3 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Working with prisoners who self-harm: a qualitative study on stress, denial of weakness, and encouraging resilience in a sample of correctional staff
Background: Rates of selfâharm are high among prisoners. Most research focuses on the vulnerable prisoner, and there is little on the impact of these behaviours on staff.
Aims: To investigate staff perceptions of selfâharming behaviours by prisoners, including their views on its causes, manifestation, prevention in institutions, and impact on them.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 administrative and 21 therapeutic prison staff who are responsible in various ways for prisoners who selfâharm. Their narratives were explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Results: Despite prison staff being experienced with prisoners' selfâharming behaviours, including severe acts of selfâharm, they were apt to reject any negative impact on their own mental health or wellâbeing. This denial of negative impact was accompanied by perceptions of the inmate's actions being manipulative and attention seeking. Prison staff also perceived institutional responses to selfâharming behaviours by prisoners as being mixed, ambiguous, or showing preference for relying on existing suicide protocols rather than taskâspecific guidance.
Conclusions: Although staff gave explanations of prisoner selfâharm in terms of âmanipulative behaviourâ, prisoners' selfâharm is, in fact, complex, challenging, and often severe. This staff perception may reflect denial of impact of often distressing behaviours on them personally and their own coping mechanisms. This could be feeding in to a perceived lack of clear and effective institutional responses to the selfâharm, so further research is needed to determine how staff could broaden their views, and respond more effectively to prisoners. Psychologically informed group work and/or reflective practice are among the candidates for such help for staff