From cultural awareness to safety in Canadian speech‑language pathology practice: A scoping review protocol.

There is rising interest in social factors associated with mental ill health among people with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’ [,]. Recent systematic reviews of the quantitative literature [,] and a meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature [] show that people with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’ experience an intense sense of disconnection and high levels of loneliness. However, loneliness has tended to be overlooked as a potential intervention target and there is a lack of research focused on understanding loneliness and its perceived links to mental health among people with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’ [,,]. Identifying the ways people with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’ experience and cope with loneliness can shed light on strategies that could be incorporated into an intervention tailored to their social needs. ‘Borderline personality disorder’, also known as ‘emotionally unstable personality disorder’ (EUPD) in the International Classification of Disease (ICD), is the most prevalent and frequently encountered condition in clinical practice [,]. People diagnosed with ‘personality disorder’ particularly ‘EUPD’ often face exclusion and stigma from the general public and within mental health services []. This is driven by the negative connotations associated with the condition and misconceptions around treatability [,]. Throughout this paper, we use quotation marks and the phrase “diagnosed with a ‘personality disorder’”, as suggested by people with lived experience of being diagnosed with ‘personality disorder’ [] to acknowledge the strong critiques regarding the diagnostic label which include the inherently invalidating nature of the term []. We also use the language and labels used by participants in the interview study to capture their perceptions and preferred labels (e.g., ‘complex emotional needs’). Loneliness is a painful and distressing emotional state characterised by a perceived discrepancy between one’s actual and desired quantity and/or quality of social relationships []. Loneliness is more prevalent among people with mental health problems compared to the general population and is linked to a wide range of mental health and physical health problems [,]. A recent umbrella review exploring the association between social constructs, including loneliness, and mental health conditions found that loneliness is associated with severity of mental health symptoms and a range of conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, anxiety, depression and psychosis [].