Dataset Information

Encountering suicide in primary healthcare rehabilitation: the experiences of physiotherapists.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Suicide is a serious public health issue and one of the most common causes of death globally. Suicide has long-lasting impact on personal, relational, community and societal levels. Research has shown that patients often seek help in the primary healthcare system preceding a suicide. Studies exploring the experiences of encountering patients at risk for suicide have been performed among various categories of healthcare personnel, such as nurses and psychiatry residents as well as emergency room staff. There is a lack of research regarding primary healthcare rehabilitation staff, despite the fact that physiotherapists are the third largest health profession in the Western hemisphere and often work with patients experiencing mental health symptoms. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of encountering patients at risk for suicide among physiotherapists working in a primary healthcare rehabilitation setting.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 physiotherapists working in primary healthcare rehabilitation clinics in the Gothenburg area, Sweden. The interviews were recorded on audio and transcribed into written text. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the material collected.

Results

The analysis of the material revealed an overarching theme, Through barriers and taboos - the physiotherapist finds a way, with five main categories: possibilities for identification, obstacles in meeting suicide, workplace environment matters, where does the patient belong? and education and experience are keys.

Conclusions

The present study indicates that physiotherapists in the primary healthcare system encounter patients experiencing suicidality, and they expressed a strong desire to care for both the physical and mental wellbeing of the patients. Despite reporting many barriers, the physiotherapists often found a way to form a meaningful therapeutic alliance with the patient and to ask about possible suicidality in their clinical practice. The result suggests that physiotherapists could play a larger role in working with patients experiencing suicidality in a primary healthcare setting and that they could be viewed as possible gatekeepers in identification as well as referral of these patients into other parts of the healthcare system.

SUBMITTER: Lundin A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771061 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Encountering suicide in primary healthcare rehabilitation: the experiences of physiotherapists.

Lundin Åse Å Bergenheim Anna A

BMC psychiatry 20201229 1

<h4>Background</h4>Suicide is a serious public health issue and one of the most common causes of death globally. Suicide has long-lasting impact on personal, relational, community and societal levels. Research has shown that patients often seek help in the primary healthcare system preceding a suicide. Studies exploring the experiences of encountering patients at risk for suicide have been performed among various categories of healthcare personnel, such as nurses and psychiatry residents as well ...[more]

PMID: 33375943

Similar Datasets

Project description:OBJECTIVES:To explore parents' experiences of seeking health care for their children and instead being accused by healthcare professionals of Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma (SBS/AHT), being reported to Social Services, undergoing judiciary processing, and the impact of these events on family (dis)integration. METHODS:Design: A qualitative study based on qualitative content analysis. Participants: Twelve parents in Sweden, mothers and fathers, seeking health care for their infants, encountering allegations of SBS/AHT, losing custody of their infants, and being subjected to a judiciary process, and finally regaining custody of their children. Data collection: In-depth interviews. RESULTS:An overarching theme 'Fighting for protection of their child after being trapped by doctors' and four sub-themes were developed to reflect the parents' experiences, reactions and interpretations. The first sub-theme, 'Being accused of injuring the child', illuminated the shock experienced when seeking care and instead being accused of being a perpetrator. The second, 'Chaos and powerlessness', refers to the emotions experienced when losing custody of the child and being caught in the enforcement of legislation by the authorities. The third, ´The unified fight against the doctors' verdict´, illustrates the parents' fight for innocence, their worry for the lost child, and their support and resistance. The fourth, 'The wounded posttraumatic growth', describes the emotions, grief, panic, anxiety, and challenges in reuniting the family, but also the parents' reflections on personal growth. Unanimously, they had experienced the authorities' inability to reconsider, and expressed a deep mistrust of paediatric care. CONCLUSIONS:Being wrongly accused of child abuse and alleged SBS/AHT evoked emotions of intense stress, but parents endured because of a successful fight to regain custody of their child. However, the trauma had a long-term impact on their lives with residual posttraumatic stress symptoms and mistrust towards healthcare services and the authorities. The results provide important inferences for restoring system failures within child protection services.

Project description:BackgroundAsian Canadians have experienced increased cases of racialized discrimination after the first emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in China. This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Asian Canadians' sense of safety and belonging in their Canadian (i.e., geographical) communities.MethodsWe applied a qualitative description study design in which semistructured interviews were conducted from Mar. 23 to May 27, 2021. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit Asian Canadians diverse in region, gender and age. Interviews were conducted through Zoom videoconference or telephone, and independent qualitative thematic analysis in duplicate was used to derive primary themes and subthemes.ResultsThirty-two Asian Canadians (median age 35 [interquartile range 24-46] yr, 56% female, 44% East Asian) participated in the study. We identified 5 predominant themes associated with how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the participants' sense of security and belonging to their communities: relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and exposure to discrimination (i.e., how SES insulates or exposes individuals to increased discrimination); politics, media and the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., the key role that politicians and media played in enabling spread of discrimination against and fear of Asian people); effect of discrimination on mental and social health (i.e., people's ability to interact and form meaningful relationships with others); coping with the impact of discrimination (i.e., the way people appraise and move forward in identity-threatening situations); and implications for sense of safety and sense of belonging (i.e., people feeling unable to safely use public spaces in person, including the need to remain alert in anticipation of harm, leading to distress and exhaustion).InterpretationDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Canadians in our study felt unsafe owing to the uncertain, unexpected and unpredictable nature of discrimination, but also felt a strong sense of belonging to Canadian society and felt well connected to their Asian Canadian communities. Future work should seek to explore the influence of social media on treatment of and attitudes toward Asian Canadians.

Dataset Information

Encountering suicide in primary healthcare rehabilitation: the experiences of physiotherapists.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Encountering suicide in primary healthcare rehabilitation: the experiences of physiotherapists.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets