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Attitudes to coercion among health-care workers and the general public in Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2007

Rolf Wynn ,
Lars-Henrik Myklebust  and
Trond Bratlid
Rolf Wynn
Affiliation:
Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, University Hospital of Northern Norway
Lars-Henrik Myklebust
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Centre for Tromsø and Karlsøy, University Hospital of Northern Norway
Trond Bratlid
Affiliation:
Department of Specialised Psychiatric Services, University Hospital of Northern Norway, Norway
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Abstract

Little is known about how different groups of health-care workers compare to each other and to the general public in their opinions about involuntary admission and treatment. In the present study, 1,094 people in Norway responded to a questionnaire containing three cases with patients suffering from schizophrenia. They were asked in which cases they would admit involuntarily and treat involuntarily with neuroleptics. An overwhelming majority would coerce when the patients were violent. Between a third and a half would coerce when the patients had problems coping with activities of daily life, or when the patients were in an early schizophrenic development with few symptoms. In all the cases, significantly more would accept involuntary admission than involuntary treatment with neuroleptics. The results suggest that health-care workers' attitudes to coercion in psychiatric care are in line with the attitudes of the general public. Prior experience with coercion, female sex, not having a college/university education, having a profession other than social worker, and not currently being employed in the psychiatric services, were positive predictors of willingness to coerce.

Keywords

Psychiatryschizophreniainpatientsattitudescoercion
Type
Original Paper
Information
Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , June 2006 , pp. 31 - 37
Copyright
© 2006 NAPICU

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