City Research Online

Abstract

Assaults and seclusions within the UK impede patient recovery, and carry a combined UK cost of £126 million a year. Research has identified low ward social climate as a factor that contributes to such institutionalised disruptive behaviour. A related concept, sense of community, has been associated with disruptive behaviour in non-clinical communities, but has not been studied in forensic or psychiatric settings – and thus its contribution to disruptive behaviour in secure psychiatric care is unknown. The current study investigates the relationship between self-reported sense of community and social climate scores with incidents of disruptive behaviour (i.e. assaults and seclusions) within a UK high secure psychiatric hospital. Findings reveal that both social climate and sense of community predict incidents of disruptive behaviour, with hierarchical modelling suggesting that sense of community is the better predictor of disruptive behaviour. This study argues that sense of community should be monitored in high secure hospitals.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Forensic Mental Health on 2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14999013.2018.1532972.
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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