Out of Area Treatments in Mental Health: The Leeds Experience by Jeremy Pritlove - Case Study Example

Topic Critical Review of Article Introduction Here the attempt is made to critically evaluate the article “ Out of Area treatments in Mental Health : The Leeds Experience” by Jeremy Pritlove. The article elaborates about the pattern of treatment provided by the Leeds mental hospital to its mentally ill patients. In this paper, the main issue is about the mentally ill patient’s treatment given outside their living locality. The geographical atmosphere is the Leeds in United Kingdom and mental health service of this locality is given sole priority. The article discusses about the Leed’s experience of treating mentally ill patient out of their locality and complication surrounding this treatment pattern. Even though the article is vividly explaining the pros and cons of out of area treatment, the professional standard of the article is in question. (thesis) As the article moves to the issue of out of area treatment in Leeds, it points out the study and research conducted by independent health monitoring group during the period 2004 and 2008.Further the article also provides statistics about the number of patients send outside Leeds for mental health treatment. According to Pritlove (2012,pg. 2) “Over the six years studied, the number of patients sent outside Leeds for inpatient psychiatric treatment increased by a factor of eight, from 23 in the first12-month period to 196 in the last 12-month period”. Moreover the personal and financial cost involved in the “out of area treatment” is also discussed in the article. The writing also reveals the reason behind the practice of out of the area treatment and what is the future plan of Leeds Mental health department. Article structure The article which is “Out of the area treatment in Mental health” by Pritlove is retrieved from web in a pdf format. The article is presented with different headings and the defect of the article is that there is absence of introduction and conclusion as a section. This makes the article look unprofessional and unstructured. Moreover, the article which is structured with various headings fails to project organization and order. Apart from this the article lacks abstract and also background information about the author. The paragraphs of the writing are also broken into short ones which take off the richness of the information delivered. Above all, the article only concisely reveals information about the subject in the foremost paragraph. As a positive aspect, the article does showcase the rationale behind the implementation of “out of area treatment” by Leeds hospital in further end of it. The author has not taken much effort in segregating the article into different section as introduction, scientific headings, method and conclusion. But the author has done quite a lot investigation through medical organizations like Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Healthcare Commission, Leeds Partnerships Trust and NHS Leeds which adds much credibility and authenticity to the writing. Apart from this, the author has put down many statistical data in the article which is an effective way to sustain the attention of the readers and avoid monotonous experience. In total, the sentences of the article are structured well and they impart knowledge to the readers consistently. The purpose of the study The author of this article “Out of Area treatments in Mental Health : The Leeds Experience” conduct research into the treatment pattern of Leeds mental health service in order to find the benefit of “out of area treatment” on mentally disordered people. The author analyzes the strength and weakness of this kind of treatment in an effort to understand the intention behind implementing this treatment on Leeds patients. The article also evaluates the statistical data and “cost analysis aspects of the ‘out of area treatment” to measure deeply the worth of this treatment. The research is done also to assess the professional attitude and the concern initiated by the Leeds mental health department towards the mentally ill people of Leeds. The author here wants to contemplate on the quality of mental health care provided by the Leeds Mental health service department. The author’s main idea is to grasp the potentiality and benefits of “out of area treatment”. Through article the author wants to convey to the readers the pros and cons of this treatment style. The article also throws light upon the cost incurred for this treatment as the author wants to assess cost effectiveness of the treatment. In this process, the article details about the personal and financial cost incurred in this treatment. Moreover, the article ponders on the reason for the implementation of out of area treatment as this practice distance the patient from their community and family members. The research method of the article The author in this article has conducted extensive research to understand the reason and effect of “out of area treatment in mental health” in Leeds. He has primarily approached the records of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Healthcare Commission to understand the cost estimates and expenditure incurred for this particular style of mental health care service. The kind of research followed here is secondary research, wherein the author collected data from the records of Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Health Care Commission. According to Pritlove(2012 ,pg.1)“The Royal College concluded that “hundreds of millions of pounds are being wasted each year on out of area treatments”. This study upon these two organizations has allowed the author to clearly convey to the readers about the disadvantage of “out of area treatment”. Further, the author synthesized information from the Leeds Partnership trust and the NHS Leeds to validate his research more strongly. This information gives the whole scenario during 2004 to 2010 when this type of treatment was carried out by Leeds mental health department. However, if the author could have conducted some primary research with the aid of interview and survey, it would have been really helpful to the author in confirming his arguments. This research conducted with the help of Royal College has aided the author to estimate the financial cost incurred for this particular treatment. Moreover, the data from the Leeds partnership trust has assisted the author in understanding the reason for the launch of “out of area treatment” and the quality of care it offered to the patients. Strength of the article This article is compiled by the author with a mission to alert the Leeds Mental hospital regarding the efficiency of their “out of area treatment” .For the very same reason; the article in its introductory stage is reflecting the disadvantages of this kind of treatment. Hence, the article has succeeded in enhancing the motive behind the articulation of this literary piece. The article also shows that adequate research has been conducted by the author in the process of evaluating the article. He has pointed different organization from where he has acquired data and information in order to convince the readers about the authenticity of the writing. The article proves to be professional as the author has touched the different dimensions of the “out of area treatment” of Leeds hospital. The author here has raised concern over the quality of care given to the mentally ill patients and this projects the sincerity and honesty of author with regard to the health of a patient. This attitude by the author is a major strength of the article. The author also has made it a point to let out the statistics of patients send out for the “out of area treatment” which further enhances the value of this medical article. The writing also exemplifies about the personal and financial cost incurred for this treatment, which allows the reader to understand the pros and cons of the treatment more clearly. Weakness of the article The article along with strength also has some weaknesses which need to be pointed out in order to analyze its potentiality. One of the drawback of the article is that author has not detailed about his background and credibility as a writer in researching a medical subject. The absence of information about the writer provokes trust issues among readers. Moreover, the article in the introductory part itself put down the disadvantages of the treatment which looks odd. One another weakening aspect of the article is that, there is no proper introduction framework to the research article. Introduction is an important part of the writing and this is where the writer can catch the attention of the readers. The author also does not have specific argument as such in the article and is mostly neutral. This is because the writing is not only explaining about the drawbacks of the treatment but also indicates the reason for the implementation of such a treatment. The author also have used many statistical date which takes more space in the writing , thus leaving less ground for articulating other facts about the research subject. The author misses out on the aspect of collecting some information from the patients who has undergone this treatment in order to scale the effectiveness of this treatment. The article is also conducted solely on the basis of secondary research method and no primary sources are utilized to grab more details about the treatment. Critique of article from different dimensions The article “Out of Area treatment in mental health” does not reflect any authority as there is no organization representing it. The article is a medical based one and is a contribution from Pritlove which acknowledges the people about the treatment pattern, quality and nature of mental health service offered by Leeds mental hospital. The article was found on internet data base and has no information about the author articulating it. Apart from this, when one considers the accuracy of the article, there can arise much confusion. This is because the article does not have a sponsoring organization and also does not carry any information regarding the writer. However, the author has been accurate in presenting the statistics and references appropriately. If we ponder on the relevance of the article, it efficiently relates to the medical field on the basis of medical facts and organizations mentioned in it. The article has credibly produced facts from the records of Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Healthcare Commission, Leeds Partnerships Trust (the provider trust) and from NHS Leeds which points out the relevance of the article to mental health field .Moreover, the author mentions that this research is done for the benefit of Leeds Hospital Alert which is a health monitoring group. Apart from this, the objectivity of the article is clear to the reader, which is to project the reasoning and cause and effect of “Out of the area treatment” in Leeds mental hospital. Conclusion This review paper has both summarized and critically assessed the article “Out of area treatment in mental health”. Here, the article is studied intricately and every aspect about it is scrutinized deeply in order to understand the positive and negative side of it. It is very essential while critically reviewing an article to look at every point of the author, so that right arguments and assumptions are formulated. Apparently, the article is not a professional one as it lacks sponsored organization and background information about the author and this makes difficulty in establishing the authenticity of the article. But the author’s declaration about the medical organizations and statistical data from it gives professional dimension to the writing. Here the purpose of the study of the article on mental health service of Leeds is to assess the reason behind the introduction of “Out of area treatment” to the patients of Leeds. To an extent, the author has been successful in providing right information to the reader and thus the objectivity and relevance of the article is precisely reflected. In this paper, effort also has been made to understand the strength and weaknesses of the writing with an intention to evaluate the quality of the writing. When we ponder on the structure of the article, there are limitations as there is lack of introduction and conclusion in the writing. Here, the content, limitation and structure of the article are critiqued and it indicates the article to be a less adequate one on professional grounds. Work Cited Pritlove,J. 2012. OUT OF AREA TREATMENTS IN MENTAL HEALTH:. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.leedshospitalalert.org.uk/OAT%20reports/OATsarticle15112011.pdf. [Accessed 23 December 12]. Read More