IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v64y2007i9p1925-1936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

There's no place like (a) home: Ontological security among persons with serious mental illness in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Padgett, Deborah K.

Abstract

As the homelessness 'crisis' in the United States enters a third decade, few are as adversely affected as persons with serious mental illness. Despite recent evidence favoring a 'housing first' approach, the dominant 'treatment first' approach persists in which individuals must climb a ladder of program requirements before becoming eligible for an apartment of their own. Drawing upon the concept of 'ontological security', this qualitative study examines the subjective meaning of 'home' among 39 persons who were part of a unique urban experiment that provided New York City's homeless mentally ill adults with immediate access to independent housing in the late 1990s. The study design involved purposively sampling from the experimental (housing first) group (N=21) and the control (treatment first) group (N=18) and conducting two life history interviews with each participant. Markers of ontological security--constancy, daily routines, privacy, and having a secure base for identity construction--provided sensitizing concepts for grounded theory analyses designed to also yield emergent, or new, themes. Findings revealed clear evidence of the markers of ontological security among participants living in their own apartments. This study expands upon previous research showing that homeless mentally ill persons are capable of independent living in the community. The emergent theme of 'what's next' questions and uncertainty about the future points to the need to address problems of stigma and social exclusion that extend beyond the minimal achievement of having a 'home'.

Suggested Citation

  • Padgett, Deborah K., 2007. "There's no place like (a) home: Ontological security among persons with serious mental illness in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1925-1936, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:9:p:1925-1936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00049-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Bashir, S.A., 2002. "Home is where the harm is: Inadequate housing as a public health crisis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(5), pages 733-738.
    2. Caton, Carol L. M. & Goldstein, Jill, 1984. "Housing change of chronic schizophrenic patients: A consequence of the revolving door," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 759-764, January.
    3. Takahashi, Lois M. & Wolch, Jennifer R., 1994. "Differences in health and welfare between homeless and homed welfare applicants in Los Angeles county," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1401-1413, May.
    4. Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 1999. "Who are 'the homeless'? Reconsidering the stability and composition of the homeless population," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(9), pages 1334-1338.
    5. Tsemberis, S. & Gulcur, L. & Nakae, M., 2004. "Housing First, Consumer Choice, and Harm Reduction for Homeless Individuals with a Dual Diagnosis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(4), pages 651-656.
    6. Link, B.G. & Susser, E. & Stueve, A. & Phelan, J. & Moore, R.E. & Struening, E., 1994. "Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(12), pages 1907-1912.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Keene, Danya E. & Guo, Monica & Murillo, Sascha, 2018. "“That wasn't really a place to worry about diabetes”: Housing access and diabetes self-management among low-income adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 71-77.
    2. Rosenberg, Alana & Keene, Danya E. & Schlesinger, Penelope & Groves, Allison K. & Blankenship, Kim M., 2021. "“I don't know what home feels like anymore”: Residential spaces and the absence of ontological security for people returning from incarceration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    3. Nick Kerman & John Sylvestre, 2020. "Service use and recovery among currently and formerly homeless adults with mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(4), pages 389-396, June.
    4. Laurie Buys & Cameron Newton & Nicole Walker, 2021. "The Lived Experience of Residents in an Emerging Master-Planned Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Alaazi, Dominic A. & Masuda, Jeffrey R. & Evans, Joshua & Distasio, Jino, 2015. "Therapeutic landscapes of home: Exploring Indigenous peoples' experiences of a Housing First intervention in Winnipeg," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 30-37.
    6. Kühnle, Daniel & Johnson, Guy & Tseng, Yi-Ping, 2022. "Making It Home? Evidence on the Long-Run Impact of an Intensive Support Program for the Chronically Homeless on Housing, Employment and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 15678, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Wells, Kathleen & Marcenko, Maureen O., 2011. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Mothers of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 419-423, March.
    8. Hearne Rory & Murphy Mary, 2018. "An absence of rights: Homeless families and social housing marketisation in Ireland," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 66(2), pages 9-31, May.
    9. Chan, Dara V. & Gopal, Sucharita & Helfrich, Christine A., 2014. "Accessibility patterns and community integration among previously homeless adults: A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 142-152.
    10. Rory Coulter & Michael Thomas, 2019. "A new look at the housing antecedents of separation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(26), pages 725-760.
    11. Gibson, Barbara E. & Secker, Barbara & Rolfe, Debbie & Wagner, Frank & Parke, Bob & Mistry, Bhavnita, 2012. "Disability and dignity-enabling home environments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 211-219.
    12. Samuels, Gina Miranda, 2009. "Ambiguous loss of home: The experience of familial (im)permanence among young adults with foster care backgrounds," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1229-1239, December.
    13. Karine Perreault & Josée Lapalme & Louise Potvin & Mylène Riva, 2022. "“ We’re Home Now ”: How a Rehousing Intervention Shapes the Mental Well-Being of Inuit Adults in Nunavut, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-24, May.
    14. Goldshear, J.L. & Kitonga, N. & Angelo, N. & Cowan, A. & Henwood, B.F. & Bluthenthal, R.N., 2023. "“Notice of major cleaning”: A qualitative study of the negative impact of encampment sweeps on the ontological security of unhoused people who use drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    15. Deborah Quilgars & Nicholas Pleace, 2016. "Housing First and Social Integration: A Realistic Aim?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 5-15.

    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. Vincent A. Fusaro & Helen G. Levy & H. Luke Shaefer, 2018. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Lifetime Prevalence of Homelessness in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2119-2128, December.
    2. Rosanna Scutella & Guy Johnson, 2012. "Locating and Designing 'Journeys Home': A Literature Review (Journeys Home: A Longitudinal Study of Factors Affecting Housing Stability)," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2012n11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Charles Walsh & Anita M Hubley & Matthew J To & Monica Norena & Anne Gadermann & Susan Farrell & Stephen W Hwang & Anita Palepu, 2019. "The effect of forensic events on health status and housing stability among homeless and vulnerably housed individuals: A cohort study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Yerko Rojas, 2017. "Evictions and short-term all-cause mortality: a 3-year follow-up study of a middle-aged Swedish population," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(3), pages 343-351, April.
    5. Anita Hubley & Lara Russell & Anita Palepu & Stephen Hwang, 2014. "Subjective Quality of Life Among Individuals who are Homeless: A Review of Current Knowledge," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 509-524, January.
    6. McDonald, Keisha & Palimaru, Alina I. & Garvey, Rick & D'Amico, Elizabeth J. & Tucker, Joan S., 2024. "Perceptions from emerging adults with a history of homelessness on their experiences with housing, health and other support services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    7. Melissa Chinchilla & Mariana C. Arcaya, 2017. "Using Health Impact Assessment as an Interdisciplinary Teaching Tool," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, July.
    8. Patricia M. Chen, 2019. "Housing First and Single-Site Housing," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, April.
    9. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Herault, Nicolas & Scutella, Rosanna & Tseng, Yi-Ping, 2016. "A journey home: What drives how long people are homeless?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 57-72.
    10. Duff, Cameron & Hill, Nicholas & Blunden, Hazel & valentine, kylie & Randall, Sean & Scutella, Rosanna & Johnson, Guy, 2021. "Leaving rehab: enhancing transitions into stable housing," SocArXiv vypsj, Center for Open Science.
    11. Marta Gaboardi & Michela Lenzi & Francesca Disperati & Massimo Santinello & Alessio Vieno & Aurélie Tinland & Maria J. Vargas-Moniz & Freek Spinnewijn & Branagh R. O’Shaughnessy & Judith R. Wolf & Ann, 2019. "Goals and Principles of Providers Working with People Experiencing Homelessness: A Comparison Between Housing First and Traditional Staircase Services in Eight European Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Schelbe, Lisa, 2018. "Struggles, successes, and setbacks: Youth aging out of child welfare in a subsidized housing program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 298-308.
    13. Bernet, Alice & Warren, Cristina & Adams, Susie, 2015. "Using a community-based participatory research approach to evaluate resident predictors of involuntary exit from permanent supportive housing," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 63-69.
    14. Devin Q. Rutan & Matthew Desmond, 2021. "The Concentrated Geography of Eviction," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 693(1), pages 64-81, January.
    15. Semborski, Sara & Redline, Brian & Madden, Danielle & Granger, Theresa & Henwood, Benjamin, 2021. "Housing interventions for emerging adults experiencing homelessness: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    16. Myra Piat & Lauren Polvere & Maritt Kirst & Jijian Voronka & Denise Zabkiewicz & Marie-Carmen Plante & Corinne Isaak & Danielle Nolin & Geoffrey Nelson & Paula Goering, 2015. "Pathways into homelessness: Understanding how both individual and structural factors contribute to and sustain homelessness in Canada," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(13), pages 2366-2382, October.
    17. Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2019. "Do childhood experiences of parental separation lead to homelessness?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 211-236.
    18. Nelson, Geoffrey & Stefancic, Ana & Rae, Jennifer & Townley, Greg & Tsemberis, Sam & Macnaughton, Eric & Aubry, Tim & Distasio, Jino & Hurtubise, Roch & Patterson, Michelle & Stergiopoulos, Vicky & Pi, 2014. "Early implementation evaluation of a multi-site housing first intervention for homeless people with mental illness: A mixed methods approach," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 16-26.
    19. Corinth, Kevin, 2017. "The impact of permanent supportive housing on homeless populations," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 69-84.
    20. Chris O'Leary & Rob Ralphs & Jennifer Stevenson & Andrew Smith & Jordan Harrison & Zsolt Kiss & Harry Armitage, 2024. "The effectiveness of abstinence‐based and harm reduction‐based interventions in reducing problematic substance use in adults who are experiencing homelessness in high income countries: A systematic re," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), June.

    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:64:y:2007:i:9:p:1925-1936. 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.