01410pab a2200145 454500008004000000100001900040245011800059260000900177300001300186520095500199650002701154650003401181650001801215773003101233180718b1998   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aMorant, Nicola  aThe social representation of mental ill-health in communities of mental health practitioners in the UK and France  c1998  ap.663-85  aAs society's practical experts on mental ill-health, mental health professionals work at the interface between politics, "expert" theories of mental illness and their lay equivalents in common sense. This paper describes research conducted from the perspective of social representations theory exploring the basic understanding of mental ill-health amongst communities of mental health practitioners in the UK and France. Professionals construct notions of mental ill-health articulated around three central themes of difference, distress and disruption, and adopt social rather than medical models of their work. Despite their expert status, professionals' representations are fraught with uncertainties that are lived out in eclectic treatment strategies. This research highlights the role of interactions between politics, professional practitioners and lay representations in contemporary societal constructions of mental ill-health. - Reproduced  aMental health - France  aMental health - Great Britain  aMental health  aSocial Science Information