Understanding public opinion relating to the establishment of community mental health facilities: implications of a discourse analytic approach

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a novel approach to investigating the problem of public opposition to community mental health facilities. With the move towards community care, organizations setting up mental health facilities have encountered public opposition. It has been argued that this is due, in part, to the attitudes held by the public towards mentally ill people. A knowledge and understanding of attitudes towards this client group therefore has the potential to be of practical use to policy makers and practitioners who have a responsibility to consult on, and implement, community care for mentally ill people. The survey approaches and hypothetical situations used in previous British studies of community attitudes towards mentally ill people have, however, failed to take account of the rhetorical richness and complexity of the attitudes likely to be expressed in real-life community care contexts. By contrast, the study reported in this paper used a discourse analytic approach to explore the views expressed about mentally ill people in a`hot situation'. Speci®cally, people's views were explored in the contexts of the arguments they used to challenge or advocate a supported accommodation project for mentally ill people in their community. This paper examines some of these arguments and discusses the theoretical implications for traditional approaches to attitude research. In conclusion, the potential practical utility of the ®ndings is considered.

Neighbor Perceptions of Psychiatric Supportive Housing: The Role of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors

“…Looking at individual items on the CAMI/Time to Change measure illuminates some areas where neighbors had slightly more variation in their responses. Concerns echo findings from previous literature suggesting that neighbors have some concern regarding their children being exposed to individuals with mental illness (Arens, 1993;Cheung, 1990;Cowan, 1999). Nearly a third of respondents disagreed that individuals who used to be patients in a mental hospital could be trusted as babysitters, and a full 40.3% neither agreed nor disagreed, indicating at least some hesitation to the idea.…”

NIMBY syndrome and public consultation policy: the implications of a discourse analysis of local responses to the establishment of a community mental health facility

“…Because of limitations of space, it is possible to present only a limited number of examples, selected to allow readers to gain a feel for the data. Readers interested in a more detailed account of the analysis of the data are referred to Cowan (1997, 1999).…”

Public Responses to Community Compensation: The Importance of Prior Consultations with Local Residents

“…In fact, local residents probably attach more rather than less value to consultations with the public than people who observe a facility siting situation from an outsider perspective. Indeed, Cowan (, ) notes that a lack of consultations with residents is a frequently heard complaint of people objecting to the establishment of a mental health facility in their community. Therefore, we are confident that generalizations can be made to situations where people are personally involved.…”