Exploration of patients perceptions of violence
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration of the perceptions and experiences of incidents of violence from inpatients on a Mental Health Unit: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study.
IRAS ID
318711
Contact name
Helen Carlton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cygnet Healthcare
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Background: The prevalence of violence within mental health settings remains high. Much of the research to date has focused on exploring staff perceptions of violence when working with inpatients. However, staff are not the only victims of inpatient violence and often the target of such incidents becomes other inpatients, leading to possible trauma as a result. Understanding the use of violence within inpatient settings and how risk may be reduced therefore remains important. Exploring patient’s perceptions of violence in a more holistic way, including how individuals feel violence impacts on them and their perception of management and support strategies may help to create a more comprehensive overview of violence within mental health settings, reduction of incidents and support recovery pathways for individuals.
Methodology: This research will use an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) to explore in detail, individual’s own personal life experiences and the meanings that individuals place on said experiences. Interviews will be conducted with volunteering and capacitous consenting adult male participants from inpatient mental health locked rehabilitation settings. A one hour, semi-structured interview will take place, focused on answering the questions of what participant's experiences of violence in inpatient settings has been, what has led them to use violence if they have, how violence (both as perpetrators and victims) has impacted on them, what support they were given during and after an incident and any further support they feel may have helped them or would be useful to reduce future incidents of violence.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EM/0161
Date of REC Opinion
14 Sep 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion