BackgroundThe mental health-care system in Sweden, as in many other counties, has its main focus on the reduction of psychiatric symptoms and the prevention of relapses. People diagnosed with schizophrenia often have significant health issues and experience reduced well-being in everyday life. The social imaginary of mental illness as an imbalance of the brain has implications concerning general attitudes in society. The news media are an important source of information on psychiatric disorders and have an important role in cultivating public perceptions and stigma. News media can contribute to the mental illness stigma and place individuals with mental illnesses at risk of not receiving adequate care and support. The aim of this preliminary study was to describe users’ experiences of housing support in everyday life.ResultsThe results revealed three themes of housing support, which were needed, but frequently insufficiently fulfilled in the municipality. The three themes were: “Support to Practice Healthy Routines in Daily Life,” “Support to Shape Meaningful Contents in Everyday Life,” and “Support to Meet Needs of Integrity and Respect.”ConclusionsThe findings support previous studies arguing that current health care and housing support fails to meet basic needs and may lead to significant and unnecessary health risks. Further investigation is needed regarding the links between attitudes to mental illness in society and political and financial principles for health care and housing support for persons with schizophrenia. Further research is needed regarding the role of the media in policymaking concerning health promotion interventions for people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Background: Self-identity construction through "stories of self" is highly relevant for people with aphasia, not only because the onset entails a "biographical disruption" but also since their ability to keep their "stories of self" going is reduced. Three dilemmas (constancy/change, sameness/difference and agency/dependency) are known to be central to identity. In a digitalised society like Sweden, self-identity construction, including the navigation of these dilemmas, takes place both online and offline. Nevertheless, research combining aphasia, identity and online issues is scarce. Aim: This qualitative study aims, in terms identity dilemmas, to investigate self-identity construction in working-age persons living with post-stroke aphasia in a digitalised society (i.e. Sweden). Are the dilemmas relevant to the participants, and if so, how do they navigate them online and offline? Methods and Procedures: Nine individuals (three men and six women, aged 24-54 at onset) with mild or moderate post-stroke aphasia participated. The data comprises nine individual audiorecorded interviews and 1,581 screenshots from online observations. Qualitative analyses were performed (vertically and horizontally), combining inductive and deductive approaches. Outcomes and Results: All three dilemmas are relevant to the participants. They construct their self-identity as both the same as they were pre-stroke and changed. They are both the same and different in relation to other stroke survivors (with or without aphasia), i.e. both "disabled" and "normal". They display both dependency and agency. Thus, they navigate the dilemmas by constantly negotiating what to include in their stories of self. In addition, telling one story of self offline does not imply telling the same story online. Conclusion: The dilemmas are intertwined and highly relevant to the participants. Offline and online settings evoke different ways for them to navigate the dilemmas. Increased awareness of the possible struggle with self-identity dilemmas in people with aphasia, and the possible difference between their online and offline self-identities, should be of value to family members, clinicians and researchers. Further research based on a larger sample is suggested.

This study aimed to investigate online strategies for re-negotiating identity, in terms of

News reporting about mental illness lack perspectives of the mentally ill themselves and it is almost exclusively psychiatrists who are accessed when healthcare staff is consulted. The perspective of mental health nurses might contribute to the public understanding of mental illness. The purpose of this study was to describe mental health nurses' experiences of how mental illness is portrayed in media. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with qualified mental health nurses. A qualitative content analysis resulted in three categories: Negative portrayals of mental illness, Inconclusive images of mental illness and Biased dissemination of different perspectives. The conclusion of this study is that mental health nurses experience media portrayals of mental illness as negative and misleading with too much emphasis on the medical perspective while a holistic mental health nursing perspective is heavily obscured. Mental health nurses need to take a more prominent role in public reporting on mental health to resolve the current lack of relevant facts regarding mental illness. Further research is needed regarding portrayals of mental illness in social media and how the current lack of perspectives affects public perceptions of mental illness. In addition, further studies regarding the viewpoints of journalists reporting on mental illness are required.

Aphasia is a language impairment caused by acquired brain injury such as stroke. Public awareness about aphasia is low in Sweden as well as internationally. The media is an important source of information on aphasia, but research on how people with aphasia are portrayed in the media is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to increase the knowledge about media representations of people living with aphasia, by studying Swedish journalistic newspaper articles. It focused on stories in which people with aphasia were included in the discussion rather than merely being the subject of the discussion. Drawing on framing theory and Frank’s typology of narrative types, a qualitative ethnographic content analysis was conducted. Swedish print media material published between 2007 and 2018 was collected and 84 articles were identified for inclusion in the analysis. The overall finding was that, within Swedish journalistic newspaper articles, living with aphasia is framed as a success story. Themes and sub-themes were identified within each narrative type, and we suggest expanding Frank’s typology with humour narratives and necessity narratives. Although several narrative types were identified in the studied articles, the overarching success story frame was predominant.