Recovery at an Adult Psychiatric Day Hospital-A Qualitative Interview Study Describing Patients' Experiences.

Psychiatric Day Hospitals offer time-limited active treatment programmes that are therapeutically intensive, coordinated, and with structured clinical services within a stable environment. No previous studies have described patients' experiences of recovery-oriented care at a Psychiatric Day Hospital in a Swedish or Nordic healthcare context. The aim of the study was to explore patients' experiences of a Psychiatric Day Hospital with focus on patient recovery. A qualitative method was used; 12 in-depth interviews were performed with patients all analysed with content analysis. The theme that emerged was "A safe haven." To do something routinely and meaningful during the days, feelings of security, and to gain increased knowledge about mental ill health were concepts which felt important and contributed to recovery. Feelings of belonging and prevention of loneliness were also highlighted.

The Core Elements of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: Time, Honest Engagement, Therapeutic Relations, Professional Nursing and Lifetime-Perspective.

Defining psychiatric and mental health nursing has been a challenge for decades, and it is still difficult to find a comprehensive definition. We have identified a possibility to clarify psychiatric and mental health nursing based on humanistic philosophy in a general psychiatric care context. The aim was therefore to identify and synthesize the theoretical frameworks from which psychiatric and mental health nursing models are developed. We systematically collected and evaluated articles based on Grounded Theory (GT) methodology regarding psychiatric or mental health nursing. The PRISMA statement for systematic reviews was used and the formal process of synthesis, as a three-step process of identifying first -, second - and third-order themes following the examples of Howell Major and Savin-Baden. The synthesis resulted in a model describing five core elements of psychiatric and mental health nursing: 'professional nursing', 'therapeutic relationships' and 'honest engagement', with time as the all-encompassing theme, including the patients' 'lifetime perspective'. Psychiatric and mental health nursing is a caring support towards recovery, where the patient's lifetime perspective must be in focus during the caring process with a relationship built on an honest engagement. Time is therefore essential for psychiatric and mental health nursing.

Healthcare providers' experience of identifying and caring for women subjected to sex trafficking: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Men's violence against women, including human trafficking for sexual exploitation, is a severe threat to global health. Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to identify and care for women subjected to human trafficking for sexual exploitation. They are among the few professionals the women interact with while being exposed to human trafficking for sexual exploitation. This study aims to describe healthcare workers' experience of identifying and caring for women subjected to human trafficking for sexual exploitation seeking women's healthcare. METHOD: A qualitative design was chosen and nine qualitative interviews with healthcare providers were conducted and analyzed using the content analysis method. RESULTS: Three main categories were revealed: (1) the importance of being attentive, (2) the importance of providing safety, and (3) the importance of collaborating, followed by a number of subcategories: behavioral and physical signs, limited time to interact, security measures, value of confidence building, organizational collaboration, essential external network, and information transmission. CONCLUSIONS: As the women subjected to sex trafficking have limited time in healthcare, it is important for healthcare providers to be attentive and act immediately if suspecting human trafficking for sexual exploitation. It may be the only possibility for the healthcare providers to care for these women and reach them. They must endeavor to provide the women with safety due to their vulnerable position at the hospital. However, these women may leave the healthcare setting unidentified and unaided, which highlights the importance of collaboration on multiple levels.

Health care utilization, mental disorders and behavioural disorders among perpetrators of intimate partner homicide in 2000-2016: A registry-based case-control study from Sweden.

Little is known about intimate partner homicide (IPH) perpetrator´s healthcare contacts and mental health problems before the killing. The aim was to compare male and female IPH perpetrators with matched controls from the general population by analysing differences in healthcare utilization and mental and behavioural disorders. This study includes 48 males and 10 females who perpetrated IPH between 2000 and 2016 in the Västra Götaland Region of Sweden. Controls (n = 458) were randomly selected from the general population and matched for sex, birth year and residential area. Data were retrieved from the Swedish National Patient Register and the Western Swedish Healthcare Register. Mental and behavioural disorders were classified according to ICD-10 (F00-F99). The Mann-Whitney U test was used to test for differences in health care utilization and mental and behavioural disorders. Compared to their controls, male perpetrators had more registered contacts with primary care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = .019), respectively, before the homicide; with specialist outpatient care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = < .001), respectively, before the homicide: and with inpatient care ≤ 30 (p = < .001) and ≤ 365 days (p = .024), respectively, before the homicide. Female perpetrators had more specialized outpatient care (p = .040) and inpatient care (p = .003) contacts ≤ 365 days before the homicide, compared to controls. Male perpetrators had at least one mental or behavioral disorder diagnosed in any studied healthcare setting except in inpatient care ≤ 30 days before homicide. Female perpetrators had more mental health disorders diagnosed in specialized outpatient care ≤ 365 days before the homicide (p < .001). Perpetrators had more healthcare contacts and mental disorders one year and one month prior to the homicide compared to their controls. Health care professionals should obtain necessary skills in routinely enquiring about intimate partner violence perpetration.

The Hairdex quality of life instrument-A translation and psychometric validation in patients with alopecia areata.

Background: The German Hairdex quality of life (QoL) instrument is specific to hair and scalp diseases, developed for self-rating and consists of 48 statements divided into five domains: Symptoms, Functioning, Emotions, Self-confidence and Stigmatisation. There was a need of a Swedish reliability tested, validated hair and scalp specific QoL instrument why the German Hairdex was chosen to be translated and reliability tested in a systematic way. Objectives: To make a translation, a reliability test of stability, and validation of the German Hairdex QoL instrument among 100 Swedish patients with a dermatological ICD-10 diagnosis of alopecia areata (AA). Methods: An eight-step method by Gudmundsson was used as a model with a forward and backward translation and with comments from an expert panel. A statistical test-retest (ICC (2,1)) analysis was made, followed by an internal consistency analysis. A comparison between the German and Swedish Hairdex-S constructs by a principal component analysis was performed. Results: The Hairdex-S was very well accepted by patients. The ICC(2,1) test-retest showed a good to excellent correlation of 0.91 (CI [0.85-0.95]). Internal consistency was α = 0.92. Like the original Hairdex, Hairdex-S showed good factorability with a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of 0.82 and with one component explaining 70% of the variance: original Hairdex instrument (69%). When tested on patients with AA, the domains Functioning and Emotions had the strongest loadings, followed by Stigmatisation and Self-confidence. Younger AA patients at self-assessment and patients who reported to be younger at the onset of AA, scored statistically significantly higher on the Hairdex-S, indicating an overall lower QoL on domains Emotions and Functioning, respectively. Conclusions: The Hairdex-S is very well accepted by AA patients, shows very good psychometric properties, and a very good agreement with the original Hairdex. The Swedish Hairdex instrument can be recommended for evaluation of patients QoL as well as for research purposes.

The Time, Places, and Activities of Nurses in a Psychiatric Inpatient Context - A Time and Motion Study with a Time-geographic Perspective.

Nurses in psychiatric inpatient care spend less time than desired with patients and investigation of the nature of nursing in this setting is needed. This study explores how nursing activities in psychiatric inpatient wards is distributed over time, and with a time-geographic perspective show how this relates to places. Observations were used to register place, activity, and time. A constructed time-geographic chart mapped the nurses' path which showed that nurses spent little time in places where patients are. There might be constraints that affect nursing. Nurses need to evaluate where time is spent and interventions that facilitate relationships are needed.

Exploring workplace violence on surgical wards in Sweden: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Workplace violence is a global threat to healthcare professionals' occupational health and safety and the situation has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to explore workplace violence directed against assistant and registered nurses working on surgical wards in Sweden. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2022. Using a convenience sampling procedure, 198 assistant and registered nurses responded to an online questionnaire developed for this specific study. The questionnaire comprised 52 items and included, among other items, subscales from validated and previously used instruments. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and independent-samples t-test. RESULTS: The most frequently reported type of workplace violence was humiliation (28.8%), followed by physical violence (24.2%), threats (17.7%), and unwanted sexual attention (12.1%). Patients and patients' visitors were reported as the main perpetrators of all kinds of exposure. Additionally, one third of the respondents had experienced humiliation from colleagues. Both threats and humiliation showed negative associations with work motivation and health (p < 0.05). Respondents classified as working in a high- or moderate-risk environment were more frequently exposed to threats (p = 0.025) and humiliation (p = 0.003). Meanwhile, half of the respondents were unaware of any action plans or training regarding workplace violence. However, of those who indicated that they had been exposed to workplace violence, the majority had received quite a lot or a lot of support, mainly from colleagues (range 70.8-80.8%). CONCLUSION: Despite a high prevalence of workplace violence, and especially of humiliating acts, there appeared to be low preparedness within the hospital organizations to prevent and/or handle such incidents. To improve these conditions, hospital organizations should place more emphasis on preventive measures as part of their systematic work environment management. To help inform such initiatives, it is suggested that future research should focus on the identification of suitable measures regarding different types of incidents, perpetrators, and settings.

The psychiatric mental health nurse's ethical considerations regarding the use of coercive measures - a qualitative interview study.

BACKGROUND: In psychiatric inpatient care, situations arise where it may be necessary to use coercive measures and thereby restrict individual autonomy. The ethical principles of healthcare, i.e., respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice, are recognized as central aspects in healthcare practice, and nurses must be clear about which ethical theories and principles to prioritize and what values are needed for a thorough ethical consideration. The aim of this study is to shed light on psychiatric mental health nurses' ethical considerations and on the factors influencing them when performing coercive measures. METHODS: This qualitative interview study included twelve psychiatric mental health nurses with experience from psychiatric inpatient care. A content analysis was made. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, and categories were formulated. RESULTS: The study revealed a duality that created two categories: Ethical considerations that promote the patient's autonomy and health and Obstacles to ethical considerations. Based on this duality, ethical considerations were made when performing coercive measures to alleviate suffering and promote health. The result shows a high level of ethical awareness in clinical work. However, a request emerged for more theoretical knowledge about ethical concepts that could be implemented among the staff. CONCLUSION: The psychiatric mental health nurses in this study strive to do what is best for the patient, to respect the patient's autonomy as a guiding principle in all ethical considerations, and to avoid coercive measures. An organizational ethical awareness could increase the understanding of the difficult ethical considerations that nurses face with regard to minimizing the use of coercive measures in the long run.

Self-Reported Experience of Abuse During the Life Course Among Men Seeking General Psychiatric or Addiction Care-A Prevalence Study in a Swedish Context.

A prevalence study was conducted using the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire for men (m-NorAQ) to estimate the prevalence of self-reported experience of life-course abuse and to identify the perpetrators of the abuse. This among men seeking general psychiatric and addiction care in a Swedish context. In total, 210 men completed the questionnaire, and were included in the study. The total prevalence of life-course abuse (i.e., any emotional, physical or sexual abuse during the life course) was 75% (n = 157). The results of this study indicate the importance of identifying experiences of life-course abuse among men in general psychiatric and addiction care settings.

A pilot evaluation of a prehospital emergency psychiatric unit: The experiences of patients, psychiatric and mental health nurses, and significant others.

PURPOSE: To explore the significance of the alliance with the Prehospital Emergency Psychiatric Unit for patients, psychiatric and mental health nurses, and significant others, and to evaluate their experiences of treatment and care. DESIGN AND METHODS: A qualitative inductive interview study with 11 participants: four patients, six nurses, and one significant other. The interviews were analyzed with content analysis. FINDINGS: The analysis resulted in four subcategories: To be met with respect, presence and time, knowledge and experience, and feeling of support, and one category: A psychiatric team with knowledge and experience creating stability and a sense of self-worth. PRACTICE IMPLICATION: The Prehospital Emergency Psychiatric Unit enables a safe, person-centered service.

Workplace violence from the perspective of hospital ward managers in Sweden: A qualitative study.

AIM: The aims of the study are to explore workplace violence perpetrated by patients or visitors from the perspective of hospital ward managers and to describe how ward managers perceive their leadership role and manage related incidents. BACKGROUND: Few studies focus on workplace violence from the perspective of ward managers even though they are the closest managers to the operational staff. METHOD: Fifteen semistructured interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Four categories emerged: the face of workplace violence, a two-fold assignment, strive towards readiness to act, and managing incidents. CONCLUSION: While the most common acts of workplace violence are considered less serious and related to patients' medical conditions or dissatisfied visitors, hospital organizations focus on serious but rarely occurring incidents. Consequently, ward managers have limited opportunities to ensure a safe work environment on an everyday basis. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To support ward managers' occupational safety and health management, workplace violence prevention and management should be acknowledged as an important responsibility for senior management in hospitals. It is important to identify incidents that most likely will occur at the wards and to create strategies related to those incidents. Strategies could include risk assessments, prevention, evaluation, education and reflection combined with, for example, scenario training.

Nurses' leadership in psychiatric care-A qualitative interview study of nurses' experience of leadership in an adult psychiatric inpatient care setting.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Previous studies on leadership in psychiatric care have focussed on a diversity of staff and on different healthcare settings. Nurses in both Sweden and internationally, working with patients newly diagnosed with psychosis and addiction, describe an overwhelming workload. Existing research points out that experience and leadership training are the most important factors to exert a good nursing leadership. In Sweden, requirements for leadership exists already from the first day of a nurse's career. The relationship and communication between nurses in psychiatric care and members of the staff is decisive for whether the leadership will work. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE: The study adds knowledge regarding the challenges leading the nursing care for patients diagnosed with psychosis and addiction. Ambivalence in the leadership role is prominent among nurses in psychiatric care and feelings of responsibility and meaningfulness are mixed with feelings of powerlessness and uncertainty. Swedish psychiatric nurses lack mandate to lead psychiatric nursing care. This may increase the feelings of uncertainty in their leadership role. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: A mandate to lead as well as a leadership guidance in communication and teambuilding will enhance the leadership, especially among newly graduated nurses. Heightened awareness within the healthcare organization about nurse's experience of difficulties in leading the psychiatric nursing care of the most severe psychiatric illnesses could increase the right prerequisites for leadership. ABSTRACT: Introduction Research shows that psychiatric nursing care puts additional demands on the nurse as a leader due to the psychological complexity of care. Experience and leadership training are most important to exert leadership. In Sweden, demands for leadership exist already at the beginning of a nursing career, and in psychiatry, it may lead to an overwhelming workload. Aim/Question The aim of the present study is to highlight nurses' experiences of leading the psychiatric nursing care in an adult psychiatric context. Method A qualitative interview study of eleven registered nurses within psychiatric inpatient care. Content analysis was used for analysis. Results Leading with combined feelings of both meaningfulness and uncertainty were the theme arising from the result. Discussion Findings from Swedish and international studies stress special demands on leadership in psychiatric care. The result shows that nurses perceived an ambivalence of their leadership in terms of both meaningfulness and uncertainty. Implications for Practice An official mandate to lead as well as leadership guidance in communication and teambuilding will enhance leadership, especially among newly graduated nurses. Heightened awareness within healthcare organizations about difficulties in leading psychiatric nursing care could increase the possibility to create right prerequisites for leadership.

Socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics of male and female perpetrators in intimate partner homicide: A case-control study from Region Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Risk factor studies on male-perpetrated intimate partner homicide (IPH) are often compared with studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) or non-partner homicide perpetrators. This not only excludes female perpetrators, but also fails to take socio-demographic and psychosocial differences between perpetrators and the general population into consideration. The aim of this study was to examine male- and female-perpetrated IPH cases, and to compare socio-demographic factors in IPH perpetrators and in matched controls from the general population. Data were retrieved from preliminary inquiries, court records and national registers for 48 men and 10 women, who were perpetrators of IPH committed in 2000-2016 and residing in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden. The control group consisted of 480 men and 100 women matched for age, sex and residence parish. Logistic regression, yielding odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), was performed for male perpetrators and male controls to investigate associations for selected socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics. This was not performed for females due to the small sample size. Female perpetrators were convicted of murder to a lesser extent than male perpetrators. No woman was sentenced to life imprisonment while five men were. Jealousy and separation were the most common motivational factors for male perpetration while the predominant factor for female perpetrators was subjection to IPV. Statistically significant differences were found between male perpetrators and male controls in unemployment rate (n = 47.9%/20.6%; OR 4.4; 95% CI 2.2-8.6), receiving benefits (n = 20.8%/4.8%; OR 5.2; 95% CI 2.3-11.7) and annual disposable income (n = 43.8%/23.3% low income; OR 5.2; 95% CI 1.9-14.2) one year prior to the crime. Female IPH perpetrators were less educated than female controls (≤ 9-year education 30%/12%) and were more often unemployed (70%/23%) one year before the crime. Male and female IPH perpetrators were socio-economically disadvantaged, compared with controls from the general population.

The Face of Workplace Violence: Experiences of Healthcare Professionals in Surgical Hospital Wards.

BACKGROUND: Though workplace violence (WPV) is a global problem for healthcare professionals, research within in-hospital care has mainly focused on WPV in emergency healthcare settings. Thus, the number of qualitative studies that explores experiences of WPV in general hospital wards with a longer length of stay is limited. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore how healthcare professionals in surgical hospital wards experience and manage WPV perpetrated by patients or visitors. METHOD: The study applied a qualitative, inductive approach using focus group interviews for data collection. A purposeful sample of 16 healthcare professionals working in surgical wards was included. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis. Findings. The analysis resulted in four main themes: workplace violence characteristics, partly predictable yet not prevented, approaching workplace violence, and consequences from workplace violence. During the focus group interviews, the healthcare professionals described various acts of physical violence, verbal abuse, and gender discrimination perpetrated by patients or their visitors. Despite the predictability of some of the incidents, preventive strategies were absent or inadequate, with the healthcare professionals not knowing how to react in these threatful or violent situations. They experienced that WPV could result in negative consequences for the care of both the threatful or violent person and the other patients in the ward. WPV caused the healthcare professionals to feel exposed, scared, and unprotected. Conclusion and clinical implications. Exposure to WPV is a problem for healthcare professionals in surgical wards and has consequences for the patients. Preventive strategies, guidelines, and action plans are urgently needed to minimise the risk of WPV and to ensure a safe work and care environment.

Time Geography, a Method in Psychiatric Nursing Care.

Patients' life history is of primary interest in psychiatric nursing care. Our aim was to illustrate how we used time geography as a method to identify individuals' patterns in relation to certain situations in place. We have used interviews and diaries to construct life charts by hand and with a computer software program. By using time geography, we provide a rich amount of information, which can generate a broader picture of a person's life, to identify stressful as well as social aspects of a person's life. Patients with mental ill health need and value the therapeutic relationship using time geography.

Undergoing colonoscopy as experienced by adolescents.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to describe the phenomenon of undergoing colonoscopy as experienced by adolescents. DESIGN: This study was a qualitative study in which data were collected and analyzed in accordance with the methodological principles of Reflective Lifeworld Research with a phenomenological approach. METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were performed with 17 adolescents after undergoing the first colonoscopy. RESULTS: The phenomenon of undergoing colonoscopy as experienced by adolescents can be described as a collision between emotions and a desire to obtain answers to questions about the examination, as well as concerns about its result and the meaning of undergoing colonoscopy. The essential meaning is additionally described through its constituents: a sense of vulnerability, an opportunity for symptom explanation, and sensibility regarding information. CONCLUSIONS: The results can be concluded in terms of the knowledge that for adolescents a colonoscopy means more than an examination. Although colonoscopy is not experienced as painful, it evokes different emotions that affect adolescents. Therefore, a psychological preparation, on an individual level, is required before the colonoscopy. Our results showed that adolescents need to understand the connection between their symptoms, their body, and the colonoscopy.

The experience of polyethylene glycol (PEG) bowel preparation in adolescents undergoing colonoscopy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the experience of polyethylene glycol (PEG) bowel preparation in adolescents undergoing colonoscopy. RESULTS: 32 adolescents, 10-18 years of age self-reported a minimum of complications 1 week after colonoscopy when PEG was used for bowel preparation. 17 adolescents, 10-18 years were also interviewed about bowel preparation with PEG. Using qualitative content analysis, two categories were extracted from the data: "Being decisive makes it manageable" and "Be prepared for a horrible experience." The adolescents reported PEG intake difficulty; the intake was, however, manageable if they received appropriate information.

"How do we use the time?" - an observational study measuring the task time distribution of nurses in psychiatric care.

BACKGROUND: The nurse's primary task in psychiatric care should be to plan for the patient's care in cooperation with the patient and spend the time needed to build a relationship. Psychiatric care nurses however claim that they lack the necessary time to communicate with patients. To investigate the validity of such claims, this time-motion study aimed at identifying how nurses working at inpatient psychiatric wards distribute their time between a variety of tasks during a working day. METHODS: During the period of December 2015 and February 2016, a total of 129 h and 23 min of structured observations of 12 nurses were carried out at six inpatient wards at one psychiatric clinic in southern Sweden. Time, frequency of tasks and number of interruptions were recorded and analysed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Administering drugs or medications accounted for the largest part of the measured time (17.5%) followed by indirect care (16%). Relatively little time was spent on direct care, the third largest category in the study (15.3%), while an unexpectedly high proportion of time (11.3%) was spent on ward related tasks. Nurses were also interrupted in 75% of all medication administering tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses working in inpatient psychiatric care spend little time in direct contact with the patients and medication administration is interrupted very often. As a result, it is difficult to establish therapeutic relationships with patients. This is an area of concern for both patient safety and nurses' job satisfaction.

Abused women's vulnerability in daily life and in contact with psychiatric care: In the light of a caring science perspective.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to deepen the understanding of abused women's vulnerability in relation to how the abuse and encounters with health care professionals affect life. A further aim is to highlight abused women's vulnerability with a caring science perspective. BACKGROUND: Experience of abuse has consequences for the mental health of women and girls. Abused women may experience health care as unsupportive, and as a result, often chose not to disclose their experiences of abuse. DESIGN AND METHODS: The results of two qualitative empirical studies were analysed along with a phenomenological meaning analysis in accordance with the methodological principles of Reflective Lifeworld Research. FINDINGS: Living one's life with experiences of abuse implies vulnerability, which can prevent abused women from achieving good health. This vulnerability results from insecurity regarding identity, along with the sense that one could have been a different individual if it were not for the abuse and thereby have a more fair chance in life. Being cared for within general psychiatric care could further increase this vulnerability. The healthcare professional's ability to care for the women who have experienced abuse leads to either an encounter of trust or else further suffering for the women. CONCLUSION: A lifeworld-oriented caring science perspective as a foundation for care can contribute to care for abused women which reaches the existential dimensions of their vulnerability and vulnerable life situation. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: It is evident that healthcare professionals should deepen their understanding of how abused women live, within a general psychiatric context. This study enables a deeper understanding of abused women's vulnerability in relation to how the abuse and encounters with healthcare professionals affect life.

The duality of suffering and trust: abused women's experiences of general psychiatric care--an interview study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To elucidate how women subjected to physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse experience the care provided at a general psychiatric clinic after the disclosure of abuse. BACKGROUND: Violence against women is a major global public health issue, which has an impact on women's lives and mental health as well as generating frequent hospital admission. DESIGN: Qualitative design with an inductive approach. METHODS: Interviews with nine women who were recipients of general psychiatric care and had disclosed experiences of abuse to a member of staff were conducted. Qualitative inductive content analysis was used. RESULTS: The overall theme emerging from the narratives, 'dependency as a reality containing a duality of suffering and trust,' links the categories together. Each subcategory is presented in relation to the categories 'being belittled,' 'being misinterpreted' and 'being cared for.' Experiences of care as caring and noncaring were found in the narratives. Caring could include situations experienced as the women being acknowledged and listened to, situations where staff approached and supported the women in a sensitive way. Experiences of noncaring were when the abuse was disregarded, and when the women were not believed in, were left with burdens of guilt and were offended. A noncaring environment focused primarily on the diagnosis, and the experienced abuse was seen as secondary. CONCLUSIONS: Abused women are subjected to psychiatric environments where staff are divided into groups of those who believed in and supported the abused women and those who regarded experiences of abuse as a secondary issue and focused on the mental disorder. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study provides knowledge of how abused women experience the care provided at a general psychiatric clinic after the disclosure of abuse.