IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v341y2024ics027795362300878x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resistance to the biomedicalization of mental illness through peer support: The case of peer specialists and mental health

Author

Listed:
  • Frieh, Ellis C.

Abstract

Certified peer specialists (CPS) are mental health professionals who draw their expertise from lived experience with mental illness and mental distress. They tale a nonmedical, nonclinical approach to providing support to community members with mental health difficulties and in doing so, emphasize the role of social environmental factors that contribute to mental distress. Their perspectives are contrary to the biomedical perspective of mainstream psychiatry. While there is a significant body of literature on CPS, there is a dearth of research on how CPS engage in and perceive the broader mental health system. They resist the biomedicalization of mental illness by moving past labels and the language of pathology to facilitate recovery from mental illness and to resist stigma. Drawing from in-depth interviews with peer specialists, participant observation of a peer-run organization, and a survey of peer specialists across the United States, I ask the following research questions: How and why are CPS challenging the medical model of mental illness? How do CPS consider social environmental factors in the etiology of distress and what are the potential implications for resistance to both biomedicalization and stigmatization? My data suggest that CPS, in their critiques of the medical model and the mental health system, are actively resisting the biomedicalization of mental illness and focus on social environmental factors that contribute to experiences of distress. This research has meaningful implications for research on CPS and hope for recovery from mental illness.

Suggested Citation

  • Frieh, Ellis C., 2024. "Resistance to the biomedicalization of mental illness through peer support: The case of peer specialists and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:341:y:2024:i:c:s027795362300878x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116521
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362300878X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116521?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adams, Wallis E., 2020. "Unintended consequences of institutionalizing peer support work in mental healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    2. Sulzer, Sandra H., 2015. "Does “difficult patient” status contribute to de facto demedicalization? The case of borderline personality disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 82-89.
    3. Crossley, Michele L. & Crossley, Nick, 2001. "Patient' voices, social movements and the habitus; how psychiatric survivors 'speak out," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(10), pages 1477-1489, May.
    4. Mieke Verhaeghe & Piet Bracke & Kevin Bruynooghe, 2008. "Stigmatization and Self-Esteem of Persons in Recovery From Mental Illness: the Role of Peer Support," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(3), pages 206-218, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Epstein, Steven, 2016. "The politics of health mobilization in the United States: The promise and pitfalls of “disease constituencies”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 246-254.
    2. Tally Moses, 2015. "What helps or undermines adolescents’ anticipated capacity to cope with mental illness stigma following psychiatric hospitalization," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(3), pages 215-224, May.
    3. Underman, Kelly, 2015. "Playing doctor: Simulation in medical school as affective practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 180-188.
    4. Crossley, Nick, 2006. "The field of psychiatric contention in the UK, 1960-2000," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 552-563, February.
    5. Whitley, Rob & Denise Campbell, Rosalyn, 2014. "Stigma, agency and recovery amongst people with severe mental illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-8.
    6. Ayuandini, Sherria, 2017. "Finger Pricks and Blood Vials: How doctors medicalize ‘cultural’ solutions to demedicalize the ‘broken’ hymen in the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 61-68.
    7. Jenkins, Tania M. & Short, Susan E., 2017. "Negotiating intersex: A case for revising the theory of social diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 91-98.
    8. Turowetz, Jason, 2022. "Interaction order and the labeling of disorder: How parents mobilize personal knowledge in the clinic to resist medicalization of their children's behavior," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    9. Rabeharisoa, Vololona, 2006. "From representation to mediation: The shaping of collective mobilization on muscular dystrophy in France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 564-576, February.
    10. Annand, PJ & Platt, Lucy & Rathod, Sujit D. & Hosseini, Paniz & Guise, Andrew, 2022. "‘Progression capitals’: How homeless health peer advocacy impacts peer advocates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    11. Marie Ilic & Jost Reinecke & Gerd Bohner & Röttgers Hans-Onno & Thomas Beblo & Martin Driessen & Ulrich Frommberger & Patrick William Corrigan, 2012. "Protecting self-esteem from stigma: A test of different strategies for coping with the stigma of mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(3), pages 246-257, May.
    12. Abiodun O. Adewuya & Adekile O. Owoeye & A.O. Erinfolami & Bolanle A. Ola, 2011. "Correlates of Self-Stigma Among Outpatients With Mental Illness in Lagos, Nigeria," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(4), pages 418-427, July.
    13. Speed, Ewen, 2006. "Patients, consumers and survivors: A case study of mental health service user discourses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 28-38, January.
    14. Keunwoo Park & Lee MinHwa & Mikyung Seo, 2019. "The impact of self-stigma on self-esteem among persons with different mental disorders," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(7-8), pages 558-565, November.
    15. Melissa Pyle & Anthony P Morrison, 2014. "“It’s just a very taboo and secretive kind of thing”: making sense of living with stigma and discrimination from accounts of people with psychosis," Psychosis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 195-205, July.
    16. Claire Warrington, 2019. "Repeated Police Mental Health Act Detentions in England and Wales: Trauma and Recurrent Suicidality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-15, November.
    17. Madden, Erin Fanning, 2019. "Intervention stigma: How medication-assisted treatment marginalizes patients and providers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 324-331.
    18. Walker, Janet S. & Klodnick, Vanessa V. & LaPelusa, Brianne & Blajeski, Shannon M. & Freedman, Alex R. & Marble, Shannon, 2024. "A theory of change for one-on-one peer support for older adolescents and young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    19. Sanja Totic & Dragan Stojiljković & Zorana Pavlovic & Nenad Zaric & Boris Zarkovic & Ljubica Malic & Marina Mihaljevic & Miroslava Jašović-Gašić & Nadja P. Marić, 2012. "Stigmatization of ‘psychiatric label’ by medical and non-medical students," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(5), pages 455-462, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:341:y:2024:i:c:s027795362300878x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.