Narrative approaches to health and social care

Listening to people’s accounts and stories of their situations is of fundamental importance to all professional groups in the field of health and social care.

Professionals often find themselves in a situation of trying to ‘re-story’ the way in which service users understand and interpret their situations. Working from a perspective that explores the ‘narrative construction of identities’ students will explore and apply this perspective to a professional issue of their choice. The students understanding of this approach and their theme will be assessed through a peer group presentation and a written assignment.

SYLLABUS OUTLINE

  1. What’s in a Story?
    • Introduction to the narrative metaphor.

  2. Culture, Community and Identity.
    • The narrative construction of Identity.

  3. Private Stories as Public Issues.
    • Locating narrative in professional contexts.

  4. Never better?
    • Narrative constructions of Illness and Health

  5. Tales from the front line.
    • Ethical issues in narrative studies.

  6. Tales from the front line
    • Designing practice based case studies.

  7. Some stories are better than others
    • The therapeutic use of narrative.   

  8. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall.
    • Narrative constructions of Illness and Health
    • Setting personal and professional agendas

  9. Lies, damn lies, and stories?
    • Narrative data as an evidence base.

10.Back to the future.
    • Resetting personal and professional agendas





LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the narrative approach in the field of health and social care.
   
2. Consider the ethical issues in narrative approaches to the field of health and social care.
   
3. Evaluate the narrative approach in relation to a particular area of professional practice.
   
4. Understand the relevance of the narrative perspective for multi professional working.





READING LIST

Andrews, M. et al, Ends, (2000) Lines of Narrative, Routledge.

Boje, David M., (2001) Narrative Methods for Organisational and Communication Research, Sage.

Borkan, J., (1999) Patients and Doctors: Life changing stories from Primary Care, University of Wisconsin Press.

Bornat, J., (1994) Reminscence Reviewed.

Castells, C., (1997) The Power of Identity, Blackwell.

Chamberlayne, P., Wengraf, T., (2000) The Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science, Routledge.

Chamberlayne, P., Bornat, J. and Apitzch, U. (2004) Biographical Methods and Professional Practice. An International Perspective. The Policy Press.

Cosslett, Tess: Lury, Celia & Summerfield, Penny, Ends, (2000) Feminism and Autobiography, Routledge.

Crossley, Michele, (2000) Introducing Narrative Psychology: Self, Trauma and the Construction of Meaning.

Czarniawska-Joerges, B., (1998) A Narrative Approach to Organisation Studies. Sage.

Demaria, Rita, (1999) Focused Genograms, Brunner/Mazel.

Denzin, N., (1989) Interpretive Biography. Sage.

Dwivedi, Kedar, Nath, (1997) The Therapeutic Use of Stories, ed. Rougledge.

Flick, U., (2002) An Introduction to Qualitative Research, 2nd ed, Sage.

Goodley, Dan, (2000) Self-advocacy in the lives of people with learning difficulties, OUP.

Hancock, P. (2000) The Body, Culture and Society. OUP.

Harvey, John, (2000) Give Sorrow Words, Brunner/Mazel.

Hirsch, M. (2002) Family Frames. Photography, narrative and postmemory. Harvard.
 
Hoyt, M.F. (2001) Interviews with Brief Therapy Experts, Brunner-Routledge.

Hurwitz, B. Greenhaugh, T. Skultans, V. (2004) Narrative Approaches to Health and Illness

Johnson, C., Webster, D., (2002) Recrafting a Life: Chronic Pain and Illness, Brunner/Routledge, Vol 5, Sage.

Josselson, R., (1996) Ethics and process in the narrative studies of lives, Vol 4, Sage.

Josselson, R., (1995) Interpreting experience: the narrative studies of lives, Vol 3, Sage.

Lieblich, A., (1994) Exploring identity and gender: the narrative study of Lives, Vol 2, Sage.

Kuhn, A. (2002) Family Secrets. Acts of Memory and Imagination, Verso.

Mcadams, D.P., (1996) The stories we live by, Guildford Press.

Mcnamara, B., (2001) Fragile Lives: Death, Dying and Care. OUP.

Martin, R., (1995) Oral History in Social Work, Sage.

Mattingly, C., (1998) Healing Dramas and clinical plots, the narrative structure of experience, Cambridge UP.

Miller, R., (2000) Researching Life Stories & Family Histories, Sage.

Ochs, E., & Capps, L., (2002) Living Narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling, Harvard University Press.

Nettleton, S., & Watson, J., Ed, (1998) The Body in Everyday Life, Routledge.

Nichols, M.P., (1996) The Lost Art of Listening, Guildford.

Parton, N. & O’Byrne, P. (2000) Constructive Social Work, Macmillan.

Plummer, K., (2001) 2nd ed, Documents of Life 2: An Invitation to Critical Humanism, London, Sage.

Roberts, B., (2002) Biographical Research, OUP.

Rynearson, E.K., (2001) Retelling Violent Death,
Brunner-Routledge.

Seale, C., (1998) Constructing Death: the sociology of dying and bereavement, Cambridge UP.

Smith, C. & Nylund, D., (1997) Narrative Therapies with Children and Adolescents, Guildford Press.

Sidoli, M., (2000) When the body speaks, Routledge.

Scaffer, K. & Smith, S. (2004), Human Rights and Narrated Lives. The Ethics of Recognition, Pallgrave Macmillan.

Talbot, K., (2002) What forever Means after the Death of a Child, Brunner-Routledge.

Valent, P., (2002) Child survivors of the Holocaust, Brunner-Routledge.