scholarly journals Containment and therapeutic relationships in acute psychiatric care spaces: the symbolic dimensions of doors

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evdokia Missouridou ◽  
Evangelos C. Fradelos ◽  
Emmanouel Kritsiotakis ◽  
Polyxeni Mangoulia ◽  
Eirini Segredou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There is an increasing trend of door locking practices in acute psychiatric care. The aim of the present study was to illuminate the symbolic dimensions of doors in Greek mental health nurses’ experiences of open and locked working spaces. Results A sequential mixed-method designexplored the experiences of nurses working in both open and locked psychiatric acute care units. Participants experiences revealed four types of doors related to the quality of recovery-oriented care: (a) the open door, (b) the invisible door, (c) the restraining door, and (d) the revolving door. Open doors and permeable spacesgenerated trust and facilitated the diffusion of tension and the necessary perception of feeling safe in order to be involved in therapeutic engagement. When the locked unit was experienced as a caring environment, the locked doors appeared to be “invisible”. The restraining doors symbolized loss of control, social distance and stigma echoing the consequences of restrictingpeople’s crucial control over spaceduring the COVID-19 pandemicin relation toviolence within families, groups and communities. The revolving door (service users’ abscondence/re-admission) symbolised the rejection of the offered therapeutic environment and was a source of indignation and compassion fatigue in both open and locked spaces attributed to internal structural acute care characteristics (limited staffing levels, support, resources and activities for service users) as well as ‘locked doors’ in the community (limited or no care continuity and stigma). Conclusions The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on people’s crucial control of space provides an impetus for erecting barriers masked by the veil of habit and reconsidering the impact of the simple act of leaving the door open/locked to allow both psychiatric acute care unit staff and service users to reach their potential.

1995 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 276-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bernard Audini ◽  
Michael Crowe ◽  
Joan Feldman ◽  
Anna Higgitt ◽  
...  

Our objective was to establish a mechanism for monitoring indicators of the state of health of inner London's mental illness services. Data were collected for a census week around 15 June 1994. Local data collection was coordinated by consultant pyschiatrists working in inner London services. Twelve services participated with a combined catchment population of 2.6 m. They included ten London services which were among the 17 most socially deprived areas of England. Main indicators were admission bed occupancy levels (including an estimate of the total requirement), proportion of patients detained under the Mental Health Act, number of assaults committed by inpatients, number of emergency assessments and CPN caseloads. The mean true bed occupancy (which reflects the number of patients who were receiving, or required, in-patient care on census day) was 130%. To meet all need for acute psychiatric care, including for patients who should have been admitted and those discharged prematurely because beds were full, a further 426 beds would have been required. Fifty per cent of patients were legally detained. Physical assaults were virtually a daily occurrence on the admission units. Average community pyschiatric nurse caseloads were 37, suggesting that the majority were not working intensively with limited caseloads of patients with severe mental illness. These indicators, although imperfect, will allow for some measurement of the impact of local and central initiatives on the poor state of London's mental illness services.


Author(s):  
E. Missouridou ◽  
Α. Resoulai ◽  
Ι. Sakavara ◽  
E. C. Fradelos ◽  
E. Kritsiotakis ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella D'Orta ◽  
François R. Herrmann ◽  
Panteleimon Giannakopoulos

Among the different types of heavy use of mental health services, frequent inpatient admission in acute care units of individuals unable to return to their usual environment refers to as revolving-door (RD). RD in prisoners is related to increased violence (acted and supported) and suicidal recidivism. We explored the determinants of RD in 200 inmates from the Swiss-French speaking areas who were admitted to the sole acute psychiatric care unit for all of the Swiss-French counties, located in Geneva. The Cuzick's test for trend across ordered groups, Kruskal-Wallis test and oneway ANOVA were used to compare demographic and clinical variables between single (one admission, N = 100), frequent (3–7, N = 69) and RD (more than 8, N = 31) during a 12 months period. In addition, univariate and multivariable ordered logistic regression modes were built to examine the determinants of RD. The sample included 27 women (mean age: 31.2 years) and 173 men (34.5 years) who were admitted during the period 2014–2019. The vast majority were single (65%) with low level of education (<6 years, 78%). Suicidal behavior was the more frequent reason for admission (57%). Psychiatric history was positive in 77.5% of cases and in 54.5% of cases there was at least one episode of inpatient psychiatric care. The more frequent ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in the last admission were psychotic disorder (38%), personality disorder (29.5%) and adjustment disorder (19.5%). In contrast, depressive episodes (7%) and bipolar disorder (4.5%) were rare. Group comparison showed that the presence of court-ordered treatments, suicidal behavior, personality and psychotic disorders was associated with significantly increased frequency of RD use. In univariate models, the same factors were positively associated with RD, the highest odds ratio being found for court-ordered treatments (5.77) and personality disorders (2.14). In contrast, the diagnosis of adjustment disorders was related to decreased RD use (OR 0.25). Court-ordered treatments and personality disorders were the only factors to predict RD in multivariable regression models. These findings suggest that acute psychiatric care in these patients did not depend of environmental stressors but rather represents the expression of a long-lasting vulnerability related to their psychological profile and criminal status.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 790
Author(s):  
João Palha ◽  
Filipa Palha ◽  
Pedro Dias ◽  
Manuel Gonçalves-Pereira

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an important measure of health care quality. Patients’ views have seldom been considered in the construction of measures addressing satisfaction with inpatient facilities in psychiatry. The Views on Inpatient Care - VOICE - is a first service-user generated outcome measure relying solely on their perceptions of acute care, representing a valuable indicator of service users’ perceived quality of care. The present study aimed to contribute to the validation of the Portuguese version of VOICE.Material and Methods: The questionnaire was translated into Portuguese and applied to a sample of eighty-five female inpatients of a psychiatric institution. Data analysis focused on assessing reliability and exploring the impact of demographic and clinical variables on participants’ satisfaction.Results: Internal consistency of the questionnaire was high (α = 0.87). Participants’ age and marital status were associated with differences in scores, with older patients and patients who were married or involved in a close relationship presenting higher satisfaction levels.Discussion: The questionnaire demonstrated good internal consistency and acceptability, as well as construct validity. Further studies should expand the analysis of the psychometric properties of this measure e.g., test-retest reliability.Conclusion: The Portuguese version of VOICE is a promising tool to assess service users’ perceptions of inpatient psychiatric care in Portugal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 1017-1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard R. Hurtig ◽  
Rebecca M. Alper ◽  
Karen N. T. Bryant ◽  
Krista R. Davidson ◽  
Chelsea Bilskemper

Purpose Many hospitalized patients experience barriers to effective patient–provider communication that can negatively impact their care. These barriers include difficulty physically accessing the nurse call system, communicating about pain and other needs, or both. For many patients, these barriers are a result of their admitting condition and not of an underlying chronic disability. Speech-language pathologists have begun to address patients' short-term communication needs with an array of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies. Method This study used a between-groups experimental design to evaluate the impact of providing patients with AAC systems so that they could summon help and communicate with their nurses. The study examined patients' and nurses' perceptions of the patients' ability to summon help and effectively communicate with caregivers. Results Patients who could summon their nurses and effectively communicate—with or without AAC—had significantly more favorable perceptions than those who could not. Conclusions This study suggests that AAC can be successfully used in acute care settings to help patients overcome access and communication barriers. Working with other members of the health care team is essential to building a “culture of communication” in acute care settings. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9990962


2011 ◽  
Vol 08 (01) ◽  
pp. 09-15
Author(s):  
D. McDaid

SummaryNew forms of psychiatric remuneration linked to levels of activity undoubtedly will have an increasing role to play in mental health systems right across Europe. Potentially they can be more efficient and promote choice, but valid concerns have been raised about their impact on the sustainability and nature of psychiatric care. This article looks in particular at recent developments in England and the Netherlands and reflects on how remuneration mechanisms may need to develop further both to improve efficiency and quality within the context of an ever more fragmented and multi-sectoral mental health system. Any introduction of activity- based reimbursement should be introduced gradually. This should be accompanied by investment in adequate information systems to help better understand service utilisation patterns, transitional funding safeguards to reduce the risk of financial instability and incentives/ contractual measures to ensure that services strive to offer services of the highest possible quality that meet the needs of service users.


Paragraph ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
Kaya Davies Hayon

This article argues that Mariam uses its eponymous heroine's lived and embodied experiences of veiling to explore the impact of French secular legislation on Muslim schoolgirls' everyday lives in France. Interweaving secularism studies, feminism and phenomenology, I argue that the film portrays the headscarf as the primary means by which its protagonist is able to resist male patriarchal authority and negotiate her hybrid subjectivity. I conclude that Mariam offers a nuanced representation of veiling that troubles the perceived distinctions between Islam and secularism, oppression and freedom, and the veil and feminism in France and the West.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Praveen V. Mummaneni ◽  
Mohamad Bydon ◽  
John Knightly ◽  
Mohammed Ali Alvi ◽  
Anshit Goyal ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEDischarge to an inpatient rehabilitation facility or another acute-care facility not only constitutes a postoperative challenge for patients and their care team but also contributes significantly to healthcare costs. In this era of changing dynamics of healthcare payment models in which cost overruns are being increasingly shifted to surgeons and hospitals, it is important to better understand outcomes such as discharge disposition. In the current article, the authors sought to develop a predictive model for factors associated with nonroutine discharge after surgery for grade I spondylolisthesis.METHODSThe authors queried the Quality Outcomes Database for patients with grade I lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis who underwent a surgical intervention between July 2014 and June 2016. Only those patients enrolled in a multisite study investigating the impact of fusion on clinical and patient-reported outcomes among patients with grade I spondylolisthesis were evaluated. Nonroutine discharge was defined as those who were discharged to a postacute or nonacute-care setting in the same hospital or transferred to another acute-care facility.RESULTSOf the 608 patients eligible for inclusion, 9.4% (n = 57) had a nonroutine discharge (8.7%, n = 53 discharged to inpatient postacute or nonacute care in the same hospital and 0.7%, n = 4 transferred to another acute-care facility). Compared to patients who were discharged to home, patients who had a nonroutine discharge were more likely to have diabetes (26.3%, n = 15 vs 15.7%, n = 86, p = 0.039); impaired ambulation (26.3%, n = 15 vs 10.2%, n = 56, p < 0.001); higher Oswestry Disability Index at baseline (51 [IQR 42–62.12] vs 46 [IQR 34.4–58], p = 0.014); lower EuroQol-5D scores (0.437 [IQR 0.308–0.708] vs 0.597 [IQR 0.358–0.708], p = 0.010); higher American Society of Anesthesiologists score (3 or 4: 63.2%, n = 36 vs 36.7%, n = 201, p = 0.002); and longer length of stay (4 days [IQR 3–5] vs 2 days [IQR 1–3], p < 0.001); and were more likely to suffer a complication (14%, n = 8 vs 5.6%, n = 31, p = 0.014). On multivariable logistic regression, factors found to be independently associated with higher odds of nonroutine discharge included older age (interquartile OR 9.14, 95% CI 3.79–22.1, p < 0.001), higher body mass index (interquartile OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.31–3.25, p < 0.001), presence of depression (OR 4.28, 95% CI 1.96–9.35, p < 0.001), fusion surgery compared with decompression alone (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1–1.6, p < 0.001), and any complication (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.4–10.9, p < 0.001).CONCLUSIONSIn this multisite study of a defined cohort of patients undergoing surgery for grade I spondylolisthesis, factors associated with higher odds of nonroutine discharge included older age, higher body mass index, presence of depression, and occurrence of any complication.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Annika Lexén ◽  
Maria Emmelin ◽  
Lars Hansson ◽  
Bengt Svensson ◽  
Susann Porter ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Lack of mental health literacy among rehabilitation professionals and employers in the return-to-work of persons with mental health problems resulted in the development of a three-day group training program, the Support to Employers from rehabilitation Actors about Mental health (SEAM) intervention. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of SEAM on rehabilitation professionals’ knowledge and beliefs, attitudes, and supporting behaviors towards people with mental health problems and employers as part of the return-to-work process. METHODS: In this longitudinal study, 94 rehabilitation professionals were included. Data were collected prior to (T1), immediately after (T2) and 6 months after SEAM training (T3) using knowledge and attitude scales and a questionnaire on supporting behaviors. SEAM includes training in Mental Health First Aid, presentations and discussions on current research on work and mental health, and strategies and communication guidelines to use when meeting service users and employers as part of the return-to-work of persons with mental health problems. SEAM also includes a homepage with targeted employer information. Data were analyzed using non-parametric statistics. RESULTS: SEAM significantly increased rehabilitation professionals’ knowledge of mental health (T1-T2: z = –2.037, p = 0.042; T2-T3: z = –5.093, p = 0.001), and improved their attitudes towards persons with mental health problems (T1-T2: z = 4.984, p = 0.001). Professionals (50–60%) also estimated that they had increased their use of supporting strategies towards service users and employers. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that SEAM can increase mental health literacy among rehabilitation professionals and lead to a greater focus on service users’ resources and work ability, as well as on employers’ support needs.


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