Professional sexual abuse in mental health services: capturing practitioner views of a contemporary corruption of care

This paper focuses on practitioner views of professional sexual abuse in mental health services in the UK. In spite of high profile cases and changes to the law and regulation of mental health professionals in recent years, it remains a signifi cant problem. It also presents particular challenges for colleagues and managers of services when incidents are reported or come to light through everyday practice. To date it has received little attention in research other than from within psychological therapies. This study seeks to provide a counter balance to those approaches by taking a social inequalities perspective and focusing on systemic and institutional dimensions. It draws comparisons with Wardaugh and Wilding’s (1993) theory of the ‘corruption of care’ and argues that even when mental health care is provided in the community it can still become corrupted.

The paper presents the findings of a small scale study of practitioner perspectives on the subject. The findings tentatively suggest that the problem is endemic but hidden by ineffective management responses. It argues for new approaches to selection, training and support for professionals that include counter-intuitive approaches to policing colleagues and institutional cultures.