Main description:

As the profound contribution of mental illness to disability, morbidity, and mortality has gained acceptance, mental health has grown into a global priority. One in five experience mental illness in their lifetime, and those who suffer are coming forward in unprecedented numbers. As more people seek care for themselves and others, providers are increasingly unable to meet the demand through existing systems and mental health care approaches.

In Managing Uncertainty in Mental Health Care, Drs. Patricia Rockman and Jose Silveira critically examine core assumptions informing the primary approaches currently used to assess mental illness in clinical settings, with an emphasis on clinician certainty. They illustrate how current diagnostic frameworks obscure clinician uncertainty while encouraging overconfidence and go on to consider potential strategies for lessening the impact of inevitable errors. Ultimately, this book
makes a case for acknowledging the fallibility of clinical judgment, independent of competence and experience, and the need to modify approaches to mental health care so that they align with the irreducible uncertainty of the domain.

By exploring emerging transdiagnostic approaches to mental health care in terms of their alignment with irreducible uncertainty, Rockman and Silveira make space for error and offer clinicians a novel way to advance the fundamental aim of mental health care: to reduce the harm and suffering of all.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Uncertainty and the Incompatible Certainty Bias

2. The Brain as a Complex Adaptive System

3. Complexity in Clinical Practice

4. Limitations of Prioritizing Diagnosis

5. Diagnostic Errors in Practice

6. Confidence Versus Error

7. Mitigating Diagnostic Error Through Transdiagnostic Approaches

8. Priorities in Risk Assessment

9. Broadening Our View of Risk

10. A Novel Approach to Risk Identification

11. Uncertainty as Teacher: Education, Training, and Practice

Appendices
Appendix 1. The Risk, Function, and Symptom Matrices
Appendix 2. Risk at a Glance
Appendix 3. Centre for Effective Practice-Keeping Your Patients Safe: A Guide to Primary Care Management of Mental Health and Addictions-Related Risks and Functional Impairments

Index