Good friends are hard to find? The social networks of people with mental illness 12 years after deinstitutionalisation

Abstract

Background

While community care is now well established in England, the development and maintenance of social networks of people with long-term mental illness remains a major challenge to services.

Aims

To investigate the size of the social networks of people with long-term mental illness and the types of social support they receive in relation to their age and accommodation.

Sample

Thirty-nine men and 46 women (mean age: 61 years; range: 38–88). Forty nine (60%) were 65 years or under and 32 (40%) were over 65.

Methods

Participants were interviewed using the Social Network Guide. Comparisons were made using generalised linear modelling.

Results

Social networks (median 19; range 2–85) were generally larger than those reported in previous studies. Older residents (over 65 years) had closer ties than younger residents. Congregate types of community settings were relatively devoid of social supports.

Conclusion

Appropriate activities and social contexts are still needed to facilitate the social networks of people with mental illness, in particular, for those aged under 65 years.

Keywords:

• social networks
• support
• deinstitutionalisation
• mental illness

Notes

1 The term ‘resettlement’ is preferred to ‘discharge from hospital’ because the project aimed to provide new homes for former psychiatric hospital patients and support for them to resettle in the community.

2 Accommodation types were defined as follows: hospitals = wards for six or more patients with continuous cover both day and night; residential and nursing homes = six places or more with continuous staff cover; hostels and small group homes = more than two places with continuous or intermediate staff cover by day and any form of night cover including sleeping-in or on-call; supported living = unstaffed group homes with two to five places with ad hoc or no day staff cover and on-call or no staff cover at night and independent living arrangements with ad hoc or no day staff cover and no night cover.

3 Not their real names.