Mental health professionals' experiences of provision of health behaviour change interventions to people with schizophrenia: A thematic analysis

Mazoruk, Sabina

Abstract

Abstract
People living with schizophrenia have disproportionately high rates of comorbidities and significantly reduced life expectancy as compared to the general population. The evidence suggests that the elevated risk of multi-morbidity and premature mortality in this group is largely behavioural and as such can be prevented.
A variety of health behaviour change interventions can be effective in managing morbidity and mortality risks in schizophrenia, and mental health professionals are best placed to deliver such interventions to this group of clients. The national clinical guidelines state that mental health services should be providing health behaviour change interventions. However, in practice such interventions are not routinely provided.
Literature suggests that unhelpful attitudes may be responsible for the lack of provision of such interventions in mental health. Overall, the findings from general mental health suggest that positive attitudes towards physical health interventions are not translated into practice, and that negative attitudes are a barrier. However, the literature evidence concerning mental health professionals’ attitudes towards health behaviour change in schizophrenia is limited. More research is needed to explore and understand the pervasiveness of the disparity between clinical guidelines and practice.
The aim of this study was to fill this gap in the literature and qualitatively explore secondary mental health professionals’ experiences of delivering health behaviour change interventions to people with Schizophrenia with a view to improving the current understanding of factors contributing to the disparity between clinical guidelines and practice previously reported in the literature.
Ten mental health professionals from secondary mental health services were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, and the COM-B was used as a framework to discuss the findings.
The main finding of this study was that the possible explanation for the gap between positive attitudes and provision of health behaviour change interventions was that although professionals expressed positive attitudes towards behaviour change interventions in schizophrenia in general, their attitudes towards delivering such interventions as individual clinicians varied. These attitudes seemed to have been mediated by the level of specialist knowledge and skills for facilitating behaviour change in this complex group of clients.
The implications of findings and recommendations for service level interventions to increase provision of health behaviour change interventions in schizophrenia are discussed.

Citation

Mazoruk, S. Mental health professionals' experiences of provision of health behaviour change interventions to people with schizophrenia: A thematic analysis. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7196577

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Mar 11, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 1, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7196577
• Award Date: Oct 1, 2021