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Biomedical subjects

Cheryl Forchuk

Publications and source records attributed to Cheryl Forchuk.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Keeping close: mothering with serious mental illness.

AIM: The aim of this paper is to describe the experiences of mothers with serious mental illness from their perspectives and how they attempted to manage their mothering circumstances. BACKGROUND: The desire to mother in women with serious mental illness is increasingly acknowledged by healthcare professionals. For these women, mothering is often framed as a pathological problem needing professional intervention. Yet little is known about mothering and illness from the perspectives of the mothers themselves. METHOD: Using Glaser's grounded theory approach and both purposive and theoretical sampling, interviews were conducted with 20 mothers who were receiving treatment for mental health problems. The data were collected in 2002. FINDINGS: We found the core category of Keeping close described mothers' efforts to have meaningful relationships with their children in the context of illness and suffering. To this end, mothers chose strategies that would hide illness for the sake of protecting their roles and their children. These strategies--masking, censoring speech, doing motherwork and seeking help--served to imitate ideal perceptions of mothering while making illness invisible to their children. Mothering in illness, however, became a vortex of contradictions, resulting in mothers 'hitting bottom', a point in time when they realized they could not keep close via pretences. To return to the valued place of mother, they sought treatment, hoping to learn how to be with their children authentically. CONCLUSION: To assist mothers with serious mental illness, healthcare professionals must be sensitive to the social and cultural context in which they mother in order to create healthier possibilities for nurturing their children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

"It's important to be proud of the place you live in": housing problems and preferences of psychiatric survivors.

TOPIC: It is important to understand housing and mental health issues from the perspective of psychiatric survivors. This paper reports findings from a series of focus group meetings held with survivors of mental illness to address issues concerning housing preferences and housing needs. METHODS: The discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an ethnographic method of analysis. The themes that emerged related to oppression, social networks and social supports, housing conditions, poverty and finances, and accessing services. Participants described the ongoing stigma, discrimination, and poverty that reduced their access to safe, adequate housing. FINDINGS: They preferred independent housing where supports would be available as needed. Participants described the dilemma of having to choose between the housing they wanted and the supports they needed, since supports were often contingent upon living in a less desirable housing situation. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses and other mental healthcare workers need to be aware of these issues for discharge planning, community support, and ongoing advocacy. The survivor voices need to be heard by decision-makers at various levels of government in order for housing policy to become more receptive to their realities.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2006

Surviving the tornado of mental illness: psychiatric survivors' experiences of getting, losing, and keeping housing.

This qualitative study explored experiences of psychiatric consumer-survivors related to housing. Nine focus groups involving 90 people were conducted in urban and rural areas in South-Western Ontario. A set of open-ended questions was used. Many participants described a devastating experience of losing much of what was important to them and going through a long arduous process to rebuild their lives. Group discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. Individual and team analyses of the transcripts revealed that psychiatric survivors experienced three levels of upheaval, loss, and destruction, similar to the effects of a tornado: losing ground, struggling to survive, and gaining stability. Within each of these levels, five major themes were identified: living in fear, losing control of basic human rights, attempting to hold onto and create relationships, identifying supports and seeking services, and obtaining personal space and place. A caring community response, including adequate housing, income support, and community care, can help people rebuild their lives.

Disasters↗
PubMed2004

Families' experience during recovery or nonrecovery from psychosis.

This naturalistic qualitative study was conducted to expand understanding of families' subjective experiences to their relative's recovery or non recovery from psychosis. Nine families, who had a member with a chronic mental illness who was taking a second generation neuroleptic medication, were interviewed five times over the course of one year. Eight families reported positive outcomes, particularly valuing improved interpersonal relationships. Cautious optimism was restored. Interest in maintaining or establishing collaborative relationships with professionals was affirmed regardless of the length of their relative's psychotic experience. Nonrecovery punctuated the need for professionals to assist them to maintain hope while comforting them in their sorrow.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed2003

Current and preferred housing of psychiatric consumers/survivors.

As part of a participatory action research project, we surveyed 300 psychiatric consumers/survivors from southwestern Ontario regarding their housing preferences and housing satisfaction. We found that, while 79% of the sample preferred independent living, 76% were living in some other type of setting (e.g., temporary shelter, supportive housing, sheltered care). Those living in temporary shelters reported the lowest levels of housing satisfaction, and those who were living in the type of housing that they preferred had the highest levels of housing satisfaction. This information is being used by stakeholder groups involved in the project to help build the capacity of the community to provide the types of housing that are preferred by consumers/survivors.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Living on the streets in Canada: a feminist narrative study of girls and young women.

Homelessness affects thousands of girls and young women in Canada. Terms that are commonly used to describe the homeless include lazy, mentally ill, middle aged, and male. The reality is that homelessness is not limited to a particular age, gender, or ethnocultural group, or to individuals of any single intellectual ranking. As a result of the prevailing stereotypes, little research has been conducted on homelessness among adolescent females, making it difficult to capture an accurate and comprehensive picture of the full scope of the problem. The purposes of this feminist narrative study were to (1) explore the intersections between homelessness and health among adolescent girls, with particular attention to the influence of contextual factors such as violence, gender, and poverty; and (2) to examine how these young women access health care, barriers they encounter, and factors that contribute to their health promotion. The sample consisted of ten females, ages 16-21, who were interviewed either individually or in small groups. Consistent with feminist research approaches, the interviews were conducted in an interactive manner in order to encourage critical reflection and dialogue. Data analysis consisted of a thematic analysis of the participants' experiences. Findings revealed that most girls had fled from difficult, and at times dangerous, situations at home to lives on the street that brought a new set of challenges, including a multitude of health problems and exposure to violence, chronic poverty, and discrimination. Many barriers to effective health care were described. In this article, the findings of the research will be presented and implications for health and social service providers will be addressed, including recommendations for programming and policy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mental health case management in Canada: job description analyses.

The purpose of this study was to examine case managers' (CM) job position descriptions through content analysis. There were 29 case manager job position descriptions examined. The job descriptions could be grouped into four categories: (1) what the individuals should bring to the position, (2) what they did as CM, (3) to whom they were accountable, and (4) what was valued. Themes included focus on client as individual, focus on the external/system, or outer-directed work, and the articulation point between the individual and broader system. The CM works directly and indirectly in the system and community through education, organizing, planning, and networking, as well as through provision of direct care to the individual client. The expectations of the positions are extensive.

Canada↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Postoperative arm massage: a support for women with lymph node dissection.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the usefulness of arm massage from a significant other following lymph node dissection surgery. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial with a pretest-posttest design. Data were collected prior to surgery, within 24 hours post surgery, within 10 to 14 days post surgery, and 4 months post surgery. SAMPLE: 59 women, aged 21 to 78 undergoing lymph node dissection surgery and who had a significant other with them during the postoperative period. METHODS: Subjects were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Subjects' significant others in the intervention group were first taught, then performed arm massage as a postoperative support measure. RESEARCH MAIN VARIABLES: Variables included postoperative pain, family strengths and stressors, range of motion, and health related costs. FINDINGS: Participants reported a reduction in pain in the immediate postoperative period and better shoulder function. CONCLUSION: Arm massage decreased pain and discomfort related to surgery, and promoted a sense of closeness and support amongst subjects and their significant other. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Postoperative massage therapy for women with lymph node dissection provided therapeutic benefits for patients and their significant other. Nurses can offer effective alternative interventions along with standard procedures in promoting optimal health.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Schizophrenia and the motivation for smoking.

PROBLEM: People with mental illness are twice as likely to smoke than people without a mental illness. METHODS: Data were collected through interviews with individuals who smoke and have been diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 100). The research design included a descriptive, correlational design that described and examined the relationships among psychiatric symptoms, medication side effects, and reasons for smoking; and a qualitative analysis of the subjective experience of smoking. FINDINGS: A positive relationship was found between the age of onset of smoking and the onset of schizophrenia. Subjects reported they smoked primarily for sedative effects and control of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Subjects also reported smoking related to addiction. Most indicated they would like to quit smoking or at least cut down on the number of cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS: Among people with schizophrenia, the motivation to smoke is related to their schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reconnecting: the client experience of recovery from psychosis.

PROBLEM: To understand the experience of recovery from psychosis from the consumer/client perspective. METHODS: A naturalistic, qualitative design with an ethnographic method for data analysis. Subjects (N = 10) were interviewed prior to and during the initial year of treatment with clozapine or risperidone. FINDINGS: Participants described recovery from psychosis as a process that started with improvements in their thinking and feeling, and extended to a series of reconnections with their environment. These reconnections icluded staff and family. Thinking moved from being focused on their internal self to a larger world. CONCLUSION: A person's recovery from pschosis involves the entire self, bringing all components of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of themselves into their experiences of life.

Fear↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nurse case management: negotiating care together within a developing relationship.

UNLABELLED: TOPIC/PROBLEM: The purpose of this study was to explicate the process of nurse case management involving clients afflicted with chronic mental illness. METHOD: Grounded theory was the method of choice. Interviews were conducted with nurses in inpatient, transitional, and community settings in four cities in southern Ontario, Canada. FINDINGS: Negotiating care together within a developing relationship emerged as the basic social process. "Building a trusting relationship" was identified as the foundation of case management. CONCLUSIONS: Salient differences were found between the three settings, yet the basic social process was consistent across settings. This underscores the therapeutic relationship as the basis for nurse psychiatric case management.

Adult↗