Developing a worker role: Stories of four people with mental illness

Abstract

Background and Aims:Work plays an important role in adults' well-being, irrespective of health status. Vocational rehabilitation can enable people with mental illness to return to open employment. A narrative approach was used to explore how individuals with a mental illness made sense of their work-related experiences. Methods and Results: Four Clubhouse members in open employment for at least 6 months completed in-depth, semistructured interviews, from which narratives were created to reveal events, significant persons and actions that assisted these individuals to resume work. Woven into the participants' stories were four 'impelling forces' contributing to a sense-of-self as a worker. These impelling forces were: support from significant others, the personal meaning of work, experiences within the Clubhouse programme, and the ongoing struggle with illness. Implications for occupational therapy practice are discussed. Conclusion: The findings of this study urge occupational therapists and others to provide opportunities to provide on-going support to people with a mental illness who seek paid employment.

What is psychosis? A meta-synthesis of inductive qualitative studies exploring the experience of psychosis

“…Self-identity can be regained, for example, by asserting a unique individual identity (Humberstone, 2002), work (Kennedy-Jones et al, 2005), or the re-discovery of an old talent (Roe et al, 2005). In terms of regaining self-esteem, work appears to be particularly helpful (Dunn et al, 2008;Sung et al, 2006;Kennedy-Jones et al, 2005;Liu et al, 2007;Marwaha et al, 2005), as can secure housing (Browne & Courtney, 2005a). Mindfulness techniques can be beneficial here too, helping patients find, in one participant's words, "that basically that I'm not wrong, that I'm quite acceptable" (Abba et al, 2008, p. 85).…”

“…The aid to recovery of a supportive network of friends, particularly friends with a sense of humour (Lencucha et al, 2008), and social relationships generally are frequently stressed (McCann & Clark, 2004;Schon et al, 2009). This can result in a lower probability of suicide (Skodlar et al, 2008), aid a return to work, in turn further aiding social relations (Kennedy-Jones et al, 2005;Gee et al, 2003;Perry et al, 2007;Woodside et al, 2006). The need to regain romantic relationships and to have a family is also important (Laliberte-Rudman et al, 2000;Wagner & King, 2004) and can make people feel 'normal' again (Redmond et al, 2010).…”

Being candidates in a transitional vocational course: experiences of self, everyday life and work potentials

“…A number of environmental factors have been highlighted such as meaningful and relevant interventions, service coordination, part-time jobs as an option, long-term support from family, friends, workmates and employment specialist, recovery expectations among providers, corresponding values and a good climate between the worker and the workplace (Kirsh 2000b;Henry and Lucca 2004;Kirsh, Cockburn, and Gewurtz 2005;Tse 2002). When service users have been asked about their primary motivation for employment, the internalized values of being a worker, the satisfaction of belonging to a normal, encouraging but challenging working environment, and the possibilities of revitalization and empowerment are described (Auerbach and Richardson 2005;Borg and Kristiansen 2008;Gewurtz and Kirsh 2007;Iannelli and Wilding 2007;Kennedy-Jones, Cooper, and Fossey 2005;Kirsh 2000a;Krupa 2004). The literature also echoes dilemmas of revealing one's mental health history, when it comes to timing, processes and consequences (Boyce et al 2008;Honey 2004).…”

“…Quite a few qualitative studies (Gewurtz and Kirsh 2007;Kennedy-Jones, Cooper, and Fossey 2005;Inman, McGurk, and Chadwick 2007;Iannelli and Wilding 2007;Rebeiro-Gruhl and Laporte 2008;Marwaha and Johnson 2005;Tse and Yeats 2002;Boyce et al 2008;Johnson et al 2009) have explored service users' past and present work experience within diverse vocational rehabilitation programs and employment settings. Gewutz and Kirsh (2007) revealed that through paid and unpaid work, individuals discovered their potential and became citizens with prospects of work.…”

Practices and roles of Irish occupational therapists’ with adults with intellectual disabilities who access supported employment services

“…Findings reported by Strong (1998), Legault and Rebeiro (2001), Kennedy-Jones et al (2005) and Corrigan et al (2007) all report on the experience of people with mental health difficulties. They note the positive impact supported employment had on their recovery often discussing such factors such as stigma and barriers to employment.…”