Revisit the forgotten art of letter writing

Green, Anita and Lambert, Nicky ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8785-4719 (2013) Revisit the forgotten art of letter writing. Mental Health Practice, 16 (8) . pp. 30-34. ISSN 1465-8720 [Article] (doi:10.7748/mhp2013.05.16.8.30.e821)

Abstract

Using letter writing to augment the therapeutic relationship is familiar to counsellors and psychotherapists, but many mental health nurses have been reluctant to employ this practice. Therapeutic letter writing is not usually included in the mainstream nursing curriculum or as part of routine care, and nurses can feel ill-equipped to undertake it.

Letters concerning service users are copied to them as standard practice to aid transparency in communicating about their care. This presents an opportunity to revisit the potential of writing to enhance care and the therapeutic dialogue. This article includes a brief review of therapeutic letter writing, and examines its uses, advantages and contraindications. Examples of letters with therapeutic intent are included.

Item Type: Article
Keywords (uncontrolled): Therapeutic relationship, therapeutic letter writing, mental health nursing
Research Areas: A. > School of Health and Education > Mental Health, Social Work and Interprofessional Learning
Item ID: 12872
Useful Links:
Depositing User: Nicky Lambert
Date Deposited: 26 Dec 2013 07:09
Last Modified: 13 Oct 2016 14:29
URI: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/12872

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Statistics

Activity Overview
6 month trend
0Downloads
6 month trend
479Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.