Addressing causal beliefs in treatment: insights from mental health practitioners in Australia

ABSTRACT

Mental health practitioners' beliefs about the causes of mental illness may influence their approach to treatment and impact therapeutic outcomes. There has been limited research on this topic. This study explores mental health practitioners' views and experiences of addressing causal beliefs in treatment. A thematic framework guided the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 17 mental health practitioners. Participants stated that their causal beliefs impact their approach to treatment, and clients' causal beliefs influence how clients approach treatment. Participants thought that it was important to discuss causes with clients and identified several barriers to, and consequences of, doing so. Participants identified that addressing causal beliefs in treatment influenced factors such as practitioner empathy, therapeutic alliance, engagement in treatment and clients' self-blame.

KEYWORDS:

• Causal beliefs
• mental health practitioners
• treatment
• mental illness
• thematic analysis
• Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Kelly Mazzer for helping in test coding reliability.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. The first author received support through an Australian Government Research Training Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Josephine S. Larkings

Dr Josephine S. Larkings is a clinical psychologist who has recently completed her PhD in clinical psychology. She currently works with suicidal young people as a DBT clinician in the CAMHS DBT Program in Canberra. She is passionate about mental health and reducing mental illness stigma. Her PhD thesis is on causal beliefs about mental illness endorsed by mental health professionals and consumers, and how these beliefs impact perceptions of, and stigma towards, mental illness and the treatment process.

Patricia M. Brown

Dr Patricia M. Brown is an Associate Professor within the Centre for Applied Psychology at the University of Canberra. She was formerly Associate Dean of Education in the Faculty of Health from 2016 to 2018. She is a social psychologist with research interests in the areas of intergroup relations, social identity, stereotyping and stigma. She is also undertaking research applying social psychological theories to an understanding of risk-taking behaviours, especially with respect to road safety (e.g. mobile phone use while driving).

Brett Scholz

Dr Brett Scholz has been a Research Fellow in the Medical School, ANU College of Health and Medicine since July 2018. Prior to this, he held a Research Fellowship in the SYNERGY Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre at the University of Canberra and ACT Health, was a Lecturer in the Centre for Applied Psychology at the University of Canberra and completed his PhD in the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide. He currently serves as a Board Member for the ACT Mental Health Consumer Network and has been involved as Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer for Spur Projects. As a critical health psychologist, his research often focuses on ways in which health and health services can be more equitable, challenging power norms and lead by consumers. He has published refereed journal articles in Health Psychology, Health Policy, Health Expectations, Health Promotion International, Qualitative Health Research, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, Journal of Mental Health, among others. He is an Executive Committee member of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology, a Scientific Committee member of the European Conference on Mental Health and an Organising Committee member of the Service Users in Academia Symposium. He is the co-editor of The Operative Word, the podcast of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology.