Psychological adjustment in care providers following restraint of psychiatric patients

Mental healthcare providers face many difficult interactions with patients that can be emotionally demanding and have adverse effects on their well-being. Recent theoretical models suggest that the interpretation of stressful episodes may be more important for psychological adjustment than the nature of the episodes. This study examined whether care providers' interpretations of mechanical restraint episodes were related to their adjustment. We asked 80 mental healthcare providers to recall mechanical restraint episodes and to rate them on centrality to identity and positive and negative influence on self-understanding. They also completed scales measuring current symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression, life satisfaction, and well-being. The results showed that care providers who interpreted mechanical restraint episodes as having a central negative influence on their identity experienced more symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Care providers who gave higher ratings of positive self-change following episodes reported more well-being. Our findings suggest, that considering care providers' subjective interpretations of episodes and not merely the objective facts surrounding them is critical if we wish to mitigate the negative emotional impact of episodes.