Exploring autistic people's experiences of psychiatric hospitalisation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the experiences of Autistic adults who have received treatment in NHS psychiatric inpatient units.
IRAS ID
352919
Contact name
Megan Freeth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
This research addresses the experiences of autistic adults on mainstream NHS psychiatric inpatient units, with particular focus on their experiences with relationships while on the ward, and how they experience and manage their emotions.
This research is important due to significant increase in autistic people being admitted to these settings, increasing 51.3% between 2017 and 2023 (Murdoch et al., 2023). Further, evidence suggests that autistic adults have poorer outcomes in this setting and experience more restrictive interventions (Ailey et al., 2019; CQC, 2022). This research will enhance our understanding of what aspects of practice on inpatient wards are helpful and unhelpful to this demographic. Further, the evidence base on this topic is limited, with the few studies that have been completed having significant methodological flaws (See Maloret (2020) for a review). Namely, the majority of the studies used a less in-depth methodology such as Thematic Analysis, many did not provide a transparent write-up of their qualitative analysis, and many studies did not take place in NHS inpatient settings, or included people with autism and people with co-morbid learning disability diagnoses but did not differentiate between different groups in their write-up.
This research is focused on NHS psychiatric inpatient units. Acute wards, a psychiatric rehab ward, and a psychiatric intensive care unit will be used as the primary recruitment for the study.
Individuals who have been sectioned in an NHS psychiatric inpatient unit in the past three years, with no co-morbid diagnosis of learning disabilities are eligible to take part in this research. The study involves a 60-90 minute semi-structured interview where participants will be asked questions about their experiences of being an inpatient.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/WM/0028
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion