Virtual communication about psychiatric intensive care units: Social actor representatives claim space on Twitter

Psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) provide care for those with the worst phases of mental illness. What defines a PICU is often decided locally at hospitals. The aim of the present study was to explore and describe a contemporary discourse on how PICU are socially constructed from virtual discu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of mental health nursing 2017-08, Vol.26 (4), p.366-374
Main Author: Salzmann‐Erikson, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Digital shapeshifting
Discourse
Health education
Health information
Health Personnel
Health-Promoting Work
hospital
Hospitals
Humans
Hälsofrämjande arbete
Intensive care
Intensive Care Units - organization & administration
Mental disorders
Nursing
Power
psychiatric
Psychiatric Department, Hospital - organization & administration
Qualitative Research
Social Media
Social networks
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Summary:Psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) provide care for those with the worst phases of mental illness. What defines a PICU is often decided locally at hospitals. The aim of the present study was to explore and describe a contemporary discourse on how PICU are socially constructed from virtual discussions. An explorative and descriptive study design was applied for this qualitative inquiry using discourse methodology. The data were collected in Twitter's search string and consists of 215 Twitter postings. A framework of social actor representatives that form the discourse was established and presented in three categories: (i) hospital and agencies communicating about PICU; (ii) health‐care professionals communicating about PICU; and (iii) service users and relatives communicating about PICU. Hospitals, agencies, and health‐care professionals hold great power and responsibility for informing the public about PICU. Transparent and informative tweets could turn the mystery of PICU into more specific, positive portrayals.
ISSN:1445-8330
1447-0349
1447-0349
DOI:10.1111/inm.12253