Patients Longing for Authentic Personal Care: A Phenomenological Study of Violent Encounters in Psychiatric Settings

Abstract

This article focuses on patients' violence against caregivers. Several studies show that violence and threats within the health care setting are an increasing problem. Encounters that become violent have been the issue of many debates but the phenomenon is still not fully understood. It is important to understand the course of events in violent encounters, both for the sake of the patients and the caregivers' well-being. The aim of this study was to describe the essence of violent encounters, as experienced by nine patients within psychiatric care. Guided by a phenomenological method, data were analyzed within a reflective life-world approach. The findings explicate violent encounters characterized by a tension between "authentic personal" and "detached impersonal" caring. "Authentic personal" patients are encountered in an undisguised, straightforward, and open way, and they sense unrestricted respect that caregivers would show another human being. In these encounters violence does not develop well. However, in caring that is "detached impersonal," the encounters are experienced by the patients as uncontrolled and insecure. These encounters are full of risks and potential violence.

The Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program: The Benefits from a Client Perspective

“…Most participants described going out for a coffee with the MHN, and this appeared to give the relationship a friendlier and less clinical feel that they valued highly. This notion of friendship is increasingly being considered important to the work of mental health personnel (Carlsson, Dahlberg, Ekebergh, & Dahlberg, 2006;McCann & Baker, 2001;Swinton, 2000) Carlsson et al (2006) assert that "contrary to what sometimes is meant by professional caring, we argue that true professional caring means to be personal, to be someone who is more than a carer in the encounter with a patient" (p. 300). Barker, Jackson, and Stevenson (1999) elaborate on this concept through the identification of three discrete domains that theorise the way MHNs relate to people in care.…”

Swedish assistant nurses’ experiences of job satisfaction when caring for persons suffering from dementia and behavioural disturbances. An interview study

“…Robinson, Adkisson and Weinrich (2001) state that female caregivers in particular, as they are thought to be more frightened than male caregivers, need to receive individualised, specific education and training programmes in order to understand and manage disturbing behaviours. Carlsson, Dahlberg, Dahlberg and Ekebergh (2006) report that when psychiatric patients, who had been violently towards care providers, are encountered by ''detached impersonal'', the encounters are experienced as uncontrolled and insecure, and might end up in a violent incidence. However, if they are encountered by ''authentic personal'' in an undisguised, straightforward and open way, and they sense that unrestricted respect which the staff would show any other human being, the result is not likely to be violent.…”

To be Strategically Struggling against Resignation: The Lived Experience of Being Cared for in Forensic Psychiatric Care

“…Primary adjustment, however, means that patients truly adapt to organization's rules, and that was not in evidence in our study. Carlsson, Dahlberg, Ekebergh, and Dahlberg (2006) describe how violent encounters in psychiatric settings are related to patients' longing for authentic personal care. The study highlights how patients opt out of relationships with carers who did not bother with the patients' lifeworld, who did not see the patients' suffering or the need for attendance.…”