Background - Self-explanatory – Narrative Theory is designed to put an emphasis on giving a person the opportunity to describe their own life in their own words. - Has psychological roots in Humanism. - Useful to get to know a service user. - Provides the service user with the opportunity to reaffirm or redefine their identity. - Enables the person to describe themselves in a manner that includes inconsistencies, contradictions, missed opportunities, regrets, uncertainty etc. - Promotes anti-discriminatory practice – avoids people being put into ‘boxes’, stereotyping etc. - Promotes empowerment and collaborative working. - Enables to service user to reframe their life experiences, possibly be deconstructing some of their life events. Uses in practice & discussion points - When completing assessments, gives the service user their own voice. - Does the existing format of the AIS assessment allow for this? Is possibly too structured, therefore a practitioner needs to fit the service users words into it and they may be lost. - Do we allow people to talk or do we try to keep them on track in order to complete an assessment efficiently? Reducing people’s experiences to ‘fit the form’ strips the person of their personality and identity - How relevant is someone’s previous experiences? E.g. we are completing an assessment with a view to arranging support with personal care – how important is their early life to this? It may not be directly related, but it allows the person a chance to open up and to build trust with the practitioner. - Particularly useful when working with someone who may have a reluctance to accept care, who is very independent. If we go in with the approach of not listening to their views, they will just think we are there to force something upon them that they don’t want. They may have something in their history that is the reason for this resistance. E.g. someone who is hoarding, did the items belong to a loved one that has passed? Narrative approach can be used as a tool for intervention in supporting someone to resolve this in a way which will benefit them long term and have benefits for their mental health. - Narrative approach can be used to complete an assessment, as well as giving someone who is possibly isolated a chance to talk to someone, which could produce tangible benefits for their mental health. - If used effectively, it can enable the service user to reframe their life experiences, possibly be deconstructing some of their life events. - Links well with Strengths-based practice. Limitations • Difficult for practitioners to devote the necessary amount of time to service users. • It may not provide a clear model for intervention and would not be applicable in some circumstances, such as crisis. Who are we writing the assessment for? If a service user read their assessment, do they think they would think it’s a true reflection of them as a person?
