The dialogical bricoleur? Expectations towards internet-based services in Norway and Sweden

Mental health is a multifaceted concept that has been described and understood differently throughout history. The emergence of internet-based services has signalled changes in both the delivery of ...

Psykisk helsearbeid på internett: konsekvenser for normalitets- og identitetsdannelse hos ungdom

Psykisk helsearbeid på internett øker i omfang, og verdsettes på grunn av bekvemmelighet, lave kostnader og muligheter for anonymitet. Artikkelen bygger på en kartlegging av norske og svenske nettbaserte eposttjenester for ungdom og unge voksne, og viser at det var 24 nettsteder som tilbød slike tjenester i 2009. Tjenestene hadde opphav i både offentlig og frivillig sektor. Flesteparten av sidene fra offentlig sektor tok utgangspunkt i eksisterende tjenestetilbud, og var en videreutvikling av tjenestene for å styrke tilgjengeligheten av psykisk helsetjenester. Andre sider oppsto som en konsekvens av FNs konvensjon av barns rettigheter. Størsteparten av sidene fra frivillig sektor ble utvikl…

Den kritiske ettertanke – undersøkelser fra en avgått redaktør

Author's version of an article in the journal: Tidsskrift for psykisk helsearbeid. Also available from the publisher at: http://www.idunn.no/ts/tph/2011/01/art01 Denne artikkelen er en undersøkelse av Tidsskrift for psykisk helsearbeid i perioden 2004-2010. Undersøkelsen viser stor variasjon når det gjelder bidragsyternes utdannings- og erfaringsbakgrunn, og organisatorisk tilhørighet. Innholdet i Tidsskriftet er dominert av et budskap om forandring både i tenkning og praksis. Dette diskuteres i lys av myndighetenes strategier for styring og kontroll, og forfatteren etterlyser større dristighet fra helsemyndighetene når det gjelder å gi kraft til en slik forandring. Critical Reflections - i…

Therapy the Natural Way: A Realist Exploration of the Wilderness Therapy Treatment Process in Adolescent Mental Health Care in Norway

Wilderness therapy has the potential to meet the specific needs of the current adolescent population by providing a rather unique outdoor group treatment. Wilderness therapy is not a new approach to mental health treatment, but its theoretical basis is not yet clearly delineated, in part because of the diversity found across programs and contexts. This article presents a critical realist exploration of a wilderness therapy program that was recently implemented as part of adolescent mental health services in Southern Norway. In this study, we combine fieldwork and interviews for an in-depth investigation of the treatment process, where the objective was to acquire a deeper understanding of t…

Generating dialogical practices in mental health: experiences from southern norway, 1998-2008.

Published version of an article in the journal: Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0479-3 In Norway and many other countries, political guidelines prescribe the development of mental health strategies with both a service user's perspective and a treatment system established by the local authority. The development of new strategies frequently involves challenges regarding procedures and treatment as well as a view of knowledge and humanity. Dialogical practices might provide a solution for these challenges not only because of its procedures but also due to its attitudes tow…

Unpacking the Black Box of Wilderness Therapy

Despite considerable progress within wilderness and adventure therapy research over the last decade, researchers are still unable to precisely answer why, how, and for whom this treatment modality works. There is also a need for more knowledge regarding the circumstances under which the treatment does not appear to be effective. In this realist synthesis, we attempt to unpack this “black box” of wilderness therapy more specifically, defined as a specialized approach to mental health treatment for adolescents. Through a focused review of the primary qualitative wilderness therapy studies, empirical findings are used to test and refine a key program theory. The synthesis results in a propose…

Therapy in the open air: Introducing wilderness therapy to adolescent mental health services in Scandinavia

Despite the rich traditions of outdoor life in the Scandinavian countries, structured nature-based therapeutic interventions remain underexplored in adolescent mental health services. We suggest that wilderness therapy is an age-appropriate and effective group treatment that may hold particular appeal for at-risk youth who are less responsive to conventional forms of treatment. Although more widespread in other parts of the world, wilderness therapy may also be a viable treatment modality for the Scandinavian region. Our overall aim of this state-of-knowledge article is to provide an overview of wilderness therapy with regard to conceptualization, practice and research, and to discuss curre…

Unngåelse som mestringsarbeid. En kvalitativ studie av jenters håndtering av sosiale utfordringer i skolen

Mestring er et etablert begrep i arbeidet med å forebygge psykisk uhelse for ungdom. I 2020 kom mestring inn i læreplanen for grunnskolen gjennom det tverrfaglige temaet folkehelse og livsmestring. For å forstå mestring blant ungdom er konteksten og sammenhengen hvor handlingene foregår viktige momenter. I denne studien utforsker vi hva jenter selv gjør for å mestre sosiale utfordringer i skolen. Gjennom en innholdsanalyse av totalt 22 intervjuer med ti jenter om deres hverdag, og ved hjelp av begrepet arbeid, finner vi at jentenes mestringsarbeid er mangfoldig og har ulik intensjon. Unngåelse er et mestringsarbeid som er særlig utbredt. Vi forstår dette som et viktig mestringsarbeid for je…

Framtidstro og underordning: En lesning av tolv lærebøker i psykiatrisk sykepleie og psykiatri

Caring through Discipline? Analyzing House Rules in Community Mental Health Services in Norway

In Scandinavian countries, public housing and recreation programs for people suffering from mental health or substance abuse problems emphasize normalization of life and participation in a normal social life. The theoretical approach taken by community health care services has been de-institutionalization. To study if and how this movement from patient to fully participating citizen was reflected in these new institutions, written house rules in sheltered housing and day centers for adults were collected and analyzed by content analysis. The findings show that the formal language represents the voice of professionals, while the content pertained to regulation of the service user’s daily lif…

In Your Best Interest

We introduce the opportunity for Capability Approach, developed by Martha C. Nussbaum (1997, 2006, 2011), to be used as a guideline to balance the principle of the child’s best interests as formulated in the crc, art. 3 and respect for family life, echr, art. 8, in cases where these principles are drawn in different directions. To contextualize a dilemma, we refer to two stories from the Norwegian courts which illustrate how complex this can be. The stories are similar in the way that they both are related to an evaluation of children`s best interests. We argue conclusively that the list of capabilities could strengthen and supplement the content of the principle of child’s best interests. …

Internet-based Mental Health Services in Norway and Sweden: Characteristics and Consequences

Published version of an article in the journal: Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10488-011-0388-2 Internet-based mental health services increase rapidly. However, national surveys are incomplete and the consequences for such services are poorly discussed. This study describes characteristics of 60 Internet-based mental health services in Norway and Sweden and discusses their social consequences. More than half of the services were offered by voluntary organisations and targeted towards young people. Professionals answered service users’ questions in 60% of the services. Eight majo…

En annen kompetanse? Den norske dosenten i et kriterie- og kompetanseperspektiv

This chapter explores the criteria for promotion to docent (dosent in Norwegian), a variant of the professor position. The criteria are based on a different path of qualification to a top academic position where neither a PhD nor a specific number of referee-assessed research articles are required. Four questions are discussed in the chapter: 1) What characterizes the docent position? 2) What kinds of competence does a docent possess? 3) Why do academic institutions need docents? 4) Do the flexible interpretations of the promotion criteria represent challenges? The authors’ answers to these questions show that docents are expected to possess a wider repertoire of competences than a professo…

Hell on earth: Textual reflections on the experience of mental illness

Background: Some people who by themselves or by others are understood as having mental health problems have written autobiographies about their experiences. Aims: The aim of this study is to explore how people write about their experiences of being mentally ill. Method: Twelve Scandinavian autobiographies were studied using content analysis based on phenomenology and hermeneutics. Results: Three themes were identified: feeling like a stranger in life and places, the transformation of life experiences into questions of disease and feeling ashamed. Conclusions: People’s experiences of being mentally ill might be understood as the result of medical constructions unsuitable for the persons them…

“Emotional Darkness without Solutions”: Subjective Experiences of Mental Health Crisis

Abstract:The purpose of this study is to explore and describe service users’ subjective experiences of mental health crisis. The main research question is: How do people with severe mental health problems experience and understand mental health crisis? Based on a hermeneutic-phenomenological methodology, in-depth interviews with seven participants have been carried out to encourage reflections on mental health crisis experiences. The findings reveal the crisis as being complex and multifaceted, which contains two dimensions in experiencing crisis—an existential dimension (personal) and a contextual (social) dimension. Three main themes identified through the analysis, “Feeling out of contro…

“Heaven and Hell on Earth” A critical discourse analysis of religious terms in Norwegian autobiographies describing personal experience of mental health problems

This article explores the use of religious terms in six Norwegian autobiographies written between 1925 and 2005 by people who themselves have been patients in the mental health services. Through a critical discourse analysis, we discuss the functions of religious discourse in the texts and its position in contrast to the medical discourse predominant in today's mental health services. It was found that religious (predominantly Christian) terms were used to varying degrees in all autobiographies as a means to capture the immensity and inherent ambivalence characteristic of mental health problems. Despite the “medical turn” in professional mental health discourse, there is no clear evidence o…

Emerging stories of self: long-term outcomes of wilderness therapy in Norway

This paper is a twelve-month follow-up study that explores perceived outcomes from participation in a Norwegian wilderness therapy program. Through a critical realist approach, the authors performe...

More of the same? A study of the funding practices of The Research Council of Norway’s Programs for Mental Health in the period 1995 to 2015

The objective of this paper is to examine the funding practices of The Research Council of Norway’s Programs for Mental Health during the time period from 1995 to 2015. The paper’s foci are on funded research groups and professions, main topics, and research questions. The empirical data consists of 138 project abstracts. The findings reveal a discrepancy between the national policies and funding practices during the program periods, where narrow knowledge development like biological, genetic, and neurological is given priority. Research focusing on community mental health and living conditions is rarely funded. The paper discusses decision-making practices, revealing that new research grou…

Mer av det samme? En studie av tildelings­praksiser i Program for psykisk helse, Norges forsknings­råd i perioden 1995–2015

More of the same? A study of the funding practices of The Research Council of Norway’s Programs for Mental Health in the period 1995 to 2015 The objective of this paper is to examine the funding practices of The Research Council of Norway’s Programs for Mental Health during the time period from 1995 to 2015. The paper’s foci are on funded research groups and professions, main topics, and research questions. The empirical data consists of 138 project abstracts. The findings reveal a discrepancy between the national policies and funding practices during the program periods, where narrow knowledge development like biological, genetic, and neurological is given priority. Research focusing on co…

Reaching out to people struggling with their lives: a discourse analysis of answers from Internet-based services in Norway and Sweden

Anders Johan W Andersen,1 Tommy Svensson21Department of Psychosocial Health, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway; 2Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, SwedenAbstract: The Internet has enlarged the scope of human communication, opening new avenues for connecting with people who are struggling with their lives. This article presents a discourse analysis of 101 responses to 98 questions that were posted on 14 different Internet-based mental health services in Norway and Sweden. We aimed to examine and describe the dominant understandings and favored recommendations in the services’ answers, and we reflected upon the so…

Struggles for recognition: a content analysis of messages posted on the Internet

Anders Johan W Andersen,1,2 Tommy Svensson31Department of Psychosocial Health, University of Agder, Norway; 2Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden; 3Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, SwedenBackground: The Internet has enlarged the possibilities of human communication and opened new ways of exploring perceptions of mental health. This study is part of a research project aiming to explore, describe, and analyze different discourses of mental health in Norway and Sweden, using material from Internet-based services.Aim: To examine messages posed by users of publicly available question-and-answer services and to descri…