Exploring the risk management strategies of mental health service users

This article describes an exploratory study of risk management strategies employed by users of mental health services. A wide range of risks was examined in 22 semi-structured interviews with users, designed to explore their risk management experiences from the onset of their illness to the time of interview. The grounded theory approach, first developed by Glaser and Strauss (1968), was used to collect and analyse the data and test the three theoretical models of risk management developed from the interviews. A description is provided of the three models of service user strategies; proactive risk management, passive risk management and no risk management. Each model is summarised through highlighting key characteristics relating to users and their behaviours, risk situations and risk decision-making.