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Accessible Summary: What is known on the subject?: Recovery‐oriented studies show that the quality of the professional relationship plays an essential role in the recovery from mental illness. Within mental health care in general, previous studies show that helpful professional relationships are characterized by several reciprocal aspects, such as friendship resemblance and self‐disclosure.The literature is scarce on in‐depth explorations of professional relationships within the often long‐lasting and intimate help context of institutional supportive housing. Explorations of staff members' experiences are absent. The scientific rationale of this study was to expand the current knowledge about professional relationships in mental health care by exploring staff members' descriptions of helpful professional relationships in supportive housing institutions. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: The study shows that helpful relationships may involve staff experiences of reciprocity in terms of both a two‐way influence between staff and residents and a reciprocal gain from being part of the helpful relationships.A conceptualization of reciprocity that complements existing concepts is suggested and connected to a "good match" between staff and residents. What are the implications for practice?: When support and care are intended to be provided within a dyadic relationship, both parties' preferences should be considered when pairing service users and professionals.Practitioners should get involved in ways that open up for being influenced and inspired by the service user's characteristics, such as personality and attitude. Furthermore, they should dare to enjoy and make use of the company of the service user in ways that promote multifaceted reciprocity. Introduction: In the aftermath of the deinstitutionalization in western countries, new community‐based mental health services have been established. An essential object of studies in this new institutional landscape has been helpful professional relationships, but we still lack knowledge about helpful relationships in community‐based institutional supportive housing. Aim: To explore how staff members describe their relationships with residents who have identified them as helpful. Methods: Qualitative interviews with nine staff members were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: "Reciprocity" was identified as the main theme, and two subthemes were developed: "Something influential about the resident" and "Value for the staff member." Discussion: The findings are discussed and related to existing conceptualizations of reciprocity in professional relationships, and an additional conceptualization is suggested. Implications for practice: To promote reciprocity, managers should consider both parties' personal preferences when matching professionals and service users. Further, professionals should get involved in ways that open up for being influenced and inspired by several of the service user's characteristics. They should allow themselves to enjoy the company of the service user in ways that promote multifaceted reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore how material things might become involved in the recovery process of people with mental health difficulties. Empirical material from three different studies on various aspects concerning mental health issues that each of the authors had conducted was reanalysed through a phenomenological item analysis. We discovered that mundane objects such as a mobile phone, a bench, a door and a key have agency to contribute to peoples' recovery and wellbeing. Things became agents that created contexts that initiated physical, social and emotional movements. By giving attention to materiality we might become aware of the importance of things as agents in living in general and in recovery processes for people with mental health difficulties in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our daily lives and sense of self are partly formed by material surroundings that are often taken for granted. This materiality is also important for people with mental health problems living in supported housing with surroundings consisting of different healthcare services, neighbourhoods, buildings or furniture. In this study, we explored how understandings of tenants are expressed in the materialities of supported housing. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork in seven different supported accommodations in Norway and analysed the resultant field notes, interviews, photographs and documents using Situational Analysis. The analysis showed that supported housing materialities expressed a blurry picture comprising widening and narrowing understandings of tenants, both by others and by themselves. Widening understandings concerned how tenants were living their lives in their own ways in private rooms while maintaining a social life in common areas. Narrowing understandings pertained to understand the tenants based solely on their diagnosis and need for care and control in hospital‐like buildings. The following discussion focusses on the ideas that underlie narrowing materialities and on the importance of striving for atmospheres that entail a sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the ways in which "small things" may be of importance for people with mental health difficulties. Method: Empirical material from three different studies was reanalysed through a phenomenological, dialogical, approach. Results: We discovered some paradoxical aspects of small things: i.e., they could be about "something" that was difficult or even impossible to identify. The unidentifiable could be about bodily, sensual experiences that are superficial (i.e., belonging to the surface). The interaction with others highlighted as significant could be about doing something fun, talking nonsense or kidding around, and hence not at all about making sense of something—a kind of important nonsense. We summarize these aspects in three themes: the importance of the unidentifiable, the superficial and nonsense. These aspects can be regarded as small things—even "nothings"—that make it possible "to stay in the world". Conclusion: We elaborate on the findings in relation to the following: Gumbrecht's critique of the prevailing hermeneutic world-view with its idea that "interpretation is humankind's exclusive way of relating to the world", Ingold's idea that social life is lived in relations of "interfacility" and hence a turn to surfaces is needed for a "restoration of social life", and Biesta's idea of existence as "coming into the world in the presence of others". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to show how people suffering from severe obesity might experience stigmatization. We interviewed 6 persons recruited from a Norwegian rehabilitation center, specialized in lifestyle intervention in severe obesity. We found that the participants suffering from severe obese experienced stigmatization and thus felt that they a) did not fit into the material world and b) experienced a lack of respect from health care professionals. The results are discussed according to how contemporary symbols are embedded in our surroundings and in our bodies. The conclusion underlines severe obesity as a complex problem which is strengthened by rooms and interior designed for ideal sizes. The prejudices that health care professionals express worsen these patients feeling of stigma. We refer to this as material and professional stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fear and aggression are often reported among professionals working in locked psychiatric wards and also among the patients in the same wards. Such situations often lead to coercive intervention. In order to prevent coercion, we need to understand what happens in dangerous situations and how patients and professionals interpret them. Research questions: What happens when dangerous situations occur in a ward? How do professionals and patients interpret these situations and what is ethically at stake? Research design: Participant observation and interviews. Participants: A total of 12 patients and 22 professionals participated. Ethical considerations: This study has been accepted by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics in Norway. Findings: (a) Both atmosphere and material surroundings were interweaved within dangerous situations, (b) the professionals applied stereotypes when interpreting dangerous situations and (c) the professionals and the patients had different interpretations of what triggered dangerous situations. Discussion: The discussion centres on how care ethics and a dialogical practice might contribute towards combating difficult situations and the ways in which change is an ongoing ethical process of becoming. Conclusion: The ethics of care and a dialogical approach are suggested as ethical frameworks for preventing fear, danger and aggression in psychiatric wards. Both frameworks can be understood as patient-driven, including the relational and contextual perspectives. It means a shift from professionally driven processes to patient-driven dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of autonomy and liberty are established goals in mental health care; however, involuntary commitment is used towards people with mental health and substance abuse problems (dual diagnosis). To explore how patients and staff act in the context of involuntary commitment, how interactions are described and how they might be interpreted. Ethnographic methodology in a locked psychiatric ward in Norway. Two parallel images emerged: (a) The ward as a hotel. Several patients wanted a locked ward for rest and safety, even when admission was classified as involuntary. The staff was concerned about using the ward for real treatment of motivated people, rather than merely as a comfortable hotel for the unmotivated. (b) The ward as a detention camp. Other patients found involuntary commitment and restrictions in the ward as a kind of punishment, offending them as individuals. Contrary, the staff understood people with dual diagnoses more like a generalized group in need of their control and care. Patients and staff have different perceptions of involuntary commitment. Based on the patients' points of view, mental health care ought to be characterized by inclusion and recognition, treating patients as equal citizens comparable to guests in a hotel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]