6533b820fe1ef96bd12798d8

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Living in poverty with severe mental illness coping with double trouble

subject

description

AbstractObjectives: Several studies have pointed at a co-occurrence between severe mental problems and relative poverty. Also users refer to their strained financial situation as one of their main problems. We lack knowledge about how persons ‒ still characterised in diagnostic manuals as having difficulty with their sense of reality and their ability to carry out goal-oriented actions ‒ manage the ‘double trouble’ of having a strained financial situation and mental problems.Method: Sixteen persons diagnosed with severe mental illness were interviewed about how they managed poverty in their everyday life. The interviews were tape-recorded and analysed using the thematic analysis method.Results: The overarching theme that emerged was ‘managing a life on the margin’, with three sub-themes: ‘staying within limits’, ‘widening the boundaries’ and ‘indulging in the unnecessary’. The ways the interviewees coped with their strained financial situation are similar in many respects to those found in poverty researc...