title: 'Doing things together': male caregivers' experiences of giving care to patients in forensic psychiatric care.
abstract: Studies into work carried out by male caregivers in a care environment in which male patients and male caregivers constitute a majority are lacking. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the experiences of male caregivers in providing care for patients in forensic psychiatric care. The study has a qualitative design and data were constituted by interviews with six male caregivers at a clinic of forensic psychiatry in a town in central Sweden. The method of analysis chosen was latent content analysis. The results consist of four themes: Activities as a component of care, Social training as the basis of care, Feelings of powerlessness and Seeing the complete person. The experience that comes out most distinctly in the descriptions given by caregivers involves performing activities together with the patients. The activities had different significances and these contribute to creating a more secure care relationship, in which the boundaries between personnel and patients become less clear. Physical activities contribute to recreating the patient's health. Social training appears as a component of the care in which the significance of rules and routines in the operations was integrated. Feelings of powerlessness arise when the caregivers do not experience that the care given on the ward contributes to recreating health for the patients. Seeing the complete person behind the crime constitutes the themes that can be said to summarize the meaning of the work carried out by male caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Lecturer Director of Nursing Program, Head of Division, School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalens University, Västerås, Sweden. esa.kumpula@mdh.se
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kumpula
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ekstrand
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012919:Social Behavior; D013548:Sweden