The ambiguous influences of fire safety on people with mental health problems in supported housing

Abstract

Over the last few decades, various housing types for people with mental health problems have been developed for use in the community. These housing types differ in their objectives, staff support and design. In this study, we focus on how fire safety influences the lives of tenants in supported housing. The qualitative study was designed with a multi-sited ethnography approach. Fieldwork was conducted in seven different Norwegian supported housing settings in 2017 with 105 participants (29 tenants, 70 staff, five managers, and one planner). The empirical data consist of field notes, recorded interviews and pictures, which were analyzed with grounded theory and situational analysis. The analysis reconstructed how fire safety was organized and tenants' experiences of it. These experiences could be positive (such as feeling protected) or negative (such as feeling annoyed or under surveillance). The tenants coped differently with these situations, and fire safety sets boundaries for tenants. Overall, fire safety was organized differently in the supported housing settings we looked at comparison to in most of the common housing units in Norway. The influences of fire safety on daily life can be understood as ambiguous and can be interpreted as a normalizing factor in a risk society. Thus, we emphasize the need for appropriate and well-considered fire safety as a public health intervention in supported housing.

Materialities in supported housing for people with mental health problems: a blurry picture of the tenants

“…Another solution was attempted that involved removing all non‐durable materials, such as one case in which all technical installations were removed, such as smoke detectors (Friesinger et al . 2019b). Some architects attempted to cover the material robustness by designing materials to look ordinary, such as faux‐wood flooring.…”

“…2016) or fire safety (Friesinger et al . 2019b), both of which can exaggerate the otherness of tenants, while independent settings could be viewed as more or less ordinary private homes. On the other hand, both housing types could be located in either run‐down areas or areas with meaningful places nearby, like amenities, parks, and churches or other spiritual places, which might in turn improve the social identity and wellbeing of their tenants.…”

Comparison of causes, characteristics and consequences of residential fires in social and non-social housing dwellings in New South Wales, Australia

“…In 2020, around one-fifth of people living in social housing were recognised with disabilities ( Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020 ), and they are at greater risk of experiencing a residential fire. In addition, persons who are smokers, use alcohol and/or substances, and are habitual hoarders have a higher risk of fire ( Friesinger et al, 2019 ). These behaviours are over-represented in social housing when compared to private housing.…”

Human-Animal Relationships in Supported Housing: Animal Atmospheres for Mental Health Recovery

“…To examine the human-animal relationships in supported housing and their affection, the first author conducted a multisited ethnography (Marcus, 1995), which was informed by Grounded Theory (GT) (Charmaz, 2014). This study was part of a larger project 2 that aimed to grasp materialities and the living situation within supported housing (Friesinger et al, 2019b(Friesinger et al, , 2020Friesinger, 2020). Animals were thereby an important subject already early in fieldwork that was further elaborated with theoretical sampling (Charmaz, 2014;Charmaz and Thornberg, 2020).…”

“…Regarding the supported housing settings (Friesinger et al, 2019b), the seven places were operated by public landlords for people with mental health problems (with or without cooccurring substance use). Their locations were mainly semirural, with the 24/7 presence of on-site staff, and the building design highly resembled congregate settings (McPherson et al, 2018), with either small houses or apartments.…”