All I missed in the therapeutic relationship: The lived experience narrative of a mental health nurse receiving mental healthcare

Abstract

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: The therapeutic relationship is crucial for mental health practice, especially to practice that is recovery-orientated. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This lived experience suggests that mental health professionals can be a long way from knowing the service users' feelings and their precise needs. The narrative reveals how mental health professionals maintain stereotypes and prejudices against people with mental health conditions and how these are reflected in their practice through lack of respect and users' dignity. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR MENTAL HEALTH NURSING?: This lived experience narrative highlights the need to humanize care.

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: The therapeutic relationship is not always functional in clinical practice due to various factors, such as lack of time, lack of job motivation, exhaustion and rejection towards the person cared for.

Aim: The aim of this study is to illustrate to professionals the needs of the persons they care for and how they see the world.

Method: The aim was achieved through the development of a lived experience narrative.

Results: This lived experience narrative describes the experience of a mental health nurse since her first psychotic symptoms and her perceptions of the therapeutic relationship with mental health staff in her trajectory from the first psychiatric appointment until her last contact with the community mental health services.

Discussion: This narrative suggests that mental health professionals are sometimes far from discovering what service users are feeling and their precise needs. This highlights the need to humanize mental healthcare.

Keywords: dehumanization; personal narrative; therapeutic alliance.