Whose diagnosis is it anyway? Features of clinician communication that influence patient responses to mental health diagnoses

As mental health is an ESRC strategic priority for 2016-2020, I propose to conduct a rigorous, multiphase programme of qualitative research to investigate three core but neglected issues pertinent to mental health policy:

1) Practising psychiatrists' views about the function of diagnosis including if, when and how they might talk about diagnosis with patients

2) How psychiatrists formulate, disclose and employ diagnoses during psychiatric consultations

3) How patients respond to receiving psychiatric diagnoses at the point of disclosure within the interactional context of consultations, and subsequently, during follow-up interviews.

This programme of research will provide rich, multi-perspective data to inform current debates and practices in unprecedented ways.