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Finding Meaning in Place: The Perspectives of People with Severe Mental Illness Living Long Term in a Psychiatric Hospital

This study explored the perspectives on place of eight people with severe mental illness living, for one year or longer, in an urban psychiatric hospital. The research questions were: how do people with severe mental illness view the psychiatric hospital as place?; and how do they make meaning of the experience of living in hospital. The research employed a phenomenological approach, as described by Giorgi (1985). Using purposive sampling, one time, semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted. The audio recorded interviews were transcribed and thematically coded using Giorgi’s (2005) method. The meanings of the participants’ experiences are captured by the meta-theme: this is not a home; it’s a hospital. Four additional major themes emerged; and each of the major themes also had sub-themes The findings of this study challenged commonly held assumptions on how people living long term in a psychiatric hospital view the hospital as place and on institutionalization.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/32517
Date24 July 2012
CreatorsAmoroso, Bice
ContributorsKirsh, Bonnie, Polatajko, Helene J.
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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