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- Title
"Stuck in the Mud": Limited Employment Success of Persons With Serious Mental Illness in Northeastern Ontario.
- Authors
Gruhl, Karen L. Rebeiro; Kauppi, Carol; Montgomery, Phyllis; James, Susan
- Abstract
Despite policy support, empirical evidence, investment in community mental health programs, and a good deal of rhetoric about promoting recovery, people with serious mental illness (SMI) remain disproportionately represented in paid employment, especially in northern and rural places in Ontario. This study examines access to employment through the perspectives of people with SMI, providers, and decision makers who reside in two northeastern Ontario case communities. A qualitative case study using community-based participatory research methods was employed. Data from interviews conducted with 46 participants were analyzed thematically and were complemented by a secondary data source reporting on the employment outcomes of 4,112 people with SMI. This paper reports on the qualitative findings, highlighting how employment for persons with SMI is stuck in the mud by a dominant community discourse conveying a disbelief in the capacity of people with SMI to be employed-a discourse sustained by a variety of local and systemic tensions in local practices. This study underscores the ineffectiveness of current employment programs for people who experience SMI in the case communities, and the need to develop local capacity to provide evidence-based practices to improve employment success, and subsequently, to shift marginalizing discourses.
- Subjects
ACTION research; ATTITUDE (Psychology); CONVALESCENCE; EMPLOYMENT; INTERVIEWING; RESEARCH methodology; MENTAL illness; RESEARCH funding; SOUND recordings; SOCIAL stigma; THEMATIC analysis; CASE-control method
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 2012, Vol 31, Issue 2, p67
- ISSN
0713-3936
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.7870/cjcmh-2012-0014