Co-production of a Measure to Understand Trauma Informed Beliefs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Co-production of a Measure to Understand Trauma Informed Beliefs
IRAS ID
269431
Contact name
Eavan Owens
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Portsmouth
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
There is strong and growing evidence of the prevalence of trauma among individuals with mental health difficulties (Kessler, 2010; Mauritz, Goossens, Draijer & Achterberg, 2013; Shevlin, Housten, Dorahy & Adamson, 2008) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD; Keesler, 2014; Spencer et al., 2005; Sullivan & Knutson, 2000), as well as evidence that the current mental health system can retraumatise trauma survivors (Sweeney, Clement, Filson & Kennedy, 2016; Sweeney & Taggart, 2018). It is suggested that individuals accessing forensic mental health services have experienced amplified trauma, contributed to by factors such as their psychiatric diagnosis, offending behaviour and subsequent involvement in the Criminal Justice System (Ardino, 2012; Evans, Ehlers, Mezey & Clark, 2007; Foy, Furrow & McManus, 2011; Muskett, 2014). As a result, many forensic mental health services are looking to adopt a Trauma Informed Care (TIC) approach to improve relationships between service providers and users. However, there are no psychometrically valid measures to evaluate the extent to which service users experience their care as trauma informed. The absence of such a measure hinders efforts to establish, evaluate and promote TIC approaches to working with trauma survivors in forensic mental health services. The proposed research aims to fill this gap by developing a measure to assess service user’s beliefs of TIC in forensic mental health services. The Chief Investigator is a Forensic Psychologist in Training and is employed by Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) in a low secure forensic service. Service users from three different parts of a low secure forensic service (i.e. rehabilitation IDD, acute IDD and acute mental health) will be invited to participate in focus groups exploring their experiences of receiving treatment within the service. Data generated from the focus groups will be examined using thematic analysis which will inform the creation of a service user TIC belief measure. It is envisaged that the measure will be validated in a follow up study and used by forensic mental health services to identify areas of relative strength and weakness, improve and evaluate their practices, and demonstrate to key stakeholders that they are incorporating principles of TIC in their organisation.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1359
Date of REC Opinion
31 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion