A participatory discourse analysis of service users’ accounts of meeting places in Norwegian community mental health care

Nordic Journal of Social Research

Andreas Andreas Envy¹  Tor-Johan Ekeland²  Lill Susann Ynnesdal Haugen³  Norman Anderssen⁴  Marit Borg⁵ 

[1] The research group Child welfare, equality and social inclusion, University of Bergen, Norway.;Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen.;Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen;Faculty of Health Sciences, University College of Southeast Norway, N-3007 Drammen, Norway;Faculty of Social Science and History, Volda University College, N-6101 Volda, Norway;

关键词: Participatory research;    community mental health care;    mental health day centres;    discourse analysis;    service users;    sanism;    social democratic welfare state;   

DOI  :  10.7577/njsr.2149

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Since the 1960s, deinstitutionalisation has been salient in mental health reforms across the West. In Norway, this culminated in the National Action Plan for Mental Health (1999-2008), where meeting places in community mental health care were deemed a prioritised strategy to counter social isolation among people in psychosocial hardships. However, during the same period in England, meeting places were beginning to be contested for contributing to social exclusion. This is an inquiry of meeting places in Norway guided by the following research question: How do service users discuss their encounters with the spaces and people of meeting places? Situated in community psychology and participatory research traditions, we engaged in a participatory discourse analysis of four focus group discussions with 22 service users from meeting places. We detail and discuss four central discursive constructions of meeting places against the backdrop of a civil society identified as fraught with sanism that stigmatises and excludes service users: a compensatory public welfare arrangement positioning service users as citizens with social rights; a peer community positioning service users as peers who share common identities and interests; spaces of compassion validating service users as fellow human beings who are precious in their own right; and greenhouses facilitating service users to expand their horizons of possibility. This inquiry implies that meeting places could mean everything to the people who attend them by facilitating opportunities considered less accessible elsewhere in their everyday lives in a sanist civil society.

【 授权许可】

Unknown