Previous research has shown that persons with long-term mental illness who require prolonged treatment and social support wish to, yet find it difficult to, find meaning or quality in life. A descriptive qualitative design using self-photography and in-depth interviews was used for data collection. The aim of this study was to explore basic attitudes to life as expressed by nine persons with long-term mental illness living in the community. The findings provide insight into the values of relationships, work, and the home for persons with long-term mental illness and indicate that they are cognizant of social norms yet have difficulty integrating these in their daily lives. The study also illuminates the informants' difficulties in creating satisfying and supporting relationships with others.

The aim of the study was to describe psychiatric caregivers’ perceptions of self-esteem and activities for patients with long-term mental illness. The study design used a qualitative approach, based on an open lifeworld perspective. A total of 13 caregivers at four psychiatric hospital units in a large Swedish city were interviewed about their views on patients’ physical activity and/or other pastimes, as well as their self-esteem and its bearing on the patients’ well-being. According to the caregivers, it is up to the patients themselves to decide what they wish to occupy themselves with. In the same time the caregivers’ opinions are that patients have difficulties to occupy themselves.The caregivers believe that patients’ disability is based in a lack of self-esteem, commitment and capacity to realize their wishes. The caregivers in this study argue that activities are valuable for self-esteem and physical health of people with long-term mental illness. The caregivers consider that it is the patient’s responsibility to initiate their needs of activities. This means that the caregivers do not use their knowledge about the importance of activities for the patient’s health.Search terms: activity, caregivers, mental illness.

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PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to describe a method to help patients with long-term mental illness describe their life situations--their "life worlds"--through photography.

CONCLUSIONS: Photographs and interviews are useful for data collection. The positive effect of this method is allowing informants who have long-term mental illnesses to express their perceptions.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Nurses can use photography in conjunction with interviews to ascertain the life worlds of their patients.

Background: Since de-institutionalization of psychiatric care (PC) took place in Sweden during the second half of the 20th century, the intended collaboration between the two organizations, PC and community social service (CSS) has been evaluated as inadequate in providing care for persons with long-term mental illness living in the community. Aim: The aim of this explorative study was to examine factors that influence interdisciplinary teamwork between PC and CSSs based on the experience of nursing staff within two separate organizations. Method: Five focus groups were selected as an appropriate method to collect data. Two of these groups were recruited from the PC and three from the CSSs. The focus groups consisted of psychiatric nurses and mental healthcare workers. A qualitative content analysis was used to identify major themes in the data. Findings: Two main themes were found, external organizational factors and interpersonal factors that deter or enhance collaboration between PC and CSS. Separate care plans, unclear times for meetings were found to be a plausible reason for communication failure. The focus groups representing each of the two organizations viewed themselves as ‘us and them’. Different ideologies and goals for caring and service and how to use each other’s competence seemed to be explanations as well as consequences of not finding ways to work together. Conclusion: The results of this study points to the need for the two organizations to find ways to work more effectively together to realize a joint responsibility for the patient/client.

The purpose of this study was to explore views of life among people with long-term mental illnesses. The participants' possible cognitive inability to express such views dictated a research design that was both fit for purpose and respectful of their integrity. The study, based on an ethnographic framework, involved photographs and interviews with five women and three men. The participants were the photographers, as well as the authors of their own narratives, and the photographs served as a starting point for the interviews. The interview material was analysed in terms of the phases of interpretation. Four main themes were identified: 'thoughts about God and the meaning of life and death', 'the meaning of relationships with others', 'how animals give meaning to life without demands' and 'the symbolic bearing of objects on life'. These four themes represent key existential issues among people with long-term mental illnesses, but they lack confidants to share or discuss these matters with.

The main purpose for the expansion of supported community care for persons with serious mental illness in Sweden was to ensure the right for these persons to live as citizens in the community. However, earlier research shows that negative attitudes towards mental illness present an obstacle for social integration of persons with serious mental illness. The aim of this study, conducted in Sweden, was to evaluate an existing instrument's (Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness, CAMI), validity and reliability. An additional aim was to adapt and develop the questionnaire to Swedish circumstances. After translation and modification of the original CAMI, the Swedish version of the questionnaire (CAMI-S) was distributed to all student nurses at three different universities in Sweden. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.90 of the original CAMI-S. A corrected inter-item total correlation excluded 20 items because they showed loading <0.43. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient on the 20 items (new CAMI-S) that showed loading, >0.43, was 0.903. A factor analysis of these items revealed that the data could be extracted in three factors labelled as: open-minded and pro-integration, fear and avoidance and community mental health ideology. Finally, in order to reach reliable results in attitude research, it is important to measure the respondent's attitude towards the object in common as well as the respondent's attitude to interact with the object. Accordingly, it is important to add behavioural intention items to the ‘new CAMI-S’. Statements exemplifying how something ‘ought to be’ in an impersonal way have a good degree of stability over time and place.

For women with cancer and with children living at home, the demands of being a good mother while undergoing treatments and recovering from illness have been described as a difficult life process. The aim of this study was to further examine the transition process with focus on women's experience of their responsibility toward their children. Interviews from 2 previous studies investigating the transition process of women with cancer were gathered and were subjected to a qualitative secondary analysis, an analytic expansion of the transition process. The 3 phases in the transition process were used in an interpretive description: ending an earlier life situation, in-between, and new beginning. A main theme that integrated these phases was constructed: "the desire to manage ones responsibility as a parent," within the context of mothering. The women expressed moral concern about not being able to function as "good" mothers yet attempted to find a balance between experiences of exhaustion and other experiences that made it difficult to maintain their responsibility as parents. All of the women included in this study expressed the need for professional support to help them endure treatment procedures as well as to sustain their moral responsibility as good mothers.

The main principle directing the development of supported dwellings for persons with long-term mental illness is that to live in the community would improve their quality of life. The aim of this study was to describe psychiatric nurses’ experiences of different types of supported dwelling for persons with long-term mental illness, and their views on what they consider to be important principles to provide for in order to facilitate their social integration into the community. Nine psychiatric nurses were interviewed. A qualitative content analysis revealed ‘attempting to uphold the principle, respect for the patient’s right to self-determination’ as the main theme, which was linked to three sub-themes: the nurses’ view on their moral responsibility; the nurses’ views on social norms that patients must follow in order to be accepted by their neighbours; and the nurses’ views on supported dwelling of good quality. The nurses perceived that personal contact between the neighbour and the mentally ill person was one essential way to reduce fear of the mentally ill person. They viewed themselves as a link between the mentally ill person and other neighbours. Without the personal contact between the mentally ill person and the neighbours, there may be a risk that the integration will fail no matter how excellent the supported dwelling is framed.