Violence towards mental health nurses in England and the nature of the policy response: a frame analysis

Abstract

Nurses working in services for people with mental health problems are twice as likely to be assaulted as nurses working in general hospital settings (Health Care Commission 2007). The emergence of the issue of violence towards nurses as a social problem has however been accompanied by a contest to date unexamined, between conflicting ‘frames’ of the problem, which this paper seeks to make transparent. Two distinct ‘master’ frames are discussed the ‘individualising’ and the ‘co-creationist’. It is concluded that the influence of these frames has influenced the nature of responses to the problem but the recent dominance of the individualising frame is being challenged by the emergence or perhaps re-emergence, of the ideals and values of the therapeutic community.