Jogging Memories: Overcoming the Exclusion of Vulnerable Forensic Patients

Location

1048

Format Type

Paper

Format Type

Paper

Start Date

12-1-2017 4:40 PM

End Date

12-1-2017 5:00 PM

Abstract

Gaining access to clients with forensic psychiatric services is a challenging obstacle to overcome; ensuring both the service and ethics committees confidently address all safety concerns is a priority. Ethics committees are extremely proficient gatekeepers, so too is the staff working in forensic psychiatric services. Ensuring the protection of their clients and safeguarding their recovery is paramount, therefore attending to all concerns identified needs to occur if client participants are to be included. The client group itself is vulnerable, posing challenges for researchers; living with major mental illness often affects a person’s ability to hold spontaneous conversation, such as those found in one-on-one interviews. They may sit passively during traditional qualitative talking interviews, waiting for guidance on how to answer questions. To overcome these impediments, I used alternative methods of data collection outside of the traditional qualitative interview to facilitate dialogue while keeping the patient safe. I considered photo voice, giving the patients the camera, a risk. A compromise was a walking interview, where the patient gave a spatial tour of their “ground,” highlighting boundaries and freedoms, while I took photographs of these spaces for subsequent one-on-one conversations. I conducted walking interviews with six forensic psychiatric patients. This presentation will discuss the process taken to ensure the successful inclusion of vulnerable forensic patients into a qualitative project that used walking interviews alongside a camera.

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Jan 12th, 4:40 PM Jan 12th, 5:00 PM

Jogging Memories: Overcoming the Exclusion of Vulnerable Forensic Patients

1048

Gaining access to clients with forensic psychiatric services is a challenging obstacle to overcome; ensuring both the service and ethics committees confidently address all safety concerns is a priority. Ethics committees are extremely proficient gatekeepers, so too is the staff working in forensic psychiatric services. Ensuring the protection of their clients and safeguarding their recovery is paramount, therefore attending to all concerns identified needs to occur if client participants are to be included. The client group itself is vulnerable, posing challenges for researchers; living with major mental illness often affects a person’s ability to hold spontaneous conversation, such as those found in one-on-one interviews. They may sit passively during traditional qualitative talking interviews, waiting for guidance on how to answer questions. To overcome these impediments, I used alternative methods of data collection outside of the traditional qualitative interview to facilitate dialogue while keeping the patient safe. I considered photo voice, giving the patients the camera, a risk. A compromise was a walking interview, where the patient gave a spatial tour of their “ground,” highlighting boundaries and freedoms, while I took photographs of these spaces for subsequent one-on-one conversations. I conducted walking interviews with six forensic psychiatric patients. This presentation will discuss the process taken to ensure the successful inclusion of vulnerable forensic patients into a qualitative project that used walking interviews alongside a camera.