Project details

Summary

What is the study about?

Our research team has been working for some time with mental health inpatient wards. One of the key messages of this related research is that it is stressful to work on these wards, for example, staff experience violence, verbal abuse, and see patients harming themselves, as well as hearing about traumatic experiences of patients, such as child abuse. Together, these experiences are known as ‘workplace trauma.’

Staff have also told us that racism, homophobia and abuse targeting disabilities happen a lot and can add to other workplace traumas. Our experience has told us that staff are not getting the support that they need. People from minority groups have told us that they had particular difficulties getting support at work. 

What are you trying to find out?

Our past research tells us that staff are not getting the support they need in relation to workplace trauma. This project aims to adapt an existing intervention, so it better meets the needs of all staff working on acute mental health wards including those with protected characteristics.  

We think the workplace trauma support intervention may help staff in relation to distressing experiences of work and we have adapted it to better meet the needs of all mental health inpatient including those with protected characteristics.

Before we run a bigger study to test the adapted intervention we are piloting it on wards and interviewing staff about their experiences. We will use the data to make further adaptations. 

Who is it for?

You have been invited to take part because:

• you have experience of acute inpatient mental health care either as a patient, carer or staff member and/or are involved at a more strategic level within these settings. 
• you work on one of our acute inpatients services or have oversight of service delivery on the ward(s). 

We would particularly like to hear from staff from minoritised groups to hear about their experiences so that we can understand whether certain groups or individuals may have specific support needs, such as staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, LGBTQIA+ staff, staff who consider themselves to have a disability, and staff from a range of genders.

What does taking part involve?

Stakeholder workshops 
We will organise two stakeholder meetings four months apart and are hoping for 30 people representing different stakeholder groups can attend both meetings. 

Your participation will involve taking part in two stakeholder consultation events with approximately 30 other stakeholders which are expected to last up to 6 hours (with breaks) and will be held remotely via Teams. Meetings will be facilitated by at least two members of the research team. We will collect basic demographic information such as age, gender, ethnicity, as well as job role, and length of time in post (if applicable) before the groups start. The groups will discuss the existing workplace trauma support intervention, our previous interview findings, findings from pilot work we propose to carry out between the two meetings and any recommendations for adaptation before large scale evaluation.  We will digitally record the meeting to help facilitate notetaking. The recording and meeting notes will be stored securely and not listened to or accessed by anyone outside of the research team. 

We will offer £150 compensation per stakeholder meeting for patients, carers and staff who are attending events within their own time.

Interviews

Before we run a bigger study to test the adapted intervention we are piloting it on wards and interviewing staff about their experiences. We will use the data to make further adaptations. We would like to interview staff from all the different staffing groups, including clinical roles, non-clinical roles such as admin or estates and facilities roles, and at different pay bands. 

We will offer £20 as a thank you for taking part.

Why is it important? 

The study may develop our understanding of how to best support staff with workplace trauma on acute mental health wards. 

How can I find out more?

If you are interested in taking part in this study, or have questions for the research team, click the button below to email us:

Email the research team