Is falling in love within the mental health system a problem? How to turn it into a chance for the care relationship

Abstract

Accessible Summary What is known about the subject? In the context of health and social care, situations at the limit or beyond the role of the professional, such as falling in love and physical attraction between a client and a nurse, are very common events. In residential contexts, the construction of the professional relationship is made more complex than in other care contexts since sharing daily life, routine, constant contact and isolation contribute to making relationships more intense from an emotional point of view. Moreover, the same elements that promote the therapeutic process (interpersonal closeness, self‐disclosure, trust) are also sources of role ambivalence and possible emotional misunderstandings. What does the paper add to existing knowledge? In contrast to what is usually proposed in the literature for the management of similar situations, such as supervision by experts external to the team, this paper proposes a strategy of supervision between peers (called in literature “intervision”) and of taking charge of the situation by the entire team and the group of service users. What are the implications for mental health nursing? The story here presented offers a key example that may be of interest not only to residential centres for substance users but also to all residential mental health communities. It shows not only that one can fall in love, but that this event can generate new opportunities for the therapeutic pathway. The risks associated with not addressing these situations are discussed. These include the restriction of the feeling of falling in love within the canons of error; the attribution of what happened to personal characteristics and the assumption of guilt for such occurrences. Abstract Introduction The care pathway within a mental health service can create situations of strong emotional impact, including physical attraction and falling in love. This may evolve in moments of impasse for the staff and sometimes compromise the success of therapeutic treatment. Aim/Question This article offers some evidence about how intervene in a situation such as a client falling in love with a nurse, avoiding transforming it into a problem. The fear of the nurse, maybe already inclined to blame themselves for what has happened, when he/she asks for supervision, is to feel judged also by the supervisor. This story teaches that to refer to figures from outside the team, as would usually be the case with supervision, may be replaced by enhancing the role composition already available in the residential community as a resource. Method The story was listened and enhanced thankyou to an exchange between M. and the community manager. From the analysis of the narratives co‐produced by M., the former substance user, and the community manager, the elements that made it possible to transform a feeling of falling in love into an interaction of extended trust emerged. Results and Discussion The non‐judgmental and confidential context, but above all the training in interpersonal exchange, facilit...

‘ALL ABOUT MY IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE’: Users, family members and experts by experience discussing a co‐designed service

“…The choice to mix the roles of family member and user may have conditioned the themes expressed and the freedom of speech, however, we believe that the two facilitators of the focus groups, being a family member and a former user, paid great attention to the space of expression of the members of their role category. In future research, built from the beginning in collaboration between EbEs and researchers, we will pay more attention to this issue 59–62 …”

“…In future research, built from the beginning in collaboration between EbEs and researchers, we will pay more attention to this issue. 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 …”