IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v66y2020i4p389-396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Service use and recovery among currently and formerly homeless adults with mental illness

Author

Listed:
  • Nick Kerman
  • John Sylvestre

Abstract

Background: A range of health and social services exist to address the many life adversities experienced by people with mental illness. However, the effects of services on their recovery in the context of ongoing homelessness and poverty have been minimally examined. Aims: This qualitative study sought to better understand the role of health and social services in the recovery processes of people with mental illness and histories of homelessness. Similarities and differences in the perceived impacts of services on recovery between currently and formerly homeless participants were also explored. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 52 currently and formerly homeless people with mental illness. Informed by a recovery framework, qualitative data were analyzed using two cycles of coding. Results: Services were perceived to affect recovery by (1) finding ways to cope and get by, (2) feeling less alone, (3) giving back, (4) being dehumanized or seen as someone and (5) encountering restrictions when getting help. Experiences of discrimination, fewer opportunities to give back and limited service options were heightened among participants experiencing homelessness compared to the housed group. Conclusion: Health and social services can promote and hinder recovery among currently and formerly homeless people with mental illness. Despite several differences between the two groups, the relationship between recovery and service use was similar for currently and formerly homeless participants, suggesting that both groups access services to address needs related to social connection, health and functioning and meaningful activities.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:66:y:2020:i:4:p:389-396
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764020913324
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764020913324
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764020913324?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wusinich, Christina & Bond, Lynden & Nathanson, Anna & Padgett, Deborah K., 2019. "“If you’re gonna help me, help me”: Barriers to housing among unsheltered homeless adults," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-1.
    2. 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.
    3. Hawkins, Robert Leibson & Abrams, Courtney, 2007. "Disappearing acts: The social networks of formerly homeless individuals with co-occurring disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 2031-2042, November.
    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. Elizabeth Golembiewski & Dennis P. Watson & Lisa Robison & John W. Coberg II, 2017. "Social Network Decay as Potential Recovery from Homelessness: A Mixed Methods Study in Housing First Programming," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Deborah Quilgars & Nicholas Pleace, 2016. "Housing First and Social Integration: A Realistic Aim?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 5-15.
    3. Jonas, Adam B. & Young, April M. & Oser, Carrie B. & Leukefeld, Carl G. & Havens, Jennifer R., 2012. "OxyContin® as currency: OxyContin® use and increased social capital among rural Appalachian drug users," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(10), pages 1602-1609.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    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. Benjamin Cornwell, 2015. "Social Disadvantage and Network Turnover," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(1), pages 132-142.
    8. Barbara Straaten & Gerda Rodenburg & Jorien Laan & Sandra N. Boersma & Judith R. L. M. Wolf & Dike Mheen, 2018. "Changes in Social Exclusion Indicators and Psychological Distress Among Homeless People Over a 2.5-Year Period," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 291-311, January.
    9. 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.
    10. Linda Irvine Fitzpatrick & Donald Maciver & Kirsty Forsyth, 2021. "Incite to Practice: Development of a Realist-Informed Program Theory to Support Implementation of Intersectoral Partnerships," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    11. Franziska Bertram & Fabian Heinrich & Daniela Fröb & Birgit Wulff & Benjamin Ondruschka & Klaus Püschel & Hans-Helmut König & André Hajek, 2021. "Loneliness among Homeless Individuals during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-10, March.
    12. 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.
    13. EnglandKennedy, Elizabeth Sara & Horton, Sarah, 2011. "“Everything that I thought that they would be, they weren’t:” Family systems as support and impediment to recovery," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1222-1229.
    14. Benjamin Saunders & Julius Sim & Tom Kingstone & Shula Baker & Jackie Waterfield & Bernadette Bartlam & Heather Burroughs & Clare Jinks, 2018. "Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1893-1907, July.
    15. 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.
    16. 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).
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:sae:socpsy:v:66:y:2020:i:4:p:389-396. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.