From the Mental Patient to the Person

Barham, Dr Peter; Barham, Peter; Hayward, Robert

doi:10.4324/9780203207079

Cited by 73 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…NIHR Journals Library www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk Finally, the wide range of places and activities important to people in our study population underlines the personal nature of recovery from mental illness and progression towards greater citizenship; 69,222 what was important varied by person and one size does not fit all. While the specific activity may differ, the literature suggests having meaningful activities in one's life can increase life satisfaction and improve subjective quality of life in this population.…”

Section: Network Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving community health networks for people with severe mental illness: a case study investigation

Pinfold

Sweet

Porter³

et al. 2015

Health Services and Delivery Research

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IntroductionPolicy drivers in mental health to address personal recovery, stigma and poor physical health indicate that new service solutions are required. This study aimed to understand how connections to people, places and activities were utilised by individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) to benefit health and wellbeing.MethodsA five-module mixed-methods design was undertaken in two study sites. Data were collected from 150 network-mapping interviews and 41 in-depth follow-up interviews with people with SMI; in-depth interviews with 30 organisation stakeholders and 12 organisation leaders; and 44 telephone interviews with practitioners. We undertook a three-stage synthesis process including independent lived experience feedback, and a patient and public involvement team participated in tool design, data collection, analysis and write-up.ResultsThree personal network types were found in our study using the community health network approach: diverse and active; family and stable; formal and sparse. Controlled for other factors we found only four variables significantly associated with which network type a participant had: living alone or not; housing status; formal education; long-term sickness or disability. Diagnosis was not a factor. These variables are challenging to address but they do point to potential for network change. The qualitative interviews with people with SMI provided further understanding of connection-building and resource utilisation. We explored individual agency across each network type, and identified recognition of the importance and value of social support and active connection management alongside the risks of isolation, even for those most affected by mental illness. We identified tensions in personal networks, be that relationships with practitioners or families, dealing with the impact of stigma, or frustrations of not being in employment, which all impact on network resources and well-being. The value of connectedness within personal networks of people, place and activity for supporting recovery was evident in shaping identity, providing meaning to life and sense of belonging, gaining access to new resources, structuring routines and helping individuals ‘move on’ in their recovery journey.Health-care practitioners recognised that social factors were important in recovery but reported system-level barriers (workload, administrative bureaucracy, limited contact time with clients) in addressing these issues fully. Even practitioners working in third-sector services whose remit involved increasing clients’ social connection faced restrictions due to being evaluated by outcome criteria that limited holistic recovery-focused practices. Service providers were keen to promote recovery-focused approaches. We found contrasts between recovery ideology within mental health policy and recovery practice on the ground. In particular, the social aspects of supporting people with SMI are often underprioritised in the health-care system. In a demanding and changing context, strategic multiagency working was seen as crucial but we found few examples of embedded multisector organisation partnerships.ConclusionWhile our exploratory study has limitations, findings suggest potential for people with SMI to be supported to become more active managers of their personal networks to support well-being regardless of current network type. The health and social care system does not currently deliver multiagency integrated solutions to support SMI and social recovery.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

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Section: Network Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving community health networks for people with severe mental illness: a case study investigation

Pinfold

Sweet

Porter³

et al. 2015

Health Services and Delivery Research

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“…While this focus is understandable, given the importance of medical treatment in the lives of people suffering from serious psychiatric disorders, the social location of the individual and their perceptions of the significance of their mental health problems in terms of their wider life experiences, is not, unfortunately, addressed. Barham and Hayward (1991) explore the wider significance of a mental disorder in the lives of a small group of people diagnosed as suffering from a schizophrenic illness. A particularly significant aspect of this qualitative study is the researchers' inclusion of their participants as active collaborators in the research process.…”

Section: Significance Of Differencementioning

confidence: 99%

Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder

Mulvany

2000

Sociology Health & Illness

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Sociologists appear to have abandoned the study of serious mental illness. This paper argues that the work of the disability theorists provides new directions for an analysis of the plight of people suffering from serious mental illness. Disability theory, revolving around a`social approach to disability', redirects analysis from the individual to processes of social oppression, discrimination and exclusion. The application of the ideas of disability theorists to the study of mental ill health will orient research and theoretical development towards an analysis of the complexity and multiplicity of the social restrictions faced by people diagnosed as`mentally ill', and the social disadvantage and oppression they face. A number of vigorous debates within the disability theory literature are examined. One debate addresses the political and theoretical implications of identifying the differences that exist between people with disabilities. A second debate examines the relative importance of including an analysis of impairment in the social approach to disability. Finally, the paper discusses the critique of medical sociology, linking illness with disability, which is advanced by some disability theorists. This debate is particularly concerned with the linking of illness with disability and the ideological and conceptual disadvantages of a focus on illness.

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“…Coppock and Dunn, 2010, pp.111e112). Life for many can become ongoing "predicament" (Barham and Hayward, 1991) or "trap" (Estroff, 1981) caught between living freely and being at risk of having freedom constrained by state actors, including, for example, having their ability to parent questioned (Read and Baker, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why do people with mental distress have poor social outcomes? Four lessons from the capabilities approach

Brunner

2017

Social Science & Medicine

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a b s t r a c tMacro level data indicate that people experiencing mental distress experience poor health, social and economic outcomes. The sociology of mental health has a series of dominant competing explanations of the mechanisms at personal, social and structural levels that generate these poor outcomes. This article explains the limitations of these approaches and takes up the challenge of Hopper (2007) who in this journal proposed the capabilities approach as a means of normatively reconceptualising the experiences of people with mental distress, with a renewed focus on agency, equality and genuine opportunity. Using an innovative methodology to operationalise the capabilities approach, findings from an in-depth qualitative study exploring the lived experiences of twenty-two people with recent inpatient experience of psychiatric units in Scotland are presented. The paper demonstrates that the capabilities approach can be applied to reconceptualise how unjust social outcomes happen for this social group. It distinguishes how the results of using a capabilities approach to analysis are distinct from established dominant analytical frameworks through four added features: a focus on actual lived outcomes; the role of capabilities as well as functionings; being normative; and incorporating agency. The capabilities approach is found to be an operationalisable framework; the findings have implications for professionals and systems in the specific context of mental health; and the capabilities approach offers a fertile basis for normative studies in wider aspects of health and wellbeing.

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From the Mental Patient to the Person

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

Improving community health networks for people with severe mental illness: a case study investigation

Improving community health networks for people with severe mental illness: a case study investigation

Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder

Why do people with mental distress have poor social outcomes? Four lessons from the capabilities approach

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