Caregivers' experiences of exposure to violence in services for people with learning disabilities.

Exposure to violence is a commonly encountered problem in services for people with learning disabilities; Swedish studies have reported that 51-61% of caregivers are exposed to violence each year, and caregivers describe violence as being a 'normal' part of their working life. To illuminate the experience of being exposed to violence, we performed 50 narrative interviews with 44 caregivers working in services for people with learning disabilities. The tape-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to qualitative content analysis. The main findings indicate that caregivers' experiences of being exposed to violence can be related to two themes: falling apart, and keeping it together. Falling apart includes feelings of fear, powerlessness, sadness, anger and timelessness, while keeping it together concerns pleasure, respect, self-reflection and habituation. Destructive experiences of falling apart are balanced by a more constructive view of the situation, with the aim of respecting the resident as a whole person, and keeping the situation, and the caregivers themselves, together.