"Unfortunately, we can't avoid everything": a qualitative study of municipal mental health workers' experiences with workplace violence.

The experiences of municipal mental health workers involving workplace violence remain underexplored. This study aimed to obtain an in-depth understanding of how mental health workers perceive and manage challenging encounters with service users. We conducted six focus group interviews with 38 participants from urban and rural municipalities and private, nonprofit organisations in Norway. The interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Workplace violence is a complex and multifaceted challenge within municipal mental health services. We identified four main themes (1) Unpredict