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published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The intent of this study was to examine the perceived resources and obstacles which were related to the utilization of mental health services by chronically mentally ill Mexican American clients. Specifically, the study identified resources and obstacles encountered by six chronically mentally ill clients and six family members as they accessed various mental health services. The study was conducted in the fall of 1985 from clients currently receiving services from La Frontera Center, Inc., Tucson, Arizona. Data were interpreted through content analysis to conceptualize and categorize client and family member responses. Chronically mentally ill clients relied heavily on individuals such as friends, therapist and priest as resources for mental health service support. In contrast, family members focused primarily on institutions for resource support. Financial resources, institutional policies, denial, and the lack of personal direction were listed as obstacles to seeking mental health services by clients and family members. Study results suggested that the perceptions of traditional and nontraditional obstacles and resources by Mexican American clients and family members continue to strongly influence utilization of mental health services In particular, the issue of "stigma" and the personal qualities and abilities of the therapist emerged as significant descriptors in client and family member self statements.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 136 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-113).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-83).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 1984. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-158).

Thesis (M.Med.Sc.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-83).

Mental health has a long history of proving to be a tough concept to define. Multiple forms of knowledge and representation seek to inform as to the nature of mental health, all contributing to the production of immense complexity as to the experience of living with mental health difficulties. This thesis sets out to explore this, by getting as close as possible to mental health service users' actual experiences. A range of forms of knowledge that pertain to inform as to service users' experiences are explored, prior to analysing a corpus of interviews with service users. These are analysed through the development of a Deleuzian Discourse Analysis. Service users' experiences are analysed in terms of the relation between discursive and non-discursive factors, which include forms of mainstream psychiatric discursive practice, such as the application of diagnostic criteria and administration of treatments, along with how such practices are experienced in non-discursive dimensions of service user embodiment and space. The challenges facing service users are seen to operate around identity and control in relation to forms of psychiatric knowledge, along with presenting particular problems with regard to how user embodiment is felt, primarily in relation to psychiatric medication, and how these are driven into the production of service user spaces, i.e. day centres. Finally, a politics of affectivity is offered, as a way to unfold the complexity of service user experience, and to emphasise the existence and potential for change that can be gained through deterritorialising mental health.