TY - JOUR

T1 - Why couldn’t I stop her?

T2 - self injury: the views of staff and clients in a medium secure unit

AU - Duperouzel, Helen

AU - Fish, Rebecca

PY - 2008/3

Y1 - 2008/3

N2 - Accessible summary•Clients and staff at a service called Calderstones talked to the authors about self injury.•Clients said that staff do not understand why they self-injure. Some clients feel punished when staff stop them self-injuring. All clients like talking to staff and said that telling their problems to staff helps them. Clients said that they should be allowed self-injure without staff being blamed.•Staff said they feel upset and worried when a client self-injures. They told the authors they would like more training about self-injury. Some staff would like clients to be allowed to self-injure, but don't want to be blamed for a client's injuries.SummaryThis paper is the synthesis of two pre-existing studies. It details the experiences of nine people with mild/moderate learning disabilities who self injure, and those who work with them. At the time of this study the participants were living and working in a medium secure unit at Calderstones NHS Trust in Lancashire. A phenomenological approach was used, and during in-depth interviews, the participants gave rich descriptions of their experiences of self injury. The descriptions that emerged from the interviews detailed four main themes: understanding, communication, control and blame.

AB - Accessible summary•Clients and staff at a service called Calderstones talked to the authors about self injury.•Clients said that staff do not understand why they self-injure. Some clients feel punished when staff stop them self-injuring. All clients like talking to staff and said that telling their problems to staff helps them. Clients said that they should be allowed self-injure without staff being blamed.•Staff said they feel upset and worried when a client self-injures. They told the authors they would like more training about self-injury. Some staff would like clients to be allowed to self-injure, but don't want to be blamed for a client's injuries.SummaryThis paper is the synthesis of two pre-existing studies. It details the experiences of nine people with mild/moderate learning disabilities who self injure, and those who work with them. At the time of this study the participants were living and working in a medium secure unit at Calderstones NHS Trust in Lancashire. A phenomenological approach was used, and during in-depth interviews, the participants gave rich descriptions of their experiences of self injury. The descriptions that emerged from the interviews detailed four main themes: understanding, communication, control and blame.

KW - Client perspectives

KW - self injury

KW - staff perspectives

U2 - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.2007.00486.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.2007.00486.x

M3 - Journal article

VL - 36

SP - 59

EP - 65

JO - British Journal of Learning Disabilities

JF - British Journal of Learning Disabilities

SN - 1354-4187

IS - 1

ER -