A Culture of Enquiry: Research Evidence and the Therapeutic Community

Nick Manning · Diana Menzies · Jan Lees

Sept 2003 · Jessica Kingsley Publishers

About this eBook

Research is an increasing priority for workers throughout the mental health sector, and therapeutic communities are no exception. Those working in TCs increasingly have to justify the success and efficiency of their methods to outside bodies, and the prime means of doing so is through research. This volume collects a wide range of papers by experienced contributors discussing all aspects of TC research. They consider questions of which methods are most appropriate in the unique environment of TCs, how research studies affect the TC environment, as well as practical and ethical questions. The book also includes accounts of several research studies undertaken at, among other places, the Cassel Hospital. Taken as a whole, the book will be an invaluable resource for anyone involved in researching therapeutic communities - whether undertaking a study, attempting to anticipate its clinical impact, or seeking to understand the kinds of results which TC research produces.

About the author

Rowdy Yates is Senior Research Fellow in Scottish Addiction Studies, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling. Nick Manning is Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Nottingham. Since his graduate fieldwork at Henderson Hospital in 1972 he has undertaken a variety of research on therapeutic communities. Jan Lees is a part-time research associate at Francis Dixon Lodge Therapeutic Community in Leicester: she is also joint series editor, with Rex Haigh, of Jessica Kingsley's Therapeutic Communities series. She has worked in, taught about and researched therapeutic communities for over 20 years. Barbara Rawlings has worked in a hierarchical therapeutic community for drug users and a democratic therapeutic community for adolescents with behavioural difficulties, as well as conducting reviews on TCs for the Prison Service of England and Wales and the High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board. She is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester, and is currently conducting qualitative research in therapeutic communities.