The use of psychiatric diagnosis on three child and adolescent inpatient units: a qualitative study

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnoses are commonly used in both public and mental health professional discourse. They represent and communicate different distressing mental states. Throughout the ages there have been attempts to capture and communicate these states of being. This is what drives psychiatry’s desire to refine psychiatric diagnosis. To demonstrate this, I will conduct an analysis of the term ‘mental illness’, and how psychiatry has sought to define, and also treat it. Different therapeutic models and classification systems are described, and their impact on the area critiqued. Particular focus is given to mental health services for young people in acute care. In these settings, professionals are faced with the most distressed and vulnerable young people in society. They must balance the demands of the job; psychiatric diagnosis is an administrative obligation for every mental health professional, with the danger of labelling a young person with a potentially stigmatizing mental illness. As a result, some professionals (e.g. Koehne, Hamilton, Sands & Humphries, 2012) feel conflicted about using psychiatric diagnosis in their daily practice. This leads to the main project aim; to investigate the role of diagnosis in the clinical work of mental health professionals working in acute child and adolescent care. Finally, the study method is outlined and rationale explained.