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Clinical Lead for Leeds Personality Disorder Services. JULIA BLAZDELL is Service User Consultant at West London Mental Health Trust Managed Clinical Network, and Education and Training Consultant at the Institute of Mental Health.
Introduction SECTION 1: CONTEMPORARY AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON 'PERSONALITY DISORDER' 1. Life and Labels: Some Personal Thoughts about Personality Disorder (Sue Sibbald); 2. Personality Disorder: Breakdown in the Relational Field (Nick Benefield & Rex Haigh); 3. The Scale of the Problem (Sarah Skett and Kimberley Barlow); 4. The Politics of Personality Disorder: A Critical Realist Account (David Pilgrim); 5. The Importance of Personal Meaning (Sharon Prince & Sue Ellis); 6. The Organisation and its Discontents: In Search of the Fallible and 'Good Enough' Care Enterprise (Jina Barrett) SECTION 2: GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES - SUPPORTING SERVICES TO ENACT CONTEMPORARY AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES 7. Access to Services: Moving Beyond Specialist Provision whilst Applying the Learning (Jo Ramsden); 8. Reimagining Interventions (Alan Hirons & Ruth Sutherland); 9. Service User Involvement and Co-production in Personality Disorder Services: An Invitation to Transcend Re-traumatising Power Politics (Melanie Ann Ball) ; 10. Partnership Working (David Harvey & Bernie Tuohy); 11. Outcomes (Mary McMurran); 12. Contained and Containing Teams (Jo Ramsden); 13. Co-produced 'Practice Near' Learning: Developing Critically Reflective Relational Systems (Neil Gordon)
