Dr Nick Waggett

Waggett, N. 2017. Technology at Work: An Investigation of Technology as a Mediator of Organizational Processes in the Human Services and the Implications for Consultancy Practice. Prof Doc Thesis University of East London Social Sciences Abstract: Increasing technology use in the organization of human services is seen as essential to achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness. However, the promises may not be realised if technology generates processes and structures that are misaligned to the primary task of the service. How and why this occurs, and the role of unconscious and emotional factors, is insufficiently understood. There is limited guidance on how to work with technology in complex services where anxiety, and defences against it, may be a significant factor. Drawing on systems-psychodynamics, actor-network and process theory, this research addresses these gaps through a methodology in which human and technology are seen to operate symmetrically in the ongoing formation of...

CEO of the Association of Child Psychotherapists Dr Nick Waggett has recorded a webinar in which he discusses what we can learn from the experience of remote and online working during the  COVID-19 pandemic for the future provision of mental health services. Drawing on doctoral research on the impact of technology on organisational process, and recent experience of the ACP’s response to COVID-19, he argues that the many potential benefits of technology and online working will not be realised if we do not learn fully from this experience. Instead the risk is that a partial view of the efficiencies of online technology is implemented as being an ideal model which in reality does not meet the needs of many service users and places an excessive burden of anxiety on staff. To engage thoughtfully and creatively with these new opportunities an environment is needed where anxiety can be moderated and decisions made that are clinically led rather than being technologically determined. The w...

"We must learn from the experience of online working during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the needs of all mental health service users." During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a rapid and quite remarkable take up of information and communication technologies that have facilitated the continued provision of critical mental health services, both for adults and for children and young people. An abrupt and dramatic switch to working from home and remote provision of services has been necessitated by the physical distancing and lockdown policies. This has been enabled by technologies such as video conferencing platforms and cloud storage, laptops and smart phones, in ways that would not have been possible even a few years ago.  People have commented on how different lockdown would have been for the public without Netflix and Amazon Prime. Equally, how different would it have been in mental health services without Zoom, Microsoft Teams and remote access to patient records?  As...