Understanding Patient Focused Care in Psychiatric Care. Exploring mental health workers’ views and strategies on treating immigrants in Norway
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study explored the applicability of the idea of Patient Focused Care (PFC) in psychiatric care with focus on immigrants within the healthcare system of Norway. PFC has been defines as health care that meets patients’ needs and preferences and where patients are autonomous and able to decide for themselves. The research sought to answer the question of how African immigrants receiving psychiatric care in hospitals in Norway are treated in a PFC manner from the viewpoint of health workers, bearing in mind the recent advocacy for transcultural psychiatric care. Previous studies have not looked specifically at this distinct group of immigrants, neither has the practice of PFC in transcultural psychiatry on them explored. To fill in this gap, this study sought to focus on the key aspects of PFC that can be identified among specialized psychiatric care units involved in treating refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with health workers from two specialized psychiatric care teams involved with treating immigrants and the qualitative research method was used to analyze the data. A summary of the findings of the study indicated that the idea of PFC is unknown to the informants although they use all its key aspects in their work. The study also revealed that informants agree on the need and advocate for special psychiatric care for African patients and identified unique treatment strategies used to treat these patients. It is expected that the outcome of this study will shed light on strategies used by mental healthcare workers in treating patients whose backgrounds differ from that of the general population. The study also provides insight for policy makers for contemplation when drafting policies relating to transcultural psychiatric care.
Author: David Edem Asase
Language: English
Topic: Migration, Health and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Universitetet i Stavanger
OpenAlex ID: W2600221369