The efficacy of a nursing challenge to patients: testing a new intervention to decrease self-harm behaviour in severe...

This paper describes the study of a new intervention, which was intended to increase therapeutic engagement with patients and to decrease self-harm behaviour. As a result of nursing observations in a unit that specialized in severe personality disorders, a psychodynamic perspective to treatment was introduced in the form of a nursing challenge. The intervention was evaluated in a new service for young adults at a psychiatric hospital in the south of England, as part of a clinical research apprenticeship. The care and treatment of persons with severe personality disorders present a major challenge to coherent and cohesive teamwork. A test and retrospective comparison study is described and its findings reported. Data from the study point to the need for more than a single challenge, to achieve a sustained reduction in self-harm, along with staff training to ensure working knowledge of a particular framework.