Exploring Clinician Wellbeing within a Mentalization-Based Treatment Service for Adult Offending Males with Antisocial Personality Disorder in the Community

Abstract

Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) is offered as a potential treatment for clients with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), however, research suggests that delivering MBT can often present challenges for clinicians. Furthermore, there is agreement that working with clients with ASPD can significantly impact upon staff wellbeing. This project highlights the challenges experienced by clinicians when delivering an MBT service with adult offending males with ASPD within the community. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was conducted following semi-structured interviews with six MBT clinicians. Findings highlight how the challenges of working with clients with ASPD presented a significant threat to clinicians’ professional identity. These challenges were compounded by confusion surrounding the MBT model, lack of support from multidisciplinary staff and insufficient service infrastructure. MBT clinicians’ attempts to overcome these barriers led to them striving and breaching time boundaries, leaving them at risk of burnout. These findings contribute to existing literature surrounding clients with ASPD and provide new insight into implementation barriers when delivering a community based MBT service with this client group.