‘It is important for us to see the mentors as persons’ – participant experiences of a rehabilitation group

Figures & data

Table I. The five principles of RENEW.

The Five principles of RENEW
1. Self-determination
2. Community inclusion and authentic support
3. Unconditional care
4. Strengths-based planning
5. Flexible resources

Table II. RENEW general group session agenda.

RENEW GROUP SESSION AGENDA
- Check-in exercise
Pick a card or several, which for you shows a picture of what you are concerned about, or how you feel at this particular moment
- Have you worked on anything from the last session?
- Activity or Exercise (Topic according to manual)
− 10 min. break
- Activity or Exercise (Topic according to manual)
- What will you work on for next time?

Table III. Example of the data analysis process for the theme organisational challenges: compulsory attendance and lack of teamwork resources.

Statement	Keywords	Description and understanding
“ … there is this contrast, that here in the group they are considerate and understanding, but the bureaucracy and the reception and all that, it’s more strict, I think. It’s very much that with being off sick and being punished for being off sick and the suspicion, they have of you … ”	Sense of security, consideration and understanding in the group. Contrast to reception. Punishment for being absent. Suspicion.	Ditte’s experience is that the processes in the young adult group are in great contrast to what she experiences when she registers as sick. While the group is equated with a sense of security, consideration and understanding, the method of registering as sick is equated with bureaucracy—which is described as strict, punishing and distrustful.
“She is also more of a person than him down in reception. I don’t think that it would matter if I was to report all my sickness absences to her and then write her a note as to why I had not been there today.”	Humanity. Registering sickness with the mentors.	Nanna describes the mentors as being more like people (sympathetic) than the people down in the reception.
“ … Perhaps I needed to do something good for myself, but it ended up with me spending an entire day just lying under the duvet at home because it was really all I could manage. I’m the kind of person who feels guilty and … I couldn’t even allow myself to sit out in the sun, because then I would not really be sick. And just sitting out in the sun; that might have helped me to feel a bit better the next day.”	Distrust. Feelings of guilt. This cannot be right. Not really sick. Limiting. A possible obstacle to recovery.	Nanna talks about an experience where she was met with suspicion when she registered as sick. Her reaction was that this could not be right, but this was also accompanied by feelings of guilt and thoughts that perhaps she wasn’t really sick, and therefore she could not allow herself to sit out in the sun, for example, which might have helped her to feel better.
“For me it all triggers that social stigma … And then it will ruin my entire day, and then I’ll think that I’m just lazy and not really sick. Mental illness is apparently not a real illness and then you get that … guilty conscience and just feel completely in the wrong.”	Social stigma. Laziness. Burden on society. Mental illness is not a real illness. Limiting. A possible obstacle to recovery.	Ditte describes how registering as sick can trigger a social stigma, which triggers a view of herself as lazy and not really sick. She says that it can ruin her entire day, and that she will have a bad conscience and feel like she has done something wrong. The young people describe otherwise how the group has helped them to not feel in the wrong.