TY - JOUR
T1 - Approaches for improving sexuality and sexual health care in mental health settings
T2 - A qualitative study exploring clinicians' own perspectives
AU - Urry, Kristi
AU - Breakey, Georgia R.
AU - Scholz, Brett
AU - Chur-Hansen, Anna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
PY - 2023/9/22
Y1 - 2023/9/22
N2 - There is an acknowledged professional practice gap regarding sexuality and sexual health related needs within mental health settings in Australia and internationally. Yet little is known about how clinicians can be best supported or enabled to improve sexuality-related practice, from their own perspective. This is important, given the sensitive and complex nature of sexuality and sexual health within the context of mental distress and service provision. This article reports a follow-up study, where mental health clinicians who participated in an initial study were invited to reflect on and discuss the (finalized) results and recommendations generated. The aim was to generate insights into the tools, strategies, and approaches participants felt would best equip and support clinicians to better incorporate sexuality and sexual health into their work. Six clinicians from three disciplines (mental health nursing, psychology, and psychiatry) participated in in-depth interviews to reflect on a plain language summary of the initial study. Three interconnected themes were generated via reflexive thematic analysis: (1) access to knowledge and information; (2) support from peers, senior colleagues, and workplaces; and (3) enacting a focus on sexuality-related care. These findings provide valuable insights into how clinicians may want to be supported in relation to (improving) their sexuality-related practice. The analysis also demonstrates the importance of a multifaceted approach to improving sexuality-related care in mental health and other health settings. This knowledge will contribute to directing future research and development of interventions, tools, strategies, or other approaches to this end.
AB - There is an acknowledged professional practice gap regarding sexuality and sexual health related needs within mental health settings in Australia and internationally. Yet little is known about how clinicians can be best supported or enabled to improve sexuality-related practice, from their own perspective. This is important, given the sensitive and complex nature of sexuality and sexual health within the context of mental distress and service provision. This article reports a follow-up study, where mental health clinicians who participated in an initial study were invited to reflect on and discuss the (finalized) results and recommendations generated. The aim was to generate insights into the tools, strategies, and approaches participants felt would best equip and support clinicians to better incorporate sexuality and sexual health into their work. Six clinicians from three disciplines (mental health nursing, psychology, and psychiatry) participated in in-depth interviews to reflect on a plain language summary of the initial study. Three interconnected themes were generated via reflexive thematic analysis: (1) access to knowledge and information; (2) support from peers, senior colleagues, and workplaces; and (3) enacting a focus on sexuality-related care. These findings provide valuable insights into how clinicians may want to be supported in relation to (improving) their sexuality-related practice. The analysis also demonstrates the importance of a multifaceted approach to improving sexuality-related care in mental health and other health settings. This knowledge will contribute to directing future research and development of interventions, tools, strategies, or other approaches to this end.
KW - mental health
KW - professional practice gaps
KW - qualitative research
KW - sexual health
KW - sexuality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171758377&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/inm.13234
DO - 10.1111/inm.13234
M3 - Article
SN - 1445-8330
VL - 33
SP - 125
EP - 133
JO - International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
JF - International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
IS - 1
ER -