Purpose: Psychiatric Mother-Baby Units (MBUs) are currently viewed as best practice, particularly in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France, for improving outcomes for mothers and babies when the former are experiencing severe forms of mental illness. A growing number of publications have examined MBUs, but to date there has not been a comprehensive review of these studies. As such, the systematic review reported in this paper sought to address this gap. Methods: A systematic search was conducted for peer-reviewed research and grey literature published in English between 2000 and 2015. A final sample of 44 publications were identified that reported on empirical findings with regard to MBUs. Three quarters of the studies focused on individual MBUs and most studies were quantitative. Results: A thematic analysis of the studies identified three major themes: (1) admissions data, (2) outcomes for mothers, and (3) programs and interventions. The analysis also identified four secondary themes: (i) follow up after discharge; (ii) separation of mothers and babies after discharge; (iii) client satisfaction with MBUs; and (iv) partners of women admitted to MBUs. Conclusions: The findings of the review highlight gaps in knowledge about MBUs and provide suggestions for future research.
This paper discusses the potential relationship between surveillance techniques, the enactment of security measures, and patient violence in mental health wards. The paper draws upon data from an ethnographic study conducted in a purpose-built mental health unit containing two wards (one locked and one open) in South Australia, and argues that acts of violence observed in the unit were typically preceded by an incident within the unit that was related to the implementation of security measures aimed at controlling non-compliant behaviours. The paper argues that if a relationship between security measures and violence does exist in mental health wards, then close attention must be paid to the ways in which forms of surveillance may arguably exacerbate, rather than prevent, the need for security measures.
This paper casts a net across spaces that are designed to be bland and identity-less. It posits that white is more than just a colour in design and that it is appropriated by organizations to spread sameness across public spaces. In this way, the article draws upon Foucauldian theories of power and organizational aesthetics in an effort to show that people become caught up in an institutionalization of space. White spaces become infused with an energy that is also derived from plain surfaces and which then offers up an illusion of spatial order. The article uses examples of the church, the parliament building, the prison, the hospital and the university to discuss ways in which whiteness transcends the limits of temporal colour and enters the psyche as an agent of power in the control of spaces and subjects.
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