“In these streets”: the saliency of place in an alternative black mental health resource centre

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore experiences of survivors of the mental health system regularly attending a mental health resource centre predominantly but not exclusively focussed on needs of the BAME community. Design/methodology/approach In total, 25 participants took part in a qualitative research study regarding their experiences of mental health and racism, alternative mental health support and struggles in the local black community. Findings Issues of race, place and space were central to the experiences of BAME mental health survivors. Participants emphasised the importance of place-based support in their everyday life, with the service provided engendering a sense of belonging conducive to coping with various struggles. Race and racism were also central to these daily struggles and the place of Liverpool 8 was at the core of notions of identity and belonging. The space within the centre provided a sanctuary from the combined discriminations and exclusions attendant on being BAME survivors of the mental health system. Practical implications Attention to matters of place and space appears crucial to the articulation of appropriate support. Social implications Place is salient to understanding the intersecting identities/experience of racism and mental health discrimination, constituting the basis for a concept of placism; associated with exclusions from feeling safe and included in everyday public places (including within the black community) with the exception of the welcoming and unconditionally accepting space of the centre. Originality/value This paper is the first to inquire into place-based experiences of alternative black mental health support. Placism is a novel construct that merits further inquiry and theoretical development.

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Recovery college features and context: advancing a recovery and well-being policy agenda

Mental Health and Social Inclusion ◽

10.1108/mhsi-11-2021-0077 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Amadene Woolsey ◽

Gillian Mulvale

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Health System ◽

Mental Health System ◽

Well Being ◽

System Reform ◽

Educational Approach ◽

Content Type ◽

Policy Objectives ◽

Mental Health Association

Purpose Internationally, there has been a move towards more recovery-oriented mental health policies for people living with mental illness, and some countries have included well-being as a population-level objective. In practice, these policy objectives can be difficult to achieve because of deeply rooted policy legacies, including a biomedical approach to care and the stigma associated with mental illness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how interventions that operate outside the formal mental health system, such as recovery colleges (RCs), may advance these policy objectives more easily than efforts at broader system reform. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a scoping review to explore the features and context of RCs that make the model an attractive and feasible opportunity to advance a recovery and well-being agenda. Our research is motivated by the initial and growing adoption of RCs by the Canadian Mental Health Association. This paper applies the consolidated framework for implementation research to analyse features of the model and the context of its implementation in Canada. Findings The RC’s educational approach, adaptability, coproduced nature and positioning outside the formal mental health system are key features that facilitate implementation without disrupting deeply entrenched policy legacies. Other facilitators in the Canadian context include the implementing organisation’s independence from government, its federated structure and the model’s alignment with national policy objectives. Originality/value This paper highlights how interventions outside the formal mental healthcare system can promote stated recovery and well-being policy goals.

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Resilience in 2021: Descriptive analysis of individuals accessing virtual mental health services (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.34283 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Grant Graziani ◽

Sarah Kunkle ◽

Emily Shih

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health System ◽

Mental Health System ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Trauma Survivors ◽

Baseline Survey ◽

Future Research ◽

Mild Depression ◽

Outcomes Measures ◽

Mental Health Support

BACKGROUND Although resilience has been extensively studied by developmental researchers, it has received less attention in the psychiatry and psychopathology research and practice, which is more focused on disease and pathology, and associated symptom-based measures like PHQ-9 and GAD-7. OBJECTIVE This study aims to describe resilience levels in individuals accessing Ginger, a virtual mental health system in addition to its association with demographic characteristics, baseline depression and anxiety symptoms. METHODS We conducted a retrospective observational study of 9,165 members who accessed Ginger, an on-demand mental health system, and completed a baseline survey between January 1, 2021 to August 5, 2021. We used multivariate regression models to test for associations between baseline resilience and other member characteristics. RESULTS Baseline scores centered on a mean and median of 24 (out of 40), with 81% of the sample having low resilience at baseline. Despite having relatively higher resilience scores, members with no or mild depression or anxiety still had low resilience scores on average. CONCLUSIONS Overall, members had low baseline resilience, in line with prior studies of trauma survivors. Findings suggest a need for mental health support among individuals who might not typically be recommended for treatment based on traditional clinical assessments like PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Future research could focus on the interaction between resilience levels and symptom-based outcomes measures like PHQ-9 and GAD-7.

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Conceptualizing Soul As a Mental Health Resource in the Black Community

Mental Health Care in the African-American Community ◽

10.4324/9780203050972-24 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 243-262

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Black Community ◽

Health Resource ◽

Mental Health Resource

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The men’s wellbeing project: promoting the well-being and mental health of men

Journal of Public Mental Health ◽

10.1108/jpmh-03-2020-0014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 179-189

Author(s):

Gabriel Abotsie ◽

Roger Kingerlee ◽

Andrew Fisk ◽

Sam Watts ◽

Rachel Cooke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Well Being ◽

Health Needs ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Needs ◽

Content Type ◽

Public Events ◽

Mental Health Support ◽

Health Support

Purpose Comparatively, men have poorer physical and mental health outcomes than women, with a significantly higher suicide rate. Contributory factors are thought to be social and biological, leading to reduced access to health-care services. The study aims to develop and implement community-based support to increase awareness of and access to men’s mental health support networks and groups. Design/methodology/approach The project involved three key work-packages discussed in this paper: raising awareness of men’s mental health needs in health care, educational and community settings; collaboration between National Health Services (NHS) and non-NHS health-care support organisations to build multi-sector partnership working; and developing a supported sports-based community intervention aimed at men living with mental health conditions. The acceptability and feasibility of these work-packages were pragmatically evaluated through mixed-methods surveys and qualitative content analysis. Findings Overall, both community events and sports groups successfully engaged men living with mental health problems. Organisations interested in men’s mental health are continuing to engage in a partnership initiative. Community events were well-attended and received positive feedback, particularly regarding the educative and real-life experiences approach promoted in the events. The sports intervention is feasible and well-accepted by participants, who described feeling supported with their physical and mental health needs, with increased mental well-being reported. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this project are that the authors only evaluated a football group rather than all work areas. The project collected outcomes relating to participants’ demographics and qualitative reflections of participating in the football group along with a retrospective survey of perceived benefits, but the project did not undertake a pre- and post-comparison of well-being outcomes owing to low completion of these measures. Future work could focus on collecting more pre- and post-measures related to well-being, recovery and inclusion and compare these with men not involved in the football groups or public events. Practical implications This paper discusses the development and feasibility of setting up community-based men’s mental health support networks, involving public events, partnership working and targeted-sports interventions. All initiatives were well-received and successfully attended by men living with mental health conditions. Evaluation of the programme revealed the value placed on education about mental health and the role that community sports interventions may play in men’s mental health care. Social implications This project has demonstrated three different ways of supporting men’s mental health needs in the community. Community public events were held to raise awareness of men’s mental health needs and issues were well-attended and highlighted the need for health promotion and education in this area across all the communities. The men’s football group demonstrated the feasibility of moving mental health support out into a non-clinical and more community arena in a way that men engaged effectively. Finally, the creation of MensNet has bought together disparate multi-sector organisations successfully to lead public health mechanisms to support men’s mental health needs. Originality/value This paper describes a new multi-disciplined approach to supporting health-seeking challenges among men, in particular, how partnership working across NHS and non-NHS sectors can successfully support an identified public health need pragmatically using existing services and organisations.

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Mental distress and “self-stigma” in the context of support provision: exploring attributions of self-stigma as sanism

Mental Health and Social Inclusion ◽

10.1108/mhsi-09-2019-0028 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 41-48

Author(s):

Victoria Armstrong ◽

Toby Brandon

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Distress ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Content Type ◽

Support Provision ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Mental Health Support ◽

Health Support ◽

Empirical Material

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings from a detailed qualitative PhD study exploring experiences of stigma and discrimination in the lives of people in receipt of “mental health support” at two voluntary sector organisations in the North East of England. Design/methodology/approach Empirical material was collected during two periods of three-month long ethnographic periods of fieldwork from July to December of 2013 at two organisations providing support to their members who experience or have experienced mental distress. Along with field notes taken during and after periods of participant observation, the empirical material also included 30 interviews with staff (n=10) and members (n=20) across both organisations, along with a series of three focus groups at each organisation. Findings Staff at the organisations did not demonstrate obvious stigmatising or discriminatory attitudes or behaviours. However, they did attribute “self-stigma” to particular attitudes and behaviours of some of the members they support, referring to how they “made excuses”, “did not try” and/or “avoided situations”. Originality/value This paper argues that these attributions resulted from the misrecognition of members’ reactions to experiences of discrimination. The empirical material also suggests that these attributions of self-stigma may be indicative of the material limitations of the support environment, the consequent frustrations of well-intentioned staff, and, overall, as symptoms of neoliberalism. Drawing upon a Mad Studies approach and focussing on self-stigma and its attribution in contemporary mental health support, this paper provides a new perspective, which considers how stigma is linked to discrimination by rethinking what is thought of as “self-stigma”.

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The effectiveness of support groups: a literature review

Mental Health and Social Inclusion ◽

10.1108/mhsi-12-2017-0055 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 85-93 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Hugh Worrall ◽

Richard Schweizer ◽

Ellen Marks ◽

Lin Yuan ◽

Chris Lloyd ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Literature Review ◽

Support Groups ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Content Type ◽

Long Period ◽

People With Mental Illness ◽

Mental Health Support ◽

Health Support

Purpose Support groups are a common feature of the mental health support engaged by carers and consumers. The purpose of this paper is to update and consolidate the knowledge and the evidence for the effectiveness of mental health support groups. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a systematic literature review of relevant databases around support groups for mental health. Support groups are defined as meetings of people with similar experiences, such as those defined as carers of a person living with a mental illness or a person living with a mental illness. These meetings aim to provide support and companionship to one another. Findings The results show that there is a consistent pattern of evidence, over a long period of time, which confirms the effectiveness of mental health support groups for carers and people living with mental illness. There is strong, scientifically rigorous evidence which shows the effectiveness of professionally facilitated, family-led support groups, psychoeducation carers support groups, and professionally facilitated, program-based support groups for people living with mental illness. Research limitations/implications This research implies the use of support groups is an important adjunct to the support of carers and people with mental illness, including severe mental illness. Originality/value This research brings together a range of studies indicating the usefulness of support groups as an adjunct to mental health therapy.

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