Supporting children with distressing sensory experiences and psychosis: Practitioner perspectives and barriers to service engagement

Jesuorobo, Yvonne (2025) Supporting children with distressing sensory experiences and psychosis: Practitioner perspectives and barriers to service engagement. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis comprises three papers, namely a systematic literature review, an empirical research paper and a critical appraisal of the research. The systematic literature review explored the experiences of young people and their families in engaging with Early Intervention for Psychosis services (EIP). Thematic synthesis was applied on 11 papers, identifying three overarching themes: 1) “I wasn’t super willing to go [to the EIP] at the beginning”: Initial reluctance from YP to engage with EIP, 2) “I thought it was great to receive a diagnosis”: Needs-led engagement with EIP, 3) “I go because I have to. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to”: Service management affects YP and families’ experiences of EIP engagement. These findings highlight the importance of working collaboratively with other services to provide more information on EIP and make them feel less threatening. The empirical research paper explored the experiences of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) practitioners in offering support to children and young people with distressing sensory experiences (DSEs). The experiences of seven CAMHS practitioners were explored using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and four themes were revealed: 1) “I don’t know how you’d work it out”: A knowledge gap that drives practitioner anxiety, pressure and emotional labour, 2) The stigma around DSEs: “She must be bipolar, psychotic”, 3) What do we offer in the absence of guidance?, and 4) Holding the tension: what does the service want, what do I want? The findings highlight the importance of offering increased training on DSEs to CAMHS practitioners and destigmatising DSEs. The critical appraisal compares the two papers and also discusses methodological considerations for each paper. Additionally, the appraisal considers the process of reflexivity in the research process, as well as the personal reflections on writing the thesis.