How people who self ‐harm negotiate the inpatient environment: the mental healthcare workers perspective

Accessible summary What is known about the subject? Self‐harm plays a function, commonly in the form of distress management. There has been little focussed exploration of how individuals who use self‐harm to manage distress cope when prevented from self‐harm in an inpatient environment and how staff respond to this issue. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This paper uses the experiences of mental health staff to add to the existing knowledge that self‐harm has a functional role and supports the notion that interventions for self‐harm should focus on the origins of distress. It describes the potential consequences that focussing on prevention of self‐harm as opposed to actually managing distress may have on service‐users, how staff attempt to manage these consequences and factors that may impact on staff interventions to prevent further distress/harm. What are the implications for practice? The findings suggest that mental healthcare staff should aim to understand the function of self‐harm, use this understanding to develop an individualized care plan with the aim of managing distress and identify barriers to the effectiveness of the interventions so they can be worked around. AbstractIntroductionLiterature describes self‐harm as functional and meaningful. This creates difficulties for service‐users detained in an inpatient environment where self‐harm is prevented.AimMental healthcare staff were interviewed to build on existing evidence o...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research