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Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands

OBJECTIVE: Having a visual impairment is known to be associated with an increased vulnerability to (potentially) traumatic events. Little is known about how people with visual impairment experience and process such events. This qualitative study aimed to provide more insight into experiences with tr...

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Autores principales: van der Ham, Alida J, van der Aa, Hilde P A, Verstraten, Peter, van Rens, Ger H M B, van Nispen, Ruth M A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7925917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33542039
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041469
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author van der Ham, Alida J
van der Aa, Hilde P A
Verstraten, Peter
van Rens, Ger H M B
van Nispen, Ruth M A
author_facet van der Ham, Alida J
van der Aa, Hilde P A
Verstraten, Peter
van Rens, Ger H M B
van Nispen, Ruth M A
author_sort van der Ham, Alida J
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Having a visual impairment is known to be associated with an increased vulnerability to (potentially) traumatic events. Little is known about how people with visual impairment experience and process such events. This qualitative study aimed to provide more insight into experiences with traumatic events, consequences of traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related care among people with visual impairment and PTSD. METHODS: Eighteen persons with visual impairment and (a history of) PTSD were interviewed. Among them were 14 women and 4 men aged between 23 and 66 years. Recruitment of participants was done through health professionals from two low-vision service centres and a patient association for people with eye diseases and visual impairment in The Netherlands. Interviews focused on experiences with (1) traumatic events, (2) consequences of traumatic events and (3) PTSD-related care. Thematic content analysis of interview data was performed using ATLAS.ti. The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used to check for completeness and transparency of the study. Data were collected between 2018 and 2020. RESULTS: The most commonly reported traumatic events were sexual and physical abuse. Many participants experienced that their impairment had negatively affected their acceptance by others, independence and self-esteem, increasing their vulnerability for traumatic events. Additionally, having a visual impairment negatively impacted participants’ ability to respond to situations and aggravated post-traumatic stress reactions. Existing treatments seem suitable for people with visual impairment when accommodated to the impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Having a visual impairment may affect traumatic events and post-traumatic stress reactions, particularly by contributing to low self-esteem, problems in social interactions and a lack of visual information. Insights from this study provide starting points for adapting pretraumatic and post-traumatic care to the needs of people with visual impairment.
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spelling pubmed-79259172021-03-19 Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands van der Ham, Alida J van der Aa, Hilde P A Verstraten, Peter van Rens, Ger H M B van Nispen, Ruth M A BMJ Open Mental Health OBJECTIVE: Having a visual impairment is known to be associated with an increased vulnerability to (potentially) traumatic events. Little is known about how people with visual impairment experience and process such events. This qualitative study aimed to provide more insight into experiences with traumatic events, consequences of traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related care among people with visual impairment and PTSD. METHODS: Eighteen persons with visual impairment and (a history of) PTSD were interviewed. Among them were 14 women and 4 men aged between 23 and 66 years. Recruitment of participants was done through health professionals from two low-vision service centres and a patient association for people with eye diseases and visual impairment in The Netherlands. Interviews focused on experiences with (1) traumatic events, (2) consequences of traumatic events and (3) PTSD-related care. Thematic content analysis of interview data was performed using ATLAS.ti. The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used to check for completeness and transparency of the study. Data were collected between 2018 and 2020. RESULTS: The most commonly reported traumatic events were sexual and physical abuse. Many participants experienced that their impairment had negatively affected their acceptance by others, independence and self-esteem, increasing their vulnerability for traumatic events. Additionally, having a visual impairment negatively impacted participants’ ability to respond to situations and aggravated post-traumatic stress reactions. Existing treatments seem suitable for people with visual impairment when accommodated to the impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Having a visual impairment may affect traumatic events and post-traumatic stress reactions, particularly by contributing to low self-esteem, problems in social interactions and a lack of visual information. Insights from this study provide starting points for adapting pretraumatic and post-traumatic care to the needs of people with visual impairment. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7925917/ /pubmed/33542039 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041469 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Mental Health
van der Ham, Alida J
van der Aa, Hilde P A
Verstraten, Peter
van Rens, Ger H M B
van Nispen, Ruth M A
Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title_full Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title_fullStr Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title_full_unstemmed Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title_short Experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from The Netherlands
title_sort experiences with traumatic events, consequences and care among people with visual impairment and post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study from the netherlands
topic Mental Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7925917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33542039
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041469
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