Social relations in everyday activities among patients with persistent mental illness at a psychiatric centre

Abstract

Social relations benefit health but are challenging for people with persistent mental illness. Carrying out activities with other people facilitates social relations. What is less clear, however, is how social relations are established in everyday activities. The aim of this exploratory study is to gain an understanding of how social relations emerge in everyday activities among people with persistent mental illness. The study was inspired by ethnography and used participant observation to gather data in the context of a psychiatric centre. The participants were inpatients with persistent mental illness. By using interpretative analysis with a focus on narratives we identified one core finding as ‘daily routines as a facilitator for social relations’, along with narratives that illustrate dimensions of the core finding. These were ‘caring’, ‘belonging’ and ‘memory-sharing’. The study highlights how the context with its focus on everyday routines creates social opportunities that facilitate the emergence of social relations.

Keywords:

• social relations
• everyday activities
• persistent mental illness
• ethnography

Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks to the patients at the centre who let us participate in their everyday activities. We are also thankful to the staff and administration at the psychiatric centre for their help during data collection. We also thank Sør-Trøndelag University College for funding the study.