Health professionals’ experiences of providing care for women survivors of sexual violence in psychiatric inpatient units

Abstract

BackgroundSurvivors of sexual violence, who are predominantly women, commonly access mental health services. Psychiatric inpatient units in Australia are predominately mixed gender and may further retraumatise these women. Sexual violence is under-recognised by mental health professionals and there is a lack of adequate policy or direction for mental health service services. To date, only a small amount of research has focused on health professionals’ experiences of providing trauma-informed care to women in psychiatric settings, with most studies focused on specific practices or interventions. Qualitative data is particularly lacking on this topic. This is a critical gap in the knowledge given that health professionals are key to detecting and addressing victimisation. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions in providing care to women who are survivors of sexual violence in psychiatric inpatient units.MethodsThis qualitative study utilised semi-structured interviews with 40 health professionals recruited from four psychiatric inpatient units within a large Australian public mental health organisation. Data were examined using thematic analysis.ResultsThree main typologies were developed to describe participants’ experiences of the care provided to women; 1) Dismissing and denying; 2) Acknowledging but unprepared; 3) Empathising but despairing.DiscussionGender, professional training, adherence to the biomedical model, and level of experience influenced health professionals’ experiences.ConclusionsHealth professionals in this study held varying attitudes towards female consumers and responses to sexual violence. Our findings suggest the need to address individual staff perception and promote trauma-informed and gender-sensitive care across all disciplines, genders, and levels of experience.

The Impacts of Working With Victims of Sexual Violence: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

“…That administrator will usually get no supervision or recognition for the emotional element of their work. In studies where the participants were professionals working in diverse environments (e.g., acute ward, prison, domestic violence shelter, police) (Javaid, 2017;Kreinath, 2019;Newman et al, 2019;O'Dwyer et al, 2019), there is an added level of complexity. It is even more difficult to ascertain the traumatic effects of working with this population from the effects of the workplace.…”

“…They often faced ethical and professional dilemmas about their role and the usefulness or necessity of their role (Backe, 2018;Javaid, 2017). Faced with these issues, staff felt stressed and unable to cope with the demands of the job, their sense of selfworth, confidence, and self-efficacy as professionals were diminished, felt disempowered and meaningless in their job, as well as experiencing constant doubt and ruminations over decisions taken due to no longer perceiving themselves as skilled to a high standard (Albaek et al, 2020;Brend et al, 2020;Gatuguta et al, 2019;O'Dwyer et al, 2019). This effect was exacerbated when they lacked clear guidance, guidelines, or resources (Backe, 2018;Kreinath, 2019), when there was an overreliance on procedures, and when they did not feel that the organizations they worked for would support their decisions (Albaek et al, 2020).…”

Seksualinio Smurto Priežasčių Ir Prevencijos Analizė

“…Dar mažiau dėmesio skiriama profesionaliam darbui su smurtautojais, todėl galėtų būti vykdomos mokymo programos specialistams, kurios suteiktų įgūdžių, kaip įtarti seksualinę prievartą bei kuo greičiau pagelbėti aukai. Programų tikslas -pristatyti galimas seksualinio smurto apraiškas, priežastis bei sprendimo būdus [36]. Svarbu skatinti ir aukas kuo anksčiau prisipažinti apie patiriamą lytinę prievartą ir nebijoti visuomenės kritikos.…”

To Do or Not to Do… Primary Health Care Professionals Experiences With Mothers With Children Born of Sexual Violence

“…Commonly, professionals do not ask about a possible history of violence due to inadequate knowledge, confidence, and skills to respond to such confessions (Rose et al, 2011;Hepworth and McGowan, 2013;Nyame et al, 2013). Moreover, there is no recommended action for mental health services and clinical care to follow up on when a woman has experienced sexual violence (O'Dwyer et al, 2019). In addition, prior research revealed that secondary traumatic stress symptoms are common among professionals who work with traumatized patients (O'Halloran and Linton, 2000;Canfield, 2005).…”

“…Therefore, the identification of these dyads and the development of a secure attachment should be a focus in early interventions. Prior research has shown that experienced violence in general is under-recognized by mental health professionals ( O’Dwyer et al, 2019 ). Commonly, professionals do not ask about a possible history of violence due to inadequate knowledge, confidence, and skills to respond to such confessions ( Rose et al, 2011 ; Hepworth and McGowan, 2013 ; Nyame et al, 2013 ).…”