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Why is it important?

People with a diagnosis of dementia are people first, and a condition second. They still have a right to a quality of life, which includes expressions of what is important to them, and to be supported to take reasonable and calculated risks in order to achieve their personal wishes. However, we live in a context of fear and blame, where practitioners would like to take reasoned risks with people, but are overwhelmed by what may happen in the relatively rare event of decisions going dramatically wrong. This article helps to challenge those fears and provide a structured way of making defensible decisions, not defensive decisions.

Perspectives

Positive risk-taking is an idea I originated in 1994 in response to a presentation by David Carson 'Risk-Taking in Mental Health'. It has always been designed to make us focus on defining the positive outcomes that will shape our decisions to take a risk or not. The 'positive' in positive risk-taking is about the outcomes, not about the risk. Don't trigger muddled thinking through creating overly generalised language like 'positive risk'... it doesn't mean anything. Positive risk-taking, by contrast, is very specific and focused, and consequently should be clearer and more meaningful expressions of language.

Mr Steve Morgan
Practice Based Evidence

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Positive risk-taking: from rhetoric to reality, The Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice, May 2016, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jmhtep-09-2015-0045.
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