title: Non-helpful relationships with professionals - a literature review of the perspective of persons with severe mental illness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The relationship with professionals has proved to be important with regard to outcome for persons with severe mental illness (SMI). The understanding of non-helpful relationships is important complementary knowledge to that regarding helpful relationships.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To review the available qualitative research providing knowledge of non-helpful relationships from the perspective of persons with SMI.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of qualitative studies, based on an earlier systematic search, analyzed through thematic analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main themes were "non-helpful professionals", "organization versus relation" and "the consequences of non-helpful relationships with professionals". Examples of professionals described as non-helpful were pessimistic and uncaring professionals who were paternalistic and disrespectful. Discontinuity, insufficient time and coercion were some of the contextual factors described as non-helpful. These sorts of relationships were non-helpful because they hindered helpful relationships from developing and contributed to further suffering, instilling hopelessness and hindering personal growth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Non-helpful relationships with professionals can be understood as impersonal relationships that contain no space for negotiation of the relationship nor of the support and treatment provided through it. It is important that organizations provide professionals with favorable conditions to negotiate the organizational framework and to treat persons with SMI as whole human beings.
authors.affiliation: a Research and Development Unit , Psychiatry South Stockholm , Stockholm , Sweden .
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ljungberg
authors.affiliation: a Research and Development Unit , Psychiatry South Stockholm , Stockholm , Sweden .|b Department of Social Work , Stockholm University , Stockholm , Sweden , and.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Denhov
authors.affiliation: a Research and Development Unit , Psychiatry South Stockholm , Stockholm , Sweden .|b Department of Social Work , Stockholm University , Stockholm , Sweden , and.|c Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences , University of Agder , Grimstad , Norway.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Topor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alliance; non-helpful relationships; review; severe mental illness; views/attitudes of consumers