ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on and scrutinizes the political landscape of mental health care. It argues that much of the contemporary political landscape of mental health care constitutes ‘algorithmic thinking’ rather than a dialogic approach to caregiving. The chapter also argues that the politics of performance, especially those that privilege algorithmic thinking in the shape of metrics and over-regulation, directly impact on service delivery and the experience of care. Contemporary discourses of caring and clinical practices in mental health emphasize regulation, safety and managed care. Financial and political drivers constrain practices and practitioners to task-focused care and depersonalized care, rather than the preferred model of many nursing theorists that of evidence-based, personalized, relational care. Collaboration is politically and economically driven, even where the fundamental premise is that of improved care. Collaboration and partnerships have also allowed nurses to work outside the acute health care silo, as they strive to improve quality of life for consumers and carers living in the community.
