“To see the person behind the crime, through the eyes of the person behind the keychain” : - Carers lived experiences of patient encounters in forensic inpatient care

Abstract: Background: Forensic psychiatric care (FPC) encompasses involuntary care and treatment of those who have committed a crime. On the one hand, FPC is constructed regarding the respect for the individual’s freedom and autonomy, and on the other hand, it is constructed on societal protection. Being a carer in FPC is intertwined with being faced with a distinct ethical dimension of care, as it involves caring for patients who are deprived of their freedom, meaning dealing with the tension of care and custody. Caring means often finding oneself in encounters with individuals with inevitable elements of rules, coercion, threats, and violence. In this complex environment, a caring relationship is to be established, which is intended to be built on trust, as a forensic nurse’s main purpose is creating wellbeing and care, based on the patient’s perspective. It is in the everyday encounters that occur often spontaneously that the carer–patient relationship should be established. It is in these encounters that the carer is given the opportunity to relive suffering. The encounter becomes the focal point where the lifeworlds of the carer and patient meet. Dealing with the duality of FPC and contradictory emotions requires a deeper understanding, which encourages to self reflect the meaning of these encounters and oneself as a carer. Aim: The overarching purpose of the thesis was to obtain a deeper understanding of carers’ lived experience of encounters with patients with mental illness in forensic inpatient care. Method: The thesis consists of four studies (I, II, III, IV) with qualitative design, based on ontological and epistemological reasonings of phenomenology and hermeneutics. The studies illuminated the lived experience and are conducted with phenomenological hermeneutics (I, III), hermeneutics (II), and reflective lifeworld research (IV). Findings: Encounters with patients are characterised with the duality of acting upon the patients’ needs and managing rules and norms stipulated in laws and regulations that govern FPC and societal protection. Encounters in FPC and being a carer is intertwined with being put in a position of power, where the carer also must be allowedviito be fragile and deal with vulnerabilities and not play a role. The encounter means being in a duality and having the insight of the tension of impressions of expressions of suffering, being in the “space in-between”. In this space, there is room and a possibility for carer’s personal growth, and achieving a phenomenological attitude and to truly embrace the patients’ lifeworld. Discussion: A comprehension of the studies (I, II, III, IV) revealed four topics, having trust or feeling distrust, being compassionate or being indifferent, having courage or being afraid, and being genuine or pretending. These were reflected upon against the theoretical framework of K. E. Lögstrup. The duality of FPC and the space in-between that arises in the encounter suggests that the carer is forced to be confronted with existential phenomena that constitutes one’s world. By being active in the space in-between and reflecting upon openness, the carer moves between this duality that exists in the continuum that the opposite phenomenon contains. The space in-between may become a place and a possibility for personal growth by being active and obtaining a phenomenological approach. This is obtained by an openness and consciousness to the impression by self-reflection to convey its meaning. If carers can do this by openness and compliance, there is a possibility for the encounter to become a place for personal growth, that encourages the sovereign utterances of life, and carers may to a greater extent understand themselves as well as patients’ expressions of suffering.