Therapeutic relationships and the problem of containment: Experiences of patients at a psychiatric training hospital

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Therapeutic relationships and the problem of containment: Experiences of patients at a psychiatric training hospital
 
Creator Böhmer, Manfred W. Krüger, Christa
 
Subject Psychiatry therapeutic relationships; containment; psychiatric inpatients; psychiatric hospital; psychiatry registrar training
Description Background: The biopsychosocial model emphasises the role of human relationships in psychiatric care. Therapeutic relationships that improve treatment outcome and provide containment are desperately needed by patients in distress. Despite the importance of human relationships, they are neglected in an era dominated by biological psychiatry.Aim: This qualitative research project explores the experiences, perceptions and subsequent needs of patients. The role of therapeutic relationships, and the factors that patients felt influenced their relationship with their therapists, were examined.Setting: A psychiatric training hospital in South Africa.Method: Thirty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 inpatients. A qualitative, explorative-descriptive, collective case study design was used. Purposive sampling ensured maximum variation and richness of information. Grounded theory methods were used to analyse transcribed recordings.Results: Patients valued therapeutic relationships that provide containment and potentially obviate the need for ‘measures of control’. A model of containment was developed to demonstrate the various factors that interact in the attempt to provide containment to patientsin a psychiatric training hospital system.Conclusion: Training hospitals should emphasise the role of therapeutic relationships in achieving containment and positive treatment outcomes. In developing countries, severe shortcomings in mental healthcare resources hinder the building of personal therapeutic relationships.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Department of Psychiatry and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria
Date 2019-10-24
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative, explorative-descriptive, collective case study.
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v25i0.1246
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 25 (2019); 7 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1246/1538 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1246/1537 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1246/1539 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1246/1536
 
Coverage South Africa 2013-2015 Psychiatric in-patients (adult)
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Manfred W. Böhmer, Christa Krüger https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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