Page 89 - SafeCert Approved First Aid for Mental Health at Work (Level 3) | Trainers Manual

PAGE
88

Handouts

Personality Disorder

Facts Teaching

• About 40-70% of people on a psychiatric ward will have a personality
disorder.

• 30-40% of psychiatric patients being treated in the community by a
psychiatric service will have a personality disorder.

• Around 10-30% of patients who see their GP will have a personality
disorder.

What is it?

By our late teens, or early 20s, most of us have developed our own personality with our own distinctive
ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. It remains pretty much the same for the rest of our life. Usually,
our personality allows us to get on reasonably well, if not perfectly, with other people.
Administration
However, for some people, this doesn't happen. Their personality may develop in a way that can be
difficult to learn from experience and to change those traits - the unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and
behaving

- that cause the problems. It is not clear what causes a personality disorder, but it seems that like
other mental disorders, genes, brain problems and upbringing can play a part.

Signs and Symptoms

Difficulty in:

• Making or keeping relationships.
• Getting on with people at work.
• Getting on with friends and family. Lesson Plans
• Keeping out of trouble.
• Controlling your feelings or behaviours.

Recovery

Treatment for people with personality disorders can be psychological (talking therapies) and/or physical
(medication).

If you have a personality disorder, you may not need treatment at all – but you might find medication
or talking treatments helpful, and sometimes both. Admission to hospital usually happens only as a last
resort (e.g. when a person with borderline personality disorder is harming themselves badly).
Handouts

For more information: www.mentalhealth.org.uk

s
© Copyright 2021 Abertay International Training Ltd