scholarly journals Tension and Other Idioms of Distress Among Slum Dwelling Young Men: A Qualitative Study of Depression in Urban Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Shabab Wahid ◽  
Malabika Sarker ◽  
A. S. M. Easir Arafat ◽  
Arifur Rahman Apu ◽  
Brandon A. Kohrt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Young Men ◽  
English Word ◽  
Idioms Of Distress ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Therapeutic Outcomes ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Severe Psychopathology

AbstractIn low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) it is vital to understand acceptable, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate ways of communicating about mental distress. Diagnostic terminology is rarely used, may be stigmatizing, and is subject to misinterpretation. Local terms, such as idioms of distress, can improve mental health literacy and service delivery. Our objective was to examine lived experience and coping connected to distress and depression in an under-researched population: young men from LMIC urban slums. We conducted 60 qualitative interviews with men (ages 18–29) in Bhashantek slum, Bangladesh. Themes were generated using thematic analysis and grounded theory techniques. The heart-mind (mon), mentality (manoshikota), mood (mejaj), head (matha or “brain”), and body (shorir) comprised the self-concept, and were related to sadness, hopelessness, anger, worry, and mental illness. The English word “tension” was the central idiom of distress. “Tension” existed on a continuum, from mild distress or motivational anxiety, to moderate distress including rumination and somatic complaints, to severe psychopathology including anhedonia and suicidality. Respondents connected “tension” to burnout experiences and mental illness which was summarized in an ethnopsychological model. These findings can inform culturally sensitive measurement tools and interventions that are acceptable to the community, potentially increasing engagement and enhancing therapeutic outcomes.

scholarly journals VA Peer Providers Supporting Physical Health and Wellness Among Aging Veterans With Mental Health Conditions

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 631-631
Author(s):  
Anjana Muralidharan ◽  
Amanda Peeples ◽  
Alicia Lucksted ◽  
Richard Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Behavior Change ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Group Intervention ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Health Behavior Change ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Self Disclosure

Abstract There is a growing evidence base for the utility of peers in supporting physical health outcomes among aging Veterans with mental illness. This talk will consider two questions: (1) what does it mean to be a “peer” when the focus is improving physical health, and (2) how does peer support promote health behavior change? In considering these questions, select peer-delivered interventions recently or currently being tested in the VA will be discussed. Data from qualitative interviews (N=16; ages 47-75) from a recent RCT of Living Well, a peer co-facilitated group intervention promoting illness self-management, will be presented. These data shed light on the peer role, especially the role of peer self-disclosure in promoting group cohesion, social learning, self-efficacy, and health behavior change. Notably, when physical health is the focus, participants relate to peer providers across diverse characteristics, and not necessarily based on a shared lived experience of mental illness.

scholarly journals Recovery After Psychosis: Qualitative Study of Service User Experiences of Lived Experience Videos on a Recovery-Oriented Website (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Williams ◽  
Ellie Fossey ◽  
John Farhall ◽  
Fiona Foley ◽  
Neil Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Support Service ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Mental Health Worker ◽  
Use Of Technology

BACKGROUND Digital interventions offer an innovative way to make the experiences of people living with mental illness available to others. As part of the Self-Management And Recovery Technology (SMART) research program on the use of digital resources in mental health services, an interactive website was developed including videos of people with lived experience of mental illness discussing their recovery. These peer videos were designed to be watched on a tablet device with a mental health worker, or independently. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to explore how service users experienced viewing the lived experience videos on this interactive website, as well as its influence on their recovery journey. METHODS In total, 36 service users with experience of using the website participated in individual semistructured qualitative interviews. All participants had experience of psychosis. Data analysis occurred alongside data collection, following principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology. RESULTS According to participants, engaging with lived experience videos was a pivotal experience of using the website. Participants engaged with peers through choosing and watching the videos and reflecting on their own experience in discussions that opened up with a mental health worker. Benefits of seeing others talking about their experience included “being inspired,” “knowing I’m not alone,” and “believing recovery is possible.” Experiences of watching the videos were influenced by the participants’ intrapersonal context, particularly their ways of coping with life and use of technology. The interpersonal context of watching the videos with a worker, who guided website use and facilitated reflection, enriched the experience. CONCLUSIONS Engaging with lived experience videos was powerful for participants, contributing to their feeling connected and hopeful. Making websites with lived experience video content available to service users and mental health workers demonstrates strong potential to support service users’ recovery.

The Social and Emotional Impact of Involving Individuals With Mental Illness in the Research Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1634-1640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliza Werner-Seidler ◽  
Frances Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Advisory Panel ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Social

There is a need to involve individuals with a lived experience in health and medical research. Some organizations have developed mechanisms to seek the input of people with a lived experience. However, there are few examples of qualitative research into the impacts of participation. In this study, we investigate the social and emotional impact of participation on individuals, as well as the perceived impact on the organization, in an advisory panel at an Australian mental health research institute. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 50% of the participants on the panel to understand how they conceptualized their involvement. Participants became invested in the organization and their role within it, and found it personally valuable to access diverse perspectives and discuss mental health outside a treatment context. These findings suggest that participating in the research process is beneficial to individuals with a lived experience of mental illness.

scholarly journals Implementing community-based participatory research among African Americans with serious and persistent mental illness: A qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Sheehan ◽  
Sonya Ballentine ◽  
Lorenzo Washington ◽  
Mark Canser ◽  
John Connor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Persistent Mental Illness

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach that involves community members in research, not as research participants, but as partners. However, few studies have examined CBPR projects conducted among African Americans with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI). This article focuses specifically on the Inspiring Change (IC) model, which includes a leadership trio comprised of an academic researcher, health service provider and an African American with lived experience of SPMI. Our purpose is to investigate how the IC model shapes not only how research is conducted but how research is understood and experienced by the community. We achieve this purpose by (1) describing an innovative CBPR model and pilot projects that involved African Americans with SPMI in all stages of the research project; and (2) presenting findings from qualitative interviews conducted with CBPR team members about strengths, challenges and leadership particular to this model of CBPR, an area rarely explored in CBPR literature. With the guidance of an advisory board and the manualised IC curriculum, two CBPR teams initiated and conducted nine-month long research projects focusing on health disparities for African Americans with SPMI. Members of the two CBPR teams (n = 13), which included individuals with lived experience, service providers and researchers, completed qualitative interviews. Benefits of CBPR projects included opportunities to learn, a sense of purpose in helping others and increased trust of research participants. Challenges pertained to disorganisation of leadership, lack of transparency with compensation, time pressures and interpersonal conflicts. These challenges highlight the importance of preparing and supporting those from both academic and lived experience backgrounds in skills necessary to thrive in leadership roles for CBPR projects.  

scholarly journals Idioms of resilience: Mental health and migration in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110429
Author(s):  
Raghu Raghavan ◽  
Brian Brown ◽  
Jonathan Coope ◽  
Mark Crossley ◽  
Muthusamy Sivakami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Idioms Of Distress ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The City

Background: Resilience has proved to be a versatile notion to explain why people are not defeated by hardship and adversity, yet so far, we know little of how it might apply to communities and cultures in low to middle income countries. Aim: This paper aims to explore the notion of resilience in cross-cultural context through considering the lived experience of internal migration. Methods: A sample of 30 participants with experience of migration was recruited from a low-income slum dwelling neighbourhood in the city of Pune, India. These individuals participated in biographical narrative interviews in which they were encouraged to talk about their experience of migration, their adaptation to life in their new environment and making new lives for themselves. Results: Participants referred to a variety of intra-individual and external factors that sustained their resilience, including acceptance of their circumstances, the importance of memory, hope for their children’s futures as well as kindness from family friends and community members and aspects of the physical environment which were conducive to an improvement in their lives. Conclusions: By analogy with the widely used term ‘idioms of distress’, we advocate attention to the locally nuanced and culturally inflected ‘idioms of resilience’ or ‘eudaemonic idioms’ which are of crucial importance as migration and movement become ever more prominent in discussions of human problems. The nature and extent of people’s coping abilities, their aspirations and strategies for tackling adversity, their idioms of resilience and eudaemonic repertoires merit attention so that services can genuinely support their adjustment and progress in their new-found circumstances.

scholarly journals Recovery After Psychosis: Qualitative Study of Service User Experiences of Lived Experience Videos on a Recovery-Oriented Website

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. e37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Williams ◽  
Ellie Fossey ◽  
John Farhall ◽  
Fiona Foley ◽  
Neil Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Support Service ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Mental Health Worker ◽  
Use Of Technology

Background Digital interventions offer an innovative way to make the experiences of people living with mental illness available to others. As part of the Self-Management And Recovery Technology (SMART) research program on the use of digital resources in mental health services, an interactive website was developed including videos of people with lived experience of mental illness discussing their recovery. These peer videos were designed to be watched on a tablet device with a mental health worker, or independently. Objective Our aim was to explore how service users experienced viewing the lived experience videos on this interactive website, as well as its influence on their recovery journey. Methods In total, 36 service users with experience of using the website participated in individual semistructured qualitative interviews. All participants had experience of psychosis. Data analysis occurred alongside data collection, following principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology. Results According to participants, engaging with lived experience videos was a pivotal experience of using the website. Participants engaged with peers through choosing and watching the videos and reflecting on their own experience in discussions that opened up with a mental health worker. Benefits of seeing others talking about their experience included “being inspired,” “knowing I’m not alone,” and “believing recovery is possible.” Experiences of watching the videos were influenced by the participants’ intrapersonal context, particularly their ways of coping with life and use of technology. The interpersonal context of watching the videos with a worker, who guided website use and facilitated reflection, enriched the experience. Conclusions Engaging with lived experience videos was powerful for participants, contributing to their feeling connected and hopeful. Making websites with lived experience video content available to service users and mental health workers demonstrates strong potential to support service users’ recovery.

scholarly journals Exploration of recovery of people living with severe mental illness (SMI) in low/middle-income countries (LMICs): a scoping review

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. e045005
Author(s):  
Fadia Gamieldien ◽  
Roshan Galvaan ◽  
Bronwyn Myers ◽  
Zarina Syed ◽  
Katherine Sorsdahl
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Flow Diagram ◽  
Personal Recovery ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Provider Perspectives ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries

ObjectiveTo examine the literature on how recovery of people with severe mental illness (SMI) is conceptualised in low/middle-income countries (LMICs), and in particular what factors are thought to facilitate recovery.DesignScoping review.Data sources and eligibilityWe searched 14 electronic databases, hand searched citations and consulted with experts during the period May–December 2019. Eligible studies were independently screened for inclusion and exclusion by two reviewers. Unresolved discrepancies were referred to a third reviewer.Data extraction and synthesisAll bibliographical data and study characteristics were extracted using a data charting form. Selected studies were analysed through a thematic analysis emerging from extracted data.ResultsThe Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram offers a summary of the results: 4201 titles, 1530 abstracts and 109 full-text articles were screened. Ten articles were selected for inclusion: two from Turkey, two from India, and one each from China, Swaziland, Indonesia, Egypt, South Africa and Vietnam. Although most studies used qualitative methods, data collection and sampling methods were heterogeneous. One study reported on service provider perspectives while the rest provided perspectives from a combination of service users and caregivers. Three themes emerged from the data analysis. First, studies frame recovery as a personal journey occurring along a continuum. Second, there was an emphasis on social relationships as a facilitator of recovery. Third, spirituality emerged as both a facilitator and an indicator of recovery. These themes were not mutually exclusive and some overlap exists.ConclusionAlthough there were commonalities with how high-income countries describe recovery, we also found differences in conceptualisation. These differences in how recovery was understood reflect the importance of framing the personal recovery concept in relation to local needs and contextual issues found in LMICs. This review highlighted the current sparse evidence base and the need to better understand recovery from SMI in LMICs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document