Work experiences among attendees of day centres for people with psychiatric disabilities

Abstract

Link to publicationCitation for published version (APA): Eklund, M., & Sandlund, M. (2016). Work experiences among attendees of day centres for people with psychiatric disabilities. Work (Reading, Mass.), 53(2), 377-385. DOI: 10.3233/WOR-152174 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal METHODS: Seventy-seven attendees responded to questionnaires. Global Assessment of Functioning, GAF, was also used. Work was categorised into Group I (professionals, semiprofessionals), Group II (clerical support, services workers) and Group III (e.g. craft workers, elementary occupations).RESULTS: Almost everyone had previously had open-market employment; more than half for ≥ 10 years. Group I was more common in mixed centres, Group II in meeting place-oriented ones and Group III in work-oriented ones. Group I more frequently had college degree and was rated high on GAF functioning. Women were over-represented in Group II, and men in Group III and in meeting place-oriented centres. Attending mixed centres was more likely when having a college degree, scoring high on GAF functioning and being highly engaged in activities. Attendees at work-oriented day centres were characterised by being motivated for spending time alone and reporting a diagnosis of psychosis.CONCLUSION: The participants had unused working capacity. No clear-cut relationships were found between work experiences and the investigated correlates.

Doing or Undoing Gender? An Explorative Study of Gender, Activities, and Well-being among People with Mental Illness Attending Day Centers in Sweden

“…The study draws conclusions at two levels. First, it concludes that women and men are doing gender to some extent, in terms of choosing and engaging in activities, but less than one could expect from previous research on former employments in the study group where clear gender patterns were discerned (Eklund and Sandlund, Forthcoming). This may partly be explained by the lack of statistical discrimination; in day centers, as opposed to the open labor market employments, attendees can choose among tasks and activities they find stimulating and meaningful.…”

“…Interestingly, a study investigating previous work experiences among people with mental illness found that women more often had previous work experience in clerical and service occupations and that craft work and machine operators were more commonly previous occupations among the men (Eklund and Sandlund, Forthcoming). Consequently, it may be that the employment market is more gendered than the day center activities are.…”

“…They showed that the activities participants were involved with at the day centers seemed to be gender stereotypical. Another study found that gender played a role in both previous work experiences and the choice of current day center and argued that research needs to further highlight gender aspects in the day center context (Eklund and Sandlund, Forthcoming).…”

Hazardous Substance Use among People with Psychiatric Disabilities Visiting Day Centers

“…A psychiatric disorder may lead to a psychiatric disability, defined as having a mental illness that prevents the person from participating in society and leading a satisfactory and independent everyday life and that the condition has lasted for a considerable time (>2 years) [11]. Open-market employment is very rare in this group [12] and it is a responsibility of the municipalities in Sweden to organize communitybased psychiatric services so that people with psychiatric disabilities can receive the support they need in terms of meaningful daily activities. Day centres that provide such services are not only found in Sweden [13], but also in other parts of Europe [14,15], in the United States [16], in Canada [17] and in Australia [18].…”

Staff ratings of occupational engagement among people with severe mental illness – psychometric properties of a screening tool in the day center context

“…Tjörnstrand and colleagues [15] found that the activities could be graded so that the level of demands needed to perform the activity could be suited to the attendee’s needs and capacities. Swedish guidelines state explicitly that day centers should strengthen the attendees’ work capacity [16] and similar goals are found in international research where the users themselves express their needs and goals [3, 10, 17]. In order to follow whether efforts aimed at increasing attendees’ engagement in day center activities are successful, a screening tool that could be used by staff or researchers for evaluation purposes would be useful.…”