Milieu Therapy: How to implement it in Aceh mental hospital

Abstract

Aceh mental hospital in collaboration with Sabang nursing academy and Hedmark University College will develop local knowledge about milieu therapy in the hospital. This project is conducted by co-operative inquiry research. The collaboration began from 2009 to 2012. This study is the third part of collaboration project. The purpose of study is to find the best ways to implement milieu therapy in wards of Aceh mental hospital. Dialog-based teaching is an important intervention in this study. Data was collected with multi-step focus group interviews with using eight nurses of each of two wards in the hospital as samples, and analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. The results of the study which include the categories were identified: necessity implementation of milieu therapy, some challenges to implement milieu therapy, aspirations in implementation of milieu therapy, and the need to involve staff, patients and families. It looks clearly there is a desire of the respondents to provide better treatment for the patients and one of the best ways is by implementing the milieu therapy. They are highly aware that it is not easy to implement it in the hospital, they would face a lot of challenges both from the patient, family, staff and the facilities of the hospital, however they believe if the hospital support it then the milieu therapy could be applied. They also have some aspirations in implementation of milieu therapy both the kind of activities, means of support, and how to get started. They also underline family, patient and all staff involvement are absolutely necessary to succeed this program.