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Max Bell

Course Director

Max is Course Director for the BA Working with Children, Young People and Families and BSc Social Care, Justice and Recovery, and the MSc in Mental Health and Addiction programmes.

Max Bell staff profile image

About

Max is Course Director for the BA Working with Children, Young People and Families and BSc Social Care, Justice and Recovery, and the MSc in Mental Health and Addiction programmes.

Max is Course Director for the BA Working with Children, Young People and Families and BSc Social Care, Justice and Recovery Programmes.

Max also contributes to a range undergraduate and postgraduate Programmes within the School of Health, including Social Work, Youth Work, Dual Diagnosis and Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Max has worked in the field of Mental Health for over 20 years and is qualified as a Social Worker and Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). She is still in practice and undertakes crisis mental health work, including assessments under the Mental Health Act (1983). Max's research interests include street triage, decision making in mental health and the role of the AMHP. Max joined Leeds Beckett in 2016 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Related links

School of Health

Publications (2)

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Journal article
Responding to mental health crisis at a street level: mental health practitioners as street level bureaucrats
Featured 08 May 2023 European Social Work Research1(2):1-14 Bristol University Press

Street triage practitioners, consisting of mental health social workers and nurses, act as a conduit between service users and emergency services and have a significant amount of discretion in determining the care and treatment pathways for individuals experiencing mental health crises. However, this is set on a backdrop of neoliberal reforms which have resulted in an increased focus on risk management, accountability, responsibilisation, and managing scarce resources. Based on ethnographic research undertaken in a street triage setting in England, this paper examines the role of street triage practitioners as ‘street level bureaucrats’ and explores the impact of neoliberal mental health reforms on street level practice and how these shape and constrain the use of discretion in a street triage context. Revisiting the relevance of Lipsky through a neoliberal lens, the research paper identifies how street triage practitioners use their discretion to navigate practice dilemmas in a contemporary mental health landscape.

Journal article
Solidarity is not a dirty word: Exploring and locating solidarity as a theory and model for a radical community social work practice
Featured 01 October 2024 Critical and Radical Social Work: an international journal12(4):1-14 Bristol University Press

Within this article we highlight that social work is both a political as well as a professional practice. Despite years of technical specialisation and a policy context that has focused social work on risk management and resource allocation, there remains a deep commitment to care, compassion, and solidarity within contemporary social work practice. The article and its analysis make the case for a more politically informed social work practice, one that is based on solidarity; in opposition to a system that isolates individuals and internalises complex social problems. We posit that the application of solidarity within social work delivers a practice that promotes social inclusion and is based on the provision of practical social support. It is from this perspective that we will present evidence from ethnographic research, drawn from community social work practice, to highlight the importance of social solidarity and provide an insight into different ways of working.

Current teaching

  • Social Care, Justice and Recovery
  • Working with Children, Young People and Families
  • Mental Health and Addiction

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Max Bell
20622