Psychiatric patients feel coerced into hospitalisation
In a study published in the Psychiatry Research Journal, a Trinity College School of Psychology researcher found a large difference between levels of coercion reported by people being admitted into psychiatric facilities and their caregivers, who are usually family members.
Family members reported a higher level of procedural justice and less coercion than patients who had been admitted.
The research focused on perception of coercion, pressures and procedural justice relating to psychiatric admissions in five acute in-patient facilities in south-east Dublin, north Wicklow and Galway.
The study is only the second of its kind to highlight the experiences of the families of those admitted into psychiatric hospitals as well as patients themselves.
Of the 66 caregivers who took part in the study, the majority were parents (56.1%), while 16.7% were spouses or partners.
Nearly half of the service users who agreed to take part in the research had a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
There were 18,457 psychiatric admissions in Ireland in 2013, 2,100 of which were involuntary.
Researcher Veronica Ranieri said the study points to a need for improved communication between patients and those who care for them and could have implications for follow-on care for psychiatric patients who have been discharged from hospital and have returned to the care of family members.
“Our aim is to reduce the rate of relapse. If a plan can be drawn up for rehospitalisation, that could really help the service users and their caregivers,” Ms Ranieri said.
Currently, 20% of those admitted involuntarily to a psychiatric facility will be readmitted within one year, according to research conducted by Ms Ranieri’s colleague, Brian O’Donoghue of the University of Melbourne.
Ms Ranieri would like to see her research being used towards creating a ‘toolkit’ for family members and help form a strategy such as drawing up a plan in case of future readmissions to hospital, as well as helping families to understand why loved ones are reluctant to be readmitted to hospital.
Caregivers are often an “invisible pillar of support”, and have themselves been traumatised by their experiences, Ms Ranieri said.
“If your relative becomes unwell it often reaches crisis point before you seek help and often there is hospitalisation. Caregivers often don’t know what to do and are very much alone. There is a duty of care there towards the caregivers themselves, who have no training and very little support,” Ms Ranieri said.
As well an increased need for communication between patients and their families, Ms Ranieri also called for increased dialogue between psychiatric facilities and caregivers.
