Grounding co‐writing: An analysis of the theoretical basis of a new approach in mental health care

Abstract

The idea that the relationship between mental health professionals and patients may be characterized as a form of collaboration has certainly marked a jump forward in how we conceive of and treat mental suffering. Among the various forms of collaboration available in the literature, this paper presents and discusses the premises of a very particular one: co-writing, a specific practice where a clinician and a patient are mutually engaged in jointly or collaboratively writing a narrative related to the patient's experience. For clinicians, nurses, researchers and Mental Health Service managers, attention to the users and the improvement of their active roles represents not only a strategy for the empowerment of results but also the access door to a different perspective in the approach to mental health treatment and research, aimed at balancing the power relation between clinical staff and patients. Co-writing is a method that aims to minimize injustice in mental health by integrating everyone's voices into a balanced narrative (Fricker, 2007).Writing jointly the patient's story, or supporting him/her to do it, including medical records and all documents concerning his/ her mental health, means radically challenging the more often adopted settings and practices where the expert manages the power

(Re)constructing identity following acquired brain injury: The complex journey of recovery after stroke

“…The results show various outcomes. From a theoretical point of view, it is possible to highlight a conceptualization of identity as a linguistic and relational process 35 , 52 , 53 inextricably connected to the dimension of the organic and natural body. This process is involved during the entire biography and can include not only the construction of the dimensions of emotions, thinking or interpersonal behaviour but also the meaning‐making of biological and neurological aspects related to one's own health condition.…”

‘ALL ABOUT MY IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE’: Users, family members and experts by experience discussing a co‐designed service

“…The choice to mix the roles of family member and user may have conditioned the themes expressed and the freedom of speech, however, we believe that the two facilitators of the focus groups, being a family member and a former user, paid great attention to the space of expression of the members of their role category. In future research, built from the beginning in collaboration between EbEs and researchers, we will pay more attention to this issue 59–62 …”

“…In future research, built from the beginning in collaboration between EbEs and researchers, we will pay more attention to this issue. 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 …”

What is <em>therapeutic</em>? Analysis of the narratives available on Italian Addiction Rehab Centres’ Sites to present the therapeutic programme

“…Other papers refer to the reification caused due to the diagnosis (Hyman, 2010 ), to the use value of the diagnosis in terms of instrumental advantages, to its negotiating power with respect to institutions, and to the re-signification of identity personal resulting from identification with the reified diagnosis (Faccio, Belloni & Castelnuovo, 2012 ; Faccio, Pocobello, Vitelli & Stanghellini, 2022 ; Faccio, Turco & Iudici, 2019 ). There are also works that propose innovative methods of intervention with respect to the risk of falling within the tracks marked by the processes of reification (Harrè & Tissaw, 2005 ; Romaioli & Faccio, 2012 ).…”

“… 2012 ). It offers important lenses for reading experience and personal discomfort, while bringing with it all the limits of an idiographic approach, where the focus is on the individual and cannot be extended or generalized (Faccio, Aquili, Anonymous, & Rocelli, 2022 ).…”