I Just Want to Know if I Was Safe: Views of Consumers About Sexual Safety on Acute Mental Health In-Patient Units

The overall aim of this study is to explore the perspectives of consumers receiving care within acute mental health (MH) inpatients about their sexual safety. Admission to an acute MH inpatient unit for consumers can be a challenging experience due to several factors. Several safety concerns about the inpatient units have been previously reported. However, there is a paucity of studies that have specifically sought the views of consumers about their sexual safety. This is an explorative descriptive qualitative study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews involving n = 12 consumers receiving care on a metropolitan acute mental health inpatient unit who were recruited using purposive convenience sampling. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of this study highlighted the themes of: “I don't feel safe at times”, “I just want to know if I was safe”, “The Avoidance” and finding a safe space, which has two subthemes of stop gap measures and gender specific wards. Participants in this study were concerned about their sexual safety while on admission to the inpatient units and wanted nursing staff to check in about their sexual safety. They noted that nursing staff would often put measures in place to maintain their sexual safety, but this was not adequate at times, and in other instances, they devised their own strategies to maintain safety. They suggested more gender-specific wards, although some did not fully support this idea. Ensuring that consumers feel sexually safe is important when it comes to the way care is delivered.