Abstract:
A qualitative exploratory study was conducted in community-based
centers that have developed nonmedical treatment approaches and programs
for people with profound disorders of thought, emotions, and relationships.
This report focuses in the users’ perspective. It addresses the complex issue of
improvement and change associated with the treatment. The users views about
their treatment experiences are reported through semistructured interviews. Users’
narratives describe different forms of improvement and change associated
with their attendance at these community treatment centers. The transformations
evoked cluster around a few recurring topics: the experience of oneself,
the relationships with others, the reasons for living and their personal stance
toward the common world. The findings of this exploratory study put forward a
number of indications for both psychiatric practice and research. They confirm
the importance of reinforcing holistic and human approaches to treatment.
Similarly, they suggest that outcomes studies need to give an important place
to qualitative methods, which give access to the users’ subjective experience of
change and allow them to situate themselves within a larger life frame.