title: Young people with psychiatric disabilities and their views of day centres.
abstract: Young people with psychiatric disabilities may require support in structuring their everyday life. To learn more about the relevance of day centres in this respect, this study aimed to examine the experiences of young people with psychiatric disabilities. A particular focus was on the perceptions of meaningful occupation when visiting day centres, their reasons for not choosing this option when given it and what they desired instead. A qualitative design based on individual interviews was used. Twelve women and eight men between 18 and 35 years, with a need for organized daily occupations, participated as informants. Qualitative content analysis revealed three categories: 'Being in a context', 'Balancing between developing and stagnating', and 'Longing for something more'. The findings indicated that the occupations were inherently age neutral, as were the possibilities for socializing. There was a desire for more activities in the community and more support for engaging in occupations that other young people did. A major issue in the accomplishment of this was the need to earn money, and the lack of opportunities for doing that in the day centre context was a considerable drawback. The findings highlight the importance of identifying young people's views when designing day centres.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Research and Development , Region Kronoberg , Växjö , Sweden.|b Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation , The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden.
authors.forename: A Birgitta
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Gunnarsson
authors.affiliation: c Department of Health Sciences , Lund University , Lund , Sweden.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eklund
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003631:Day Care, Medical; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D009788:Occupational Therapy; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Community-based psychiatry; interviews; occupations; qualitative design; rehabilitation; severe mental illness