In the wake of deinstitutionalization, people with psychiatric disabilities are, to a great extent, living in the community. In this thesis everyday life of people with psychiatric disabilities, living in independent housing with community-based social support to manage their daily life, is investigated. Special attention is paid to the characteristics and meaning of community-based social support. Through participating observational studies, interviews and time-geographic diaries, data have been gathered about everyday life of seventeen men and women. It is the interpersonal social conditions that have been the main target of the study, addressed as social networks and social support. Everyday life conditions are dependent on social as well as physical and material circumstances. Although the social conditions are emphasized in the study they are not looked upon as isolated dimensions but as part of everyday life circumstances. The everyday life perspective offers an opportunity to reveal the structures within which everyday life takes place. The time-geographic concepts “community-organized projects” and “individual-organized projects” were used to investigate the structures of everyday life, resulting in four substructures. Four types of everyday life and four patterns of networks connected to the different substructures were identified, showing great variations. The characteristics of community-based social support can be summarized as “the doing”, “the talking” and “the being with” in a reciprocal type of relationship. The meaning of support is shortly described as solution of and relieving problems, social companionship, security, protection and control. Community-based social support show similar importance regardless of the type of everyday life when it comes to solution of problems and different importance when it comes to aspects of support such as social companionship.

<p>This study is inspired by research about alliance as a common factor. The purpose is to explore the positive experiences among community-based social support workers when breaking the rules with their clients. The study questions in which situations they broke the rules and how they handled these situations related to their clients and colleges. Qualitative, individual interviews were made with four community-based social support workers who had such experiences. The results were analysed through an hermeneutic approach using Johan Asplund's theory of social responsiveness. The rules were mainly created socially among the colleges and concerned where, when and how they met their clients, and what the workers revealed about their personal life. They broke the rules when following them felt wrong and unpleasant. Breaking the rules created reciprocity in the client-relationship, which strengthened the alliance. Breaking the rules was less problematic when the workers felt supported by colleges than among colleges who acted disapprovingly. The respondents used the rules as something to relate to the client and themselves, instead of applying them in the same way with everyone. This raised questions about how to define professionalism, causes of stigma and how to measure quality in health services.</p>

This study is inspired by research about alliance as a common factor. The purpose is to explore the positive experiences among community-based social support workers when breaking the rules with their clients. The study questions in which situations they broke the rules and how they handled these situations related to their clients and colleges. Qualitative, individual interviews were made with four community-based social support workers who had such experiences. The results were analysed through an hermeneutic approach using Johan Asplund's theory of social responsiveness. The rules were mainly created socially among the colleges and concerned where, when and how they met their clients, and what the workers revealed about their personal life. They broke the rules when following them felt wrong and unpleasant. Breaking the rules created reciprocity in the client-relationship, which strengthened the alliance. Breaking the rules was less problematic when the workers felt supported by colleges than among colleges who acted disapprovingly. The respondents used the rules as something to relate to the client and themselves, instead of applying them in the same way with everyone. This raised questions about how to define professionalism, causes of stigma and how to measure quality in health services.