How Mental Health Care Workers Meet Client Needs for Care in Organizational Contexts

Modern community-based mental health care is delivered by an assemblage of services that attempts to meet the diverse needs of the population. Frontline mental health staff deliver these services directly to clients in ways that reflect their personal and professional orientations to treatment. However, the delivery of mental health services by these workers cannot be understood without taking into account the organizational contexts in which they practice. Twelve participants who work in the mental health field for a variety of organizations were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Their responses were analyzed to uncover the experiences and attitudes that underpin the relationships that they develop with clients, the interactions between organizations and providers, and the processes that affect all of these stakeholders. These relationships influence client experiences as providers assist them in their journey to connect with services that aim to be useful to their mental health needs. As services are delivered, various performance measures are collected, analyzed, and utilized to improve those services at the client-facing level and for organization-wide reporting. Ultimately, resource constraints prompt organizations to make allocative decisions when implementing their programs, and providers work within those constraints to provide client care. This is not a straightforward process, as practitioners navigate the tensions between what they perceive to be ideal care and what is possible, while simultaneously using discretion on an individualized basis, working within organizational policies, and attempting to optimize the use of resources toward the goal of offering optimal care.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Stefulic, Daniel Dorian

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ducey, Ariel

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Tézli, Annette
• Milaney, Katrina J.

• Medical Sociology

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37790

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/111979