Life after hospital closure: users' views of living in residential 'resettlement' projects. A case study in consumer-led research.
OBJECTIVE: To conduct a user-led and focused study of the views and experiences of former psychiatric hospital patients in community-based residential projects four years after hospital closure. The aims of the study were to assess residents' views about their current living arrangements, their opportunities to give their views and their interest in a formal user-group such as a residents' council or citizen advocacy scheme. DESIGN: A small-scale, qualitative study designed to enable users to voice their own views and experiences in their own words, conducted by a project group of psychiatric service users/survivors. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: All eight residential 're-provision' projects in the area were included, with a total potential sample of 65 residents. All residents were invited to take part and a total of 26 were interviewed, although a larger number of residents together with residential care staff took part in initial 'house' meetings to discuss the study. METHODS: Semi-structured, open-ended interviews with all residents willing to participate, researcher participation in 'house meetings', researchers' personal reflection and discussion. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: On the whole, residents were content with community living arrangements and preferred these to hospital, although levels of satisfaction varied across different residential projects. Residents lacked awareness of rights to and means of voicing concerns and making choices about major issues in their lives. They showed greater interest in individualized rather than group advocacy. Ideally, research and evaluation, to be truly user-focused, should be long-term and continuous in order to involve participants more fully, and should anticipate the structures and processes needed to act on findings.
McCourt
Christine A.
CA
Wolfson Institute of Health Sciences, Thames Valley University, Westel House, 32-38 Uxbridge Road, London, UK.