Applying Critical Thinking to Mental Health Dilemmas. (2nd Blog )

 

Applying Critical Thinking to Mental Health Dilemmas.

(Blog Entry 2) Omozee. 

2.1 From Reflection to Critical Thinking

Part 1 demonstrated my reflection on an incident, which is a significant initial step. But the critical thinking as I would have been taught in this module challenges us to take it a lot further. Reflection may sometimes merely be on my feelings and my actions. Instead, critical thinking is concerned with doubting the whole situation, the assumptions and structures that brought about the situation in the first place. According to the Foundation of Critical Thinking (2019), it is the act of analysing and evaluating thinking as a way of enhancing it. It is a more vigorous and demanding process. One of the authors in this field, Stephen Brookfield (2012) says that the most significant aspect of critical thinking is hunting assumptions. This implies that we need to actively seek the latent beliefs and values that inform our practice and the practice of our surrounding. It is not merely about what happened, but asking the question why things are the way they are.

2.2 Critical Analysis of a Workplace Dilemma

I am now able to re-analyse the incident with Mr. A, not in itself, as a one-off event, but as a dilemma that recurs time and time again: the issue of routine versus person-centred care. Applying the concept of Brookfield (2012), I can go in search of the assumptions that were present.

I assumed that a quiet ward is a safe ward. The assumption made by my senior colleague was that a service user, who feels heard, is a safe service user. But bigger, organisational assumptions were involved as well. The award was overstaffed and it creates an unspoken rule that tasks need to be finished in a short time. This culture of work, which Frohman and Lupton (2020) could refer to as task-oriented, is in direct opposition to the principles of person-centred care.

This is where my thinking will have to consider the critical. I would have to wonder whether the problem was Mr. A. The system that caused A to have to get agitated so that he could be heard. Other authors such as Aveyard, Greenway and Parsons (2023) believe that evidence-based practice is more than the application of clinical evidence, but also the challenge of whether our practice is correct or not. I had been acting under an unspoken principle, that agitation should be restrained, and the actual experience of the matter is that distress should be comprehended. My critical analysis demonstrates me that it is not the question of how we can stop patients getting agitated but how we can reform our system so that patients do not have to get agitated. This is a far more difficult question.

2.3 Deconstructing the Dilemma

Going even further, I may examine the language spoken on the ward. I referred to the actions of my colleague as de-escalation, even this is a problematic term. It presupposes that the individual is escalated, and he or she should be brought down as though he or she is dangerous. What would happen were we to view it as helping a person in distress? Our reality is created in the language we speak. The other concept that I am now able to question is that of resilience. Fisher and Jones (2025) discuss the burden of bouncing back and how the concept of resilience is commonly imposed on both nurses and service users. It puts staff in a stressful situation (such as understaffed ward) and then hopes that staff members are resilient enough to handle them, and that service users are resilient enough to tolerate bad care without making complaints.

This is one of the critical insights to me. The dilemma is not only concerning my personal deeds or Mr. The emotions of A; it is a system as a whole, which depends on people simply coping until they crack. Part 1 reflected on my personal response, which is good but this critical thinking in Part 2 challenged the whole context of the problem. It demonstrates that in order to become a really considerate practitioner, I will not only have to correct my actions, but I will have to be conscious of, and be able to challenge, the imperfect systems I am operating in.