Attitudes to personality disorder of staff working in high-security and medium-security hospitals.

Abstract

The discourse surrounding personality disorder is largely negative, and the diagnosis is considered to be associated with a degree of stigma. This study aimed to investigate staff attitudes towards personality disorder in high-security and medium-security forensic-psychiatric hospitals in the UK. The Attitude to Personality Disorder Questionnaire was completed by 132 participants who were all current employees with clinical roles. Staff attitudes to personality disorder in the current study were significantly less positive than in comparable studies in similar settings. Having completed staff training surrounding personality disorder and being from a non-nursing professional background were the best predictors of positive attitudes to personality disorder. The findings of this study offer support to the pursuit of improving access to training in personality disorder for those working with this clinical presentation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.