No abstract

Family members often provide critical support to persons living with a serious mental illness. The focus of this study was to determine which dimensions of the family support network were most important to the recovery process from the perspective of the recovering person. Consumers of a community mental health program completed in‐depth structured interviews that included separate measures of social network support and recovery. Consumers named an average of 2.6 family members on the social network, interacted with family on a weekly basis, and were quite satisfied with their contact. This study revealed that support and reciprocity with family members are important dimensions of a personal support network that relates to the recovery process.

Psychological sense of community within psychosocial rehabilitation clubhouse programs was examined using concept mapping with 18 members and 18 staff from 10 programs. Members identified four concepts: Recovery, social connections, membership, and tasks and roles. Members described hope and healing as aspects of recovery. Members' views on sense of community focused on the rehabilitation and social nature of the program. Staff also identified four concepts: Affiliation and support for members, shared experiences, clubhouse organization, and task and roles. The staff concept of clubhouse organization, which incorporated the ideas of leadership and organization of physical space and the concept of task and roles, was based on ideas of shared responsibility and clubhouse procedures. Staffs' views on sense of community strongly reflected their formal training in clubhouse principles. The relation of these concepts to McMillan and Chavis' theoretical framework for sense of community is discussed and recommendations for practice provided.

It appears that the clubhouse provides an intentional environment that creates a sense of community and a place to belong. The clubhouse as a place to be where one can meet individuals in like situations has been identified as very helpful in achieving recovery by providing the opportunity to rebuild one's shattered social network and offering contact with others in similar contexts.

This study explored the structure and quality of social network support among a group of adult consumers of community-based mental health programs known as clubhouses. The structure and quality of social network support was also examined by diagnosis, specifically between consumers living with and without schizophrenia. The study involved a sample of 221 consumers across 15 clubhouse programs. Social network nominations were collected using a semistructured social network interview strategy. Over 97% of the participants identified at least one source of support in their social network with an average of five nominations. Family members were identified as the most common source of support whereas fellow clubhouse members were least likely to be nominated. Clubhouse members with schizophrenia were less likely to identify family members and were more likely to rate their support networks as more important and engage in greater levels of contact than consumers with other diagnoses. The structure and quality of social network supports were not associated with level of social functioning, length of clubhouse membership or level of participation or other selected demographic variables typically associated with the size and quality of support. C