Good intentions overruled : a critique of empowerment in the routine organization of mental health services / Elizabeth Townsend.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Townsend illustrates how attempts by occupational therapists to enable empowerment in everyday practice are thwarted by the institutional processes of admission, accountability, decision making, budgeting, risk management, and discharge.

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CHOICE Review

Using an innovative method of inquiry, "institutional ethnography," Townsend explores empowerment as she studies occupational therapists working within a mental health organization. Institutional ethnography examines the relationship between the person, his or her work, and the work setting. In so doing, political, economic, and organizational factors, which may be contradictory to the goals of patient empowerment, are illuminated. The book follows the structure of the research process, reporting first on individual occupational therapists and their actions, the interaction between therapists and others, and the manner in which the work of the therapist structures or is structured by the environment in which it is carried out. Throughout, the author takes note of processes that nurture or contradict efforts to promote empowerment. Recommended for graduate students or researchers/faculty. M. Richardson University of Washington