How do health care workers in psychiatric wards justify the use of coercion as a treatment tool? In what ways does the use of coercion in psychiatric units affect patient outcome?

Abstract

Health care providers need to be cognisant of how paHents perceive their acHons (Norvoll, Hem, & Pedersen, 2017). Assuming the ulHmate goal of psychiatric treatment is to restore paHents to a level of mental “self preservaHon,” the concept of force is somewhat contradictory. If a paHent perceives that they are being coerced or involuntarily forced to parHcipate in their treatment, or a certain aspect of it, this may affect the usefulness of treatment (i.e. their “self preservaHon”). The research quesHon is as follows: How do health care workers in psychiatric wards jusHfy the use of coercion as a treatment tool? In what ways does the use of coercion in psychiatric units affect paHent outcome? I hypothesise that health care providers jusHfy their use of coercion through weighing pros versus cons in each individual situaHon. Furthermore, I hypothesise that perceived coercion by paHents will lower their trust and, therefore, cooperaHon during treatment. Subsequently, I hypothesise that when high levels of perceived coercion are present in treatment, paHents end with a worse off outcome than paHents that are more acHve and willing parHcipants in their own treatment. The aim of this study is to provide insight into the relaHonship between the ethical acceptability versus the pracHcal usefulness of using different types of force in psychiatric treatment.