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Figure 8.7. Obligatory passage point. Adapted from Callon, 1986a.

RGN: Remote generalist nurse; MHN: Mental health nurse; MO/GP: Medical officer/general medical practitioner; RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service; MHU: Acute mental health unit.

Through the moments of translation, the remote general nurse, as the controlling actor, has become the critical, central and indispensable actor in the actors’ arena. The patient’s mental health identity, or the mental health issue, is defined in the process of negotiation by the remote nurse with the other actors. It is the remote nurses who hold the information and hence it is their description of the patient or issue which makes them indispensable. All actors have to communicate with and through the remote nurse (see Figure 8.7), not only to obtain the necessary information to address the mental health