Abstract
Aims and MethodTo ascertain the views of people with personality disorder on their clinical interactions with professionals, to identify potential solutions to problematic interactions and to compile guidelines on how professionals could improve their interactions with these service users. Qualitative methodology was employed, comprising a modified nominal group technique with two iterative groups and ranking by importance the issues and themes raised.ResultsThere were 13 service users from three separate personality disorder services who actively participated in a group discussion and iterative process. Collectively they indicated considerable areas of deficiency in the quality of their interaction and communication with professionals. These deficits were defined clearly enough to allow the construction of guidelines aimed at preventing or remedying such deficiencies.ConclusionsThe contribution of those people with personality disorder who took part in this study was sufficiently thoughtful to allow the development of guidelines that might help staff improve their interactions with such service users. From these guidelines, further training tools are being developed, which will be evaluated in the future. However, because not all those approached chose to participate, the views expressed might not be representative of this group as a whole.
Highlights
They indicated considerable areas of deficiency in the quality of their interaction and communication with professionals. These deficits were defined clearly enough to allow the construction of guidelines aimed at preventing or remedying such deficiencies. The contribution of those people with personality disorder who took part in this study was sufficiently thoughtful to allow the development of guidelines that might help staff improve their interactions with such service users
The Personality Disorder Capabilities Framework has made explicit the capabilities required when working with people with this disorder (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003b)
It states that professional training is necessary to develop the capability of ‘establishing and maintaining long-term therapeutic relationships with service users and supporting other staff in maintaining therapeutic relationships (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003b)
Summary
Four different specialist personality disorder services were approached. These services treat people with differing degrees of personality disorder within the mental health trust in south-west London and range in size from 8 patients in treatment to approximately 100. The professional leads were requested to seek volunteers with personality disorder to meet as a group with the investigators (K.B./S.M.) for approximately an hour ‘to talk about issues concerning professional training’. Group meetings were held at the premises of each personality disorder service and a full explanation of their purpose was given, at the start of each meeting. Such aspects were designed to put participants at their ease to facilitate their authentic participation
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