Making decisions under constraint: A case study.

Title: Making decisions under constraint: A case study.
Identifier: AAI9510712
identifier: 9510712
Creator: Richmond, Linda L. Nickell.
Contributor: Herbert D. Saltzstein
Date: 1994
Language: English
Publisher: City University of New York.
Subject: Psychology, Social | Health Sciences, Mental Health
Abstract: This study, based on the grounded theory approach, explored how members of one outreach team made decisions to involuntarily hospitalize individuals judged to be at risk of danger to self or others due to mental illness. From observation and interview material gathered over a one-month period, a conceptual framework of decision-making under constraint was proposed. Both legal criteria for involuntarily hospitalization (i.e., danger to self or others due to mental illness) and the system of care for homeless mentally ill individuals is framed in person-level categories and need-based language. However, decisions made by outreach workers on the street are based on intersecting person, group, system, and situational realities, and are framed in help-based language. Decisions to designate were based on risk and filtered through individual worker's beliefs about the capability of the help system and their own need to help. Ultimately, however, people were transformed into categories that matched legal and system criteria.
Type: dissertation
Source: PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
degree: Ph.D.
Program: Psychology