Exploring the lived experience of secure patients during COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose: in 2019, the world was hit by a life threatening severe acute respiratory syndrome causing a global pandemic; Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In the UK, a nationwide “lockdown” of public isolation and reduced social contact followed. The experience of COVID-19 and the lockdown for forensic secure mental health patients is yet to be understood. This study aims to explore this phenomenon from the patients’ perspective. 

Design/methodology/approach: a qualitative approach was taken. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six patients from a low secure unit in the UK, between November 2020 and March 2021. 

Findings: interpretive phenomenological analysis generated three superordinate themes from the data, providing insight into patients’ experience: “treading water”; how they managed: “learning to swim”; and what was helpful during this time: “in the same boat”. 

Practical implications: further consideration should be given to creating a sense of safety in wards, along with ways to continue to address the power imbalance. Interestingly, social connection may be cultivated from within the hospital setting and would benefit from further research. 

Originality/value: to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore secure patients’ experience of COVID-19 from the patients’ perspective, within a population often neglected within recovery research.

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