Meanings of carers’ lived experience of “regulating oneself” in forensic psychiatry

Purpose This study aimed to illuminate the essential meanings of carers’ lived experience of regulating themselves when caring for patients with mental illnesses in forensic inpatient care. Methods Qualitative analysis was used to analyse data from narrative interviews with open-ended questions conducted with nine carers, which were analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Results Findings revealed three themes, “preserving oneself as a carer,” “building an alliance with the patient” and “maintaining stability in the community.” Carers not only regulated emotions related to patients but also the ward to facilitate a caring climate. For carers, encounters with patients meant facing expressions of suffering that evoked unwanted emotions. Regulating one’s emotions also meant being emotionally touched and facing one’s vulnerability. Conclusion Regulating oneself was a strategy used by carers to get closer to the patient and establishing a trusting relationship. Regulating oneself meant becoming aware of one’s shortcomings, not projecting them onto others, which may impair establishing relationships with patients and fulfilling the aim and caring task of forensic psychiatry. This study stresses the importance of carers being guided to manage their conflicting emotions and vulnerabilities and finding courage and an approach that allows a permissive climate of self-reflection