Social Integration for Psychiatrically Disabled Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：目前，许多生活在医院外的精神残疾人可以说是在社区中，但不是在社区中，他们既孤立又在真实的意义上被社会忽视，既缺乏与非残疾人的有意义的个人接触，也缺乏基本的、合法的人格标志。与构成我们生活大部分的日常工作，家庭和/或家庭生活，朋友和休闲相比，精神残疾人的日常工作可能包括药物访问，治疗和/或病例管理访问，前往服务设施领取残疾检查，参加日间节目等。确实实现了很大程度的社会融合。他们是怎么做到的？以及：心理健康服务如何最好地支持和帮助他们？这些都是我们在这项全定性研究中解决的研究问题。这一由三个国家组成的项目的总体目标是，为精神残疾者或曾有精神残疾者建立一个基于经验的社会融合理论和概念模式，作为实际行动的基础。强调这些人的观点的代表性。数据将通过“最低限度结构化”的个人采访收集代表三个选区：（a）积极走向更大的社会融合的人，（B）他们的重要他人，（c）在波士顿，纽约市，佛蒙特州南部的七个服务点工作的精神卫生服务提供者。这项研究借鉴了互补的方法和理论框架，以描述精神残疾人的社会融合。类别建构的归纳方法将被用来描述这些人创造和维持与他人联系的过程（“连接过程“）。在六个个案研究中，将使用生命图方法和叙述分析来追踪社会融合的长期进程。对特定服务提供者和组织如何促进人的能力发展的研究将为建议精神卫生服务可能做出的更强调社会融合的改变奠定基础。虽然这个项目的目标是建立理论，但我们的意图不是为了知识本身而产生知识。该项目是朝着设计和实施一项或多项理论上知情的服务干预措施的长期目标迈出的第一步，旨在促进精神残疾者的社会融合。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Presently, many individuals with psychiatric disabilities who are living outside the hospital may be said to be in the community, but not of it. They are both isolated and in a very real sense, socially invisible, lacking both meaningful personal contact with non-disabled persons and basic, legitimizing markers of personhood. In contrast to the daily rounds of work, home and/or family life, friends, and leisure that make up most of our lives, the routines of persons with psychiatric disabilities are likely to consist of medication visits, therapy and/or case management visits, trips to service facilities to pick up disability checks, attendance at day programs, etc. Some individuals, however, do manage to achieve a substantial measure of social integration. How do they do it? And: How can mental health services best support and assist them? These are the research questions we address in this all-qualitative study. The overall aim of this three-state project is to build an empirically based theory and conceptual model of social integration for persons who are or have been psychiatrically disabled as the basis for practical action. Representation of the perspectives of these persons is emphasized. Data will be collected through "minimally structured" interviews from individuals representing three constituencies: (a) persons actively moving toward greater social integration, (b) their significant others, and (c) mental health services providers working at seven service sites in Boston, New York City, and southern Vermont. The research draws upon complementary methodologies and theoretical frameworks to depict social integration for psychiatrically disabled persons. Inductive methods of category construction will be used to characterize processes through which these persons create and sustain ties with others ("connecting processes "). Life chart methods and narrative analysis in six case studies will be used to trace courses of social integration over time. An examination of how particular service providers and organizations foster the development of human capabilities will lay the groundwork for recommending changes toward greater emphasis on social integration that mental health services might make. Though the goal of this project is to build theory, our intent is not to produce knowledge for its own sake. This project is an initial step toward the longer-term goal of designing and implementing one or more theoretically informed services interventions aimed at promoting social integration for persons with psychiatric disabilities.