The experiences of clinical psychologists in treating traumatic stress at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape: A qualitative study

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The experiences of clinical psychologists in treating traumatic stress at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape: A qualitative study
 
Creator Munishvaran, Kuriesha Booysen, Duane D.
 
Subject Clinical psychology; mental health; psychiatry clinical psychologists; psychiatric hospital; patients; traumatic stress; vicarious trauma; secondary trauma; trauma narratives; vicarious post-traumatic growth; South Africa
Description Background: Qualitative data on the experiences of treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a psychiatric setting in a low-resource context is sparse.Aim: The authors aimed to explore the lived experiences of clinical psychologists who treat patients who are either trauma survivors or perpetrators in a psychiatric hospital.Setting: A public psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.Method: A total of six individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with three clinical psychologists. Data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA).Results: The analysis for each participant identified several significant themes, namely (1) support as a male person, (2) being appreciative, (3) difficult trauma narratives, (4) a mother and a psychologist and (5) fear and hopelessness.Conclusion: Treating traumatic stress amongst clinical psychologists working in a public psychiatric hospital can lead to experiences of vicarious trauma and traumatic stress. In addition, the participants experienced an added danger in treating high-risk state patients, exposing psychologists to traumatic stress. Furthermore, psychologists recognised the influence of gender and race and its impact on their roles in their personal and professional lives as practitioners treating traumatic stress.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None.
Date 2022-08-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v28i0.1868
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 28 (2022); 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/1868/2691 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1868/2692 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1868/2693 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1868/2694
 
Coverage South Africa 2019-2020 40-53; Male and female; clinical psychologists
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Kuriesha Munishvaran, Duane D. Booysen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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