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Service user attachments to psychiatric key workers and teams

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The first aim of the study was to evaluate whether self-reported attachment styles of individuals with psychosis are consistent with their self-reported attachment in therapeutic relationships with both key workers and mental health teams. The second aim was to evaluate the level of concordance in attachment ratings given by different raters (self-report, key worker informant-report and team informant-report).

Methods

Three self-report versions of the Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM; attachment in general relationships, attachment towards key worker and attachment in relation to the mental health team) were administered to 24 individuals with a diagnosis of psychosis in psychiatric rehabilitation settings. Key worker and ‘team’ informant versions of the PAM were also completed.

Results

There were strong, significant correlations among the three self-reported attachment measures. There was less consistent evidence of correlations between key worker ratings of attachment and self-report attachment ratings. The majority of the correlations between team ratings of attachment and self-report attachment were small and non-significant.

Conclusions

Strong correlations among the self-reported PAM scales suggest that self-reported attachment in specific therapeutic relationships is consistent with self-reported attachment in general relationships. The self-ratings were not consistently correlated with informant-ratings and team informant ratings were particularly poorly correlated with self-ratings. This suggests that it is vital that teams consult service users themselves when making decisions about their care.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Julie Hird for her input into the early stages of the project. Thanks also to the psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses at the Edenfield, Bowness and Bramley St Centres for their help identifying and recruiting service users and for their time completing the team and key worker measures. Finally, we would like to thank the services users who agreed to participate and gave up their time to complete the self-report questionnaires.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, 2nd Floor Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Robert Arbuckle & Katherine Berry

  2. Greater Manchester West Mental Health Foundation Trust, Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 3BL, UK

    Jayne-Louise Taylor & Stephanie Kennedy

Authors
  1. Robert Arbuckle
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  2. Katherine Berry
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  3. Jayne-Louise Taylor
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  4. Stephanie Kennedy
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Correspondence to Robert Arbuckle.

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Arbuckle, R., Berry, K., Taylor, JL. et al. Service user attachments to psychiatric key workers and teams. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 47, 817–825 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0388-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0388-2

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