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International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience | ISSN: 1522-4821 | Volume 20
November 26-27, 2018 | Los Angeles, USA
Psychiatry, Mental Health Nursing and Healthcare
World Summit on
Applied Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental Health
International Conference on
&
The lived experience of mental health inpatients with an autistic spectrum condition: A
phenomenological study
Paul Maloret
University of Hertfordshire, UK
T
his qualitative study explored how mental health inpatients with autistic spectrum conditions experience and cope with
anxiety when admitted to an acute mental health inpatient facility in the UK. Anxiety is a common characteristic for
people who live with autistic spectrum conditions and whilst studies on anxiety in this population are common place and
case studies correlate anxiety with mental health service experience, little is known about the actual triggers of anxiety and
its manifestations. Despite growing acknowledgment that admission to acute mental health facilities should be a last resort,
reported figures on admissions in the UK to continue to rise. During 2016-2018 audio-recorded semi-structured interviews
captured the experiences of 20 adults from the East of England who was former psychiatric inpatients with an established
diagnosis of autistic spectrum condition. Interpretative phenomenological data analysis enabled the identification of broad
themes which explained in rich detail, participant reflections regarding the situations and events within the acute care mental
health facility that triggered their anxiety, behavioral manifestations of anxiety and, responses to their anxiety. It was then
possible to establish the broad behavioral patterns that could be associated with their anxiety i.e. isolating themselves from
others, including patients and staff, ceasing to eat and sleep adequately and all too often self-harming or exhibiting aggressive
and violent behaviors. The anxiety caused by the physical environment appears to be overlooked by mental health practitioners
so attention to anxiety-inducing encounters is needed when planning acute care mental health service improvement and
research is required to clearly understand the experiences of this group of vulnerable people.
Biography
Paul Maloret has worked as a nurse in mental health and intellectual disability inpatient facilities for many years before joining the University of Hertfordshire where
he is now the Head of the Centre of Learning Disability Studies and a Principal Lecturer in Learning Disability Nursing. This study is part of a Doctoral programme
in Health Research.
p.b.maloret@herts.ac.ukPaul Maloret, Int J Emerg Ment Health, Volume 20
DOI: 10.4172/1522-4821-C5-023