Suchergebnisse

Background and aims: Previous research on supported housing for people with serious mental illness focuses primarily on tenant/client experiences. The aim of this article is to present families' perspectives on the role of supported housing in recovery, utilizing the CHIME framework of personal recovery. Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 14 families of individuals with serious mental illness living in supported housing. Participants were across five supported housing sites in four Canadian provinces. Results: Families credited supported housing with helping tenants redefine a positive sense of identity, re-establish social relationships and regain control over their lives. Families were less confident about supported housing facilitating future employment or 'full' recovery, focusing on stability rather than continual improvement. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies to report family perspectives on the role of supported housing in their loved one's recovery processes – both strengths and weaknesses.

Background: Recovery is emerging as a worldwide paradigm in mental health. There is increasing recognition that the transformation of mental health systems to a recovery perspective requires collaboration among all stakeholders. Research to date has focused on the perspectives of service users and providers. The role and influence of organizational decision makers in the transformation process has been less studied. Materials: This study reports findings from semi-structured interviews with decision makers on the implementation of recovery in Canada. Discussion: Decision makers view community-based services as most open to recovery-based approaches, and front-line providers as pivotal in implementing system change. Decision makers described their own role as limited to providing overall orientation and funding. Conclusions: The shift to recovery must include active leadership from decision makers as a catalyst to change.

This article reports on the theory-driven evaluation of a drop-in center for youth that incorporated a literature search, concept mapping with staff, and focus groups with youth. Findings revealed strong agreement among the three sources of data around specific elements identified as critical components of a program theory of global prevention in after-school-hours initiatives, such as drop-in centers. These results are used to illustrate how a theory-driven approach was relevant for the context and objectives of this evaluation, as well as how it was used to develop knowledge useful for action, social intervention theory, and further research.

This qualitative study examined how homeless individuals with mental illness experience pathways into homelessness. Study participants were enrolled in the At Home/Chez Soi project, a Pan-Canadian Randomized Controlled Trial comparing the Housing First approach with Treatment as Usual for homeless individuals. This inquiry is grounded in social ecological perspective, which considers interactions between individual and structural factors. Findings from consumer narrative interviews ( n = 219) revealed that individual factors, such as substance abuse, relationship conflicts and mental health issues significantly contributed to homelessness, in addition to structural transitions from foster care and institutional settings into the community. Additional structural factors entrenched participants in unsafe communities, created obstacles to exiting homelessness and amplified individual risk factors. The study findings confirm the role of individual risk factors in pathways into homelessness, but underscore the need for policies and interventions to address structural factors that worsen individual risks and create barriers to exiting homelessness.