Dual diagnosis clients' experience of hospitalisation in a psychiatric hospital.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experience of hospitalisation of clients with dual diagnosis. Main objectives included the positive and negative factors that influenced this experience and to explore ways in which service offered to this client group can improve. A qualitative research design was used to achieve the aims and objectives of this study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews carried out with a purposive sample of eight dual diagnosis patients who were about to be discharged from hospital. The author designed the tool used during these interviews together with his research supervisor after an extensive review of the literature. The data was analyzed by listening to the audio taped interviews several times prior to transcribing them and after reading the transcripts several times emergent themes were identified. Main themes identified from the transcripts included stigma, ward atmosphere, participants' perception of mental health professionals and the experience of care received. This study concluded that care offered to this client group needs to be improved and recommended that; integrated dual diagnosis care should be available to the whole of this client group and staff can be offered training and education about this speciality.