Assessing the Social Impact of Mental Health Service Accessibility by a Nonprofit Social Enterprise: A Mixed--methods Case Study

Abstract

The following study sought to examine the social impact of a social enterprise mental health services model by assessing its impact on service accessibility and mental health stigma. A novel approach to case study – a mixed methods design was developed by collecting data from service users, counsellors, and community members of a social enterprise in Toronto, Ontario, using qualitative interviews and the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS) survey. Findings show how the social enterprise increases service access and challenges mental health stigma by engaging in a variety of activities, including providing low--cost counselling, diversifying services, offering a positive and safe non--clinical environment, and engaging with the public directly by utilizing a storefront model. As a result of data triangulation analysis, common themes and discrepancies between respondent groups are identified and discussed. No significant relationships were found between mental health stigma and community member demographic characteristics. Insights on replication of this social impact assessment model are discussed.

Dimensión económica y dimensión social de la empresa social. ¿Cómo influye la concreción de los fines fundacionales?

“…Diversos trabajos han puesto de relieve las dificultades de gestión de este tipo de entidades, que deben atender prioritariamente a un fin social, garantizando al mismo tiempo su viabilidad económica y adecuada gestión (Defourny & Nyssens, 2008, 2010, 2012a. Esta doble dimensionalidad, económica y social, ha hecho que estas entidades sean consideradas como empresas sociales (Turpin et al, 2021;Hsu & Yen, 2020). En este sentido, la propuesta europea del Estatuto para la Empresa Social y Solidaria cita expresamente a las fundaciones como una modalidad de empresa social (Parlamento Europeo, 2021).…”