Personality Disorder and Probation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring individuals’ experiences of working with probation who have personality disorder: A community-based participatory action research approach.
IRAS ID
347535
Contact name
Alyson Norman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Plymouth
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 11 days
Research summary
Personality Disorder (PD) is a mental health diagnosis that affects 50% of those on probation, and 60-70% for individuals in prison (NHS & National Offender Management Service, 2015). It is a diagnosis that is often viewed negatively by the general public, nurses, prison officers and probation practitioners. As a result, staff can find it difficult to work with individuals with PD, feeling they are hard work and difficult to trust. Individuals with PD who are in the criminal justice system (CJS), either in the community or prison, can find it difficult to build helpful supportive relationships with staff as a result of these negative views held around the PD label, and the impact PD can have on their behaviour.
Research has focused primarily on the views of probation practitioners in working with individuals in the CJS with PD. Research has been conducted about individuals with PD, but not those within the CJS, and has not looked at their experience of probation. This research project has been created with individuals in the CJS with likely PD who would like to study how people with PD experience probation.
The research will ask people from a male prison estate who self-identity as screening in to the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, a joint NHS and Prison and Probation (HMPPS) service. This service is for individuals who are in the CJS and would likely attract a diagnosis of PD. The study will ask these individuals questions in an interview about their understanding of PD, as well as their experience of working with probation, specifically what might have helped or hindered their working relationship. The aim of the study is that people’s answers could impact future training for probation staff by making sure it reflects people’s lived experience of what does and does not work.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NE/0009
Date of REC Opinion
8 Jan 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion