This thesis explores the experiences of a group of women in Aotearoa/New Zealand who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, with the aim of gaining some understanding about how they negotiate issues around diagnosis, recovery and resilience-development and employment. A qualitative methodology was used to encourage the women to relate their vocational and life experiences. Fifteen women, whose ages ranged from 17 to their late 60s, with a range of psychiatric diagnoses, were interviewed across ten months. One woman identified as having Māori ancestry and several identified as lesbian. Each interview, which was semi-structured, was transcribed and then verified by the women, and all data were analysed using thematic content analysis and symbolic interactionist and discourse/narrative analyses. Salient issues provided a focus for later interviews and generated theory. The thesis is organised according to major themes that were generated from the data: ‘Getting unwell and getting help,’ ‘Getting well’ and ‘Getting back to work.’ Within these broad themes, key ideas emerged around the women’s views on the difference between ‘madness’ and ‘mental illness’, the biological basis for mental distress, the impact of labelling, the importance of having a ‘literacy’ around psychiatric illness that helps foster agency, the importance of workplace accommodations and mentors in vocational settings, and the process of renegotiating vocational identity when one has a psychiatric illness. Data analysis revealed how participants make ‘sense’ of their psychiatric ill health and recovery/resilience-development experiences, create a vocational self-concept and view themselves as social beings in the current socio-political and cultural context of being New Zealanders. The women’s narratives exhibited negligible explicit gender role identification and the present research uncovered very little explicit data relevant to lesbian and bisexual women’s lives, apart from data on sexual identity disclosure. Rather the women spoke as members of a group that accepted Western diagnoses and used various strategies to reclaim what had been lost and grow new social and vocational roles. The thesis, therefore, provides a platform for understanding the experiences of women living with psychiatric illness in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It provides new information on service-users’ views of medical models of psychiatric illness and the efficacy of their alliances with mental health professionals. It also provides evidence of the needs women have for gaining and maintaining employment after diagnosis with psychiatric illness.

The objective of this study is to understand how people with psychiatric diseases who are enrolled at a psychiatric clinic experience the recovery process and which internal motivations and external factors influence the process. The study is based on interviews with five people who have been enrolled at a psychiatric clinic. Another aim of the study is to understand how the importance of the outpatient care for the personal recovery and the improvement opportunities of the support from the rehabilitation unit that the interviewees see. The study is qualitative and abductive approach was chosen. This means that the study is based on empirical data supported by established theories. The interviews have been semi-structured and the results have been analyzed based on previous research about recovery from psychiatric diseases. The results show that there are several similarities between the individual recovery stories in the study and there are also clear links to the findings of the international research that has been taken into account in this study. The study shows a painful but at the same time hopeful recovery process where all respondents developed strategies to handle the psychiatric disease and the symptoms of it. The medication, some kind of faith and memories of life before the psychiatric disease occurred all proved to be of importance in the recovery process. It is also clear that the recovery process is closely related to a social process where friends, colleagues, family members and professional caretakers contribute with support, continuity and by creating a sense of belonging. Furthermore, the study shows that the closest family not only has an externally supporting function. It also works as an inner motivation to keep on fighting to get back. The meeting premises of the psychiatric clinic and the accessibility of the caretakers also proved to be of importance in the recovery process. Three clear improvement opportunities where discovered in the study: More organized group activities for a specific type of patients, increased knowledge sharing and transfer about psychiatric diseases and that people involved in the process pass on a stronger feeling of hope. / Denna studie handlar om hur personer inskrivna på en öppenpsykiatrisk rehabiliteringsenhet för människor med psykossjukdom upplever återhämtningsprocessen och vilka inre motiv och yttre faktorer det är som stödjer denna process. Studien baseras på fem intervjuer av personer inskrivna på rehabiliteringsenheten. Ett mål har också varit att undersöka vilken betydelse öppenvården har för den personliga återhämtningen och vilka önskningar de intervjuade personerna har i syfte att förbättra stödet från rehabiliteringsenheten. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och en abduktiv forskningsstrategi valdes. Detta innebär att studien utgår från empiriska data men att teoretiska moment samtidigt har beaktats. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts och resultatet analyserades utifrån tidigare forskning om återhämtning från psykisk sjukdom. Resultatet visar att det finns flera likheter mellan de individuella återhämtningsberättelserna som personerna i studien delar med sig av och likheter i relation till den nationella och internationella forskningen. Studien ger en bild av en smärtsam men samtidigt hoppfull återhämtningsprocess där samtliga intervjupersoner utvecklat strategier i förhållande till psykossjukdomen och dess symtom. Medicinerna, någon form av tro eller andlighet och minnet av livet innan insjuknandet i psykossjukdom visar sig vara betydelsefullt i återhämtningsprocessen. Samtidigt framgår det också hur återhämtningen så starkt är förbunden med en social process där vänner, arbetskollegor, professionella och familjemedlemmar bidrar med stöd, samhörighet och kontinuitet. Vidare visar studien att den närmaste familjen har en yttre stödjande funktion men att de också utgör ett inre motiv till att fortsätta kämpa, återhämta sig eller tillfriskna. Enhetens träfflokal och personalens lättillgänglighet visar sig vara betydelsefullt för de intervjuade. Tre önskningar om enhetsförändringar förmedlas genom studien: En mer organiserad gruppverksamhet riktad mot en specifik grupp brukare, en ökad kunskapsförmedling om psykiska sjukdomar och en ökad förmedling av hopp.

The focus of this study was to explore the film image of the mental health professional (MHP) in importance of this study is founded upon the assumption that many film viewers' perceptions and expectations of the mental health profession and the process of psychotherapy and counseling are influenced by these film images.A total of seventeen films were identified. Of these, eight were randomly selected for a content analysis. A prevailing film image of the MHP and MHP's client was obtained. Following the content analysis, the films selected were further analyzed using a hermeneutic approach, which is a further development of phenomenolical theories. The study was descriptive in nature and, therefore, no statistical analyses were employed.The results of this study found that the film image of the MHP in current films is more negative than previous researchers have discovered. This image iscontemporary Hollywood feature length films. They explored within the social and political context of the 1980s, and associations are made among perceptions of authority figures, gender of film MHPs, and techniques employed by film MHPs. Recommendations are made for future researchers. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative risk of psychiatric disorders occurring in patients diagnosed with neurological disorders. This study separately computed the relative risk ratios for identified psychiatric disorder (i.e., anxiety, mood disorders, somatization, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, and antisocial personality disorder) on seven of the more common neurological disorders (i.e., brain tumor, closed head injury, stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson's disease). The six psychiatric disorders were chosen based on the epidemiological catchment area (ECA) research (Robins & Reigier 1991) and provided the control group of psychiatric disorders in the general population by which comparisons were made to the neurological care setting. The neurological disorders were included based on the frequency of referrals to a neuropsychological practice. Further, this study provided an overall relative risk ratio of psychiatric disorders for all seven neurological disorders considered together.Participants in this study included a sample of 367 consecutive referrals to a neurology practice in the Midwest. All of the 376 subjects were diagnosed with a neurological disorder. Two hundred forty-six of the subjects were diagnosed with a neurological disorder and no psychiatric disorder. One hundred twenty-one of the subjects were diagnosed with both a neurological and a psychiatric disorder. The MMPI2 was used in the assessment and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The control group, represented by the ECA study, was composed of 19,640 participants.Relative risk estimates were made using cross products ratio. Significance of the risk ratio was tested using Chi-square Continuity Correction values. Power analysis was conducted using Fisher's Exact Test.The results of the analysis suggested that patients with neurological disorders are more likely to present with psychiatric disorders compared to the general population. The overall relative risk for this study revealed that patients were 1.669 times more likely to have a comorbid psychiatric disorder following the diagnosis of a neurological disorder. Additionally, three individual disorders had relative risk ratios suggesting an increase in psychiatric disorders above the risk in the general population. These three conditions included stroke (RR = 3.038), dementia (RR = 2.762), and multiple sclerosis (RR = 3.617). / Department of Educational Psychology

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Researchers have noted that the level of contact respondents have with people who have a mental illness and how they attribute responsibility for these conditions contribute to their desire for social distance. Given that the literature suggests that increased contact is associated with reduced social distance and that social distance is highest when individuals are considered personally responsible for their situation, this thesis examines how much of the variation in the desire for social distance is accounted for by both the levels of contact and the attribution of personal responsibility. Ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze the 2007 Alberta Survey (N=1073). Results show that knowing someone, besides oneself, who has received treatment for a mental illness and attributing responsibility for a mental illness onto the individual explain some of the variation in the desire for social distance. The methodological limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 278-287. / Photocopy. / x, 287 leaves 29 cm

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