Positive risk taking and borderline personality disorder experiences
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Perspectives on positive risk taking from people diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.
IRAS ID
212681
Contact name
Andrew Ware
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University or Surrey
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
Individuals with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder can require a large amount of support from mental health services, especially when the difficulties associated with the disorder lead them to engage in behaviours that are considered risky. At these times they may be detained involuntarily on an inpatient ward to keep themselves and others safe. Evidence shows that restrictive inpatient admission can be detrimental to their health and long-term recovery. Positive risk taking can be used by those providing mental health services to work with individuals diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder to keep them safe within the community. Positive risk taking is a national guideline that involves working collaboratively with service users to support them to make well-informed and balanced decisions about their care, which take into account the views of their carers and their strengths, values and long-term goals. There is very little research about how individuals diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder experience positive risk taking approaches. The existing research shows that individuals with this diagnosis engage in significantly less risky behaviour when they have a positive risk taking plan in place compared to when they do not. This project develops this insight, and attempts to discover how positive risk taking works, and how it interacts with the theoretical understanding of what works and does not work with individuals diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder. This study uses semi-structured interviews with service users to understand how positive risk taking is experienced in practice. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used to derive themes from the individual narratives. The outcomes will inform service delivery, policy and procedure and provide a contribution to the lacking evidence base for the positive risk taking approach from the perspective of people diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/2226
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion