Working in a community recreation program: A study of consumer‐staff perspectives

Abstract

Consumers working as service providers make unique contributions to the quality, accessibility, and responsiveness of mental health services. Relatively little research has explored these roles. This study used a naturalistic inquiry methodology to explore consumer-staff views of working in a program that assists people living with mental illness to access recreation. Three consumer-staff were interviewed about the rewards and challenges of their work. Qualitative analysis of participants' views identified eight themes: (i) wanting purposeful activity; (ii) the importance of work; (iii) rewards of helping others; (iv) re-establishing social networks;(v) gaining a sense of belonging; (vi) experiencing teamwork; (vii) challenges of working; and (viii) maintaining well-being. These findings suggest consumer-provider initiatives may create occupational opportunities and facilitate empowerment of consumers in provider roles. A team approach, clear roles, appropriate remuneration and support are central to achieving these benefits. Occupational therapists should advocate for, and support such initiatives that empower consumers in overcoming barriers to meaningful occupation. K E Y W O R D S consumer empowerment, mental health services, enabling occupation.

Peer Support Workers in Health: A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Their Experiences

“…Greater insight into others’ experiences put individual egos aside and led to an appreciation of what others had been through [ 3 , 8 , 13 , 19 , 25 ]. Close PSW teams were facilitated by their shared illness experience, shared programme goals and support of each other’s different positions in the recovery journey [ 3 , 4 , 12 , 15 , 22 ]. Connection with other PSWs was highly valued and allowed individuals to feel safe as themselves, integrating their psychiatric or physical condition into their life [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 8 , 22 , 32 ].…”

“…The use of peer support models in healthcare is well established in mental health services where peer support workers (PSWs) serve to improve engagement with healthcare and positive health outcomes among their clients [ 1 – 15 ]. PSWs are usually recruited from the same client pool as the individuals that they are looking after, thus sharing similar experiences or characteristics with the target intervention group.…”

Developing a worker role: Stories of four people with mental illness

“…Despite the ongoing disruptions experienced within their lives, each of the participants appeared to have found ways to manage their illness sufficiently to maintain their worker-role. The need to find ways to stay well, manage the levels of stress and control persistent symptoms to pursue and maintain employment has also been reported elsewhere (Honey, 2000;Nagle, Valiant Cook, & Polatajko, 2002;Yuen & Fossey, 2003). Hence, work environments with both structure and flexibility, which enable the person with a psychiatric disability to take control in managing the fatigue, persistent symptoms and stress, seem important.…”

Queensland extended care services for people with severe mental illness and the role of occupational therapy

“…The main concepts include the 'deinstitutionalisation' © 2007 Australian Association of Occupational Therapists of consumer care away from large psychiatric hospitals (Leff & Trieman, 2000;Yuen & Fossey, 2003); and a greater focus on alternative residential and community-based accommodation options for people with serious mental illness.…”

“…A background paper on recovery by Queensland Health (2004) reported how people with mental illness must not just participate in service delivery planning and evaluation, but 'people must also be afforded the information and skills necessary to make their interaction with service providers genuine, relevant and effective' (Queensland Health, p. 13). Yuen and Fossey (2003) reported on consumers becoming increasingly involved in policy-making participation while © 2007 Australian Association of Occupational Therapists Van Wersch and Eccles (2001) described how consumers in northern England are involved in the development of clinical guidelines, and concluded that further research is needed to establish how this might be best achieved. In the Netherlands, Plochg and Klanzinga (2002) referred to levels of decision-making in healthcare service delivery, with patient empowerment being recognised as an area for quality improvement.…”