Search

This paper points out some problematic aspects of qualitative research based on interviews and uses examples from mental health. The narrative approach is explored while inquiring if the reality of life here is forced into the formula of a chronological story. The hermeneutic approach, in general, is also examined, and we ask if the reality of life in this scenario becomes caught up in a web of interpretations. Inspired by ideas from Bakhtin and phenomenology, we argue for interview-based research that stays with unresolvedness and constantly question the web of interpretations and narratives that determine our experiences. This also chimes with certain dialogical practices in mental health in which tolerance of uncertainty is the guiding principle. Concludingly, we suggest that interview-based research could be a practice of 'un-resolving' in which researchers, together with the participants, look for cracks, contradictions, and complexities to prevent the qualitative fallacies of well-organized meanings and well-composed stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: Recently, the position of persons with mental health and drug problems has evolved from victim of an illness to holder of an experience-based knowledge (EBK). Studies about recovery are often based on recovery narratives. However, focusing on components of the recovery process--parts of this EBK concerned with the causes, onset, and journey before the proper recovery process--risks forming a blind spot. In this study, we aim to analyze service users' EBK about recovery, the backgrounds and causes of the problems, and how they related these conditions to their recovery journey. Research Design and Methods: We interviewed 29 persons in recovery. Data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. Results: We found that a childhood characterized by violence and abuse reoccurred in the stories. The child's situation was not addressed by schools, social agencies, or neighbours, creating an experience of social isolation and invisibility. Mental health distress and drug abuse were described as ways of managing these situations, until these became problems in themselves. The recovery journey started in a situation of despair and with a decision to stop using the developed threat response. For many, this meant going back to a situation of loneliness and invisibility before finding places and people and allowing experiences of being part of a positive context where they could also contribute. Conclusions: There is a risk of a blind spot in recovery research. EBK should be used to develop recovery-oriented services and also preventive interventions directed toward the social and psychological conditions in which children are raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To provide increased understanding about how work applicants, employment specialists, social workers in the welfare service and clinicians in mental healthcare service experience participating in individual placement and support (IPS). Methods: We searched in several databases and identified 17 studies published from 2007 to 2017 in Sweden, USA, Canada, UK, Australia and Denmark, and applied meta‐ethnographic reinterpretation and synthesis. Results: The employment specialists followed the core ideas of IPS, where work is seen as a way to recover. They saw the work applicants' preferences and needs as important for health and well‐being, and crucial for successful work rehabilitation. In order to reach these goals, they offered a personal relationship to the work applicants. Work applicants clearly appreciated this personalised recovery‐oriented mindset. Furthermore, work applicants needed the employment specialists as culture brokers between health‐related questions and the expectations met in the labour market. Social workers lacked resources to such personalised support, and they were under demand of welfare regulations made for a 'train then place' model, which conflicts with the view that work leads to recovery as IPS sees it in their 'place then train' model. The scarce knowledge of the clinicians' experiences in the present study suggests that they are sceptical to work as a way to recover, which is in conflict with IPS. Conclusions: The work applicants highlighted the significance of the individualised support they received. Social workers and some clinicians found it difficult to provide this important personalised support towards work. Conflicting mindsets between the traditional gradual work rehabilitation paradigm and the IPS approach as a way of recovering might explain these frustrations and distance. Recommendations for practice. An improvement of IPS may depend on more cooperation based on an acceptance of the recovery‐oriented mindset, which for some will mean an acceptance of new knowledge. [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]

Some people who by themselves or by others are understood as having mental health problems have written autobiographies about their experiences. The aim of this study is to explore how people write about their experiences of being mentally ill. Twelve Scandinavian autobiographies were studied using content analysis based on phenomenology and hermeneutics. Three themes were identified: feeling like a stranger in life and places, the transformation of life experiences into questions of disease and feeling ashamed. People's experiences of being mentally ill might be understood as the result of medical constructions unsuitable for the persons themselves. We could instead say that mental problems are not diseases, but severe and painful phenomena in people's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, various housing types for people with mental health problems have been developed for use in the community. These housing types differ in their objectives, staff support and design. In this study, we focus on how fire safety influences the lives of tenants in supported housing. The qualitative study was designed with a multi-sited ethnography approach. Fieldwork was conducted in seven different Norwegian supported housing settings in 2017 with 105 participants (29 tenants, 70 staff, five managers, and one planner). The empirical data consist of field notes, recorded interviews and pictures, which were analyzed with grounded theory and situational analysis. The analysis reconstructed how fire safety was organized and tenants' experiences of it. These experiences could be positive (such as feeling protected) or negative (such as feeling annoyed or under surveillance). The tenants coped differently with these situations, and fire safety sets boundaries for tenants. Overall, fire safety was organized differently in the supported housing settings we looked at comparison to in most of the common housing units in Norway. The influences of fire safety on daily life can be understood as ambiguous and can be interpreted as a normalizing factor in a risk society. Thus, we emphasize the need for appropriate and well-considered fire safety as a public health intervention in supported housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health recovery takes place in a social and material world. However, socio-material contexts have often been absent from recovery studies. The present study was conducted in Norway, a Scandinavian welfare country. We interviewed people at meeting places who had experiences as service users, focusing on their experiences of becoming well, and analyzed their recovery stories using an assemblage framework. Our analysis identified four constitutive dimensions that promote mental health recovery: an atmosphere of togetherness, doings as more than the act, personal development, and integration in society. We discuss how these dimensions might be seen as social, relational, and material forces that create important micropolitics that challenge the individualistic professionalization of the recovery concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places where people live are important for their personal and social lives. This is also the case for people with mental health problems living in supported housing. To summarise the existing knowledge, we conducted a systematic review of 13 studies with different methodologies regarding the built environment in supported housing and examined their findings in a thematic analysis. The built environment of supported housing involves three important and interrelated themes: well-being, social identity and privacy. If overregulated by professionals or located in problematic neighbourhoods or buildings, the settings could be an obstacle to recovery. If understood as meaningful places with scope for control by the tenants or with amenities nearby, the settings could aid recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]