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Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings

BACKGROUND: Northern-based research on mental health support, no matter the specific profession, helps to inform instruction of new practitioners and practitioners already working in rural or isolated conditions. Understanding the complexities of northern mental health support not only benefits clie...

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Autores principales: O'Neill, Linda, George, Serena, Koehn, Corinne, Shepard, Blythe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751326/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23977648
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21203
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author O'Neill, Linda
George, Serena
Koehn, Corinne
Shepard, Blythe
author_facet O'Neill, Linda
George, Serena
Koehn, Corinne
Shepard, Blythe
author_sort O'Neill, Linda
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Northern-based research on mental health support, no matter the specific profession, helps to inform instruction of new practitioners and practitioners already working in rural or isolated conditions. Understanding the complexities of northern mental health support not only benefits clients and practitioners living in the North, but also helps prepare psychologists and counsellors preparing to work in other countries with large rural and isolated populations. The qualitative phase is part of a multi-year research study on informal and formal mental health support in northern Canada involving the use of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the qualitative phase interviews was to document in-depth the situation of formal and informal helpers in providing mental health support in isolated northern communities in northern British Columbia, northern Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories (NWT). The intent of in-depth interviews was to collect descriptive information on the unique working conditions of northern helping practitioners for the development of a survey and subsequent community action plans for helping practitioner support. DESIGN: Twenty participants in northern BC, Yukon and NWT participated in narrative interviews. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) was used in the analysis completed by 7 researchers. The principal researcher and research associate then worked through all 7 analyses, defining common categories and themes, and using selections from each researcher in order to ensure that everyone's analysis was represented in the final consensual summary. RESULTS: The preliminary results include 7 main categories consisting of various themes. Defining elements of northern practice included the need for generalist knowledge and cultural sensitivity. The task of working with and negotiating membership in community was identified as essential for northern mental health support. The need for revised codes of ethics relevant to the reality of northern work was a major category, as was insight on how to best sustain northern practice. CONCLUSION: Many of the practitioners who participated in this study have found ways to overcome the biggest challenges of northern practice, yet the limitations of small populations and lack of resources in small communities to adequately address mental health support were identified as existing. Empowering communities by building community capacity to educate, supervise and support formal and informal mental health workers may be the best approach to overcoming the lack of external resources.
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spelling pubmed-37513262013-08-23 Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings O'Neill, Linda George, Serena Koehn, Corinne Shepard, Blythe Int J Circumpolar Health Supplement 1, 2013 BACKGROUND: Northern-based research on mental health support, no matter the specific profession, helps to inform instruction of new practitioners and practitioners already working in rural or isolated conditions. Understanding the complexities of northern mental health support not only benefits clients and practitioners living in the North, but also helps prepare psychologists and counsellors preparing to work in other countries with large rural and isolated populations. The qualitative phase is part of a multi-year research study on informal and formal mental health support in northern Canada involving the use of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the qualitative phase interviews was to document in-depth the situation of formal and informal helpers in providing mental health support in isolated northern communities in northern British Columbia, northern Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories (NWT). The intent of in-depth interviews was to collect descriptive information on the unique working conditions of northern helping practitioners for the development of a survey and subsequent community action plans for helping practitioner support. DESIGN: Twenty participants in northern BC, Yukon and NWT participated in narrative interviews. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) was used in the analysis completed by 7 researchers. The principal researcher and research associate then worked through all 7 analyses, defining common categories and themes, and using selections from each researcher in order to ensure that everyone's analysis was represented in the final consensual summary. RESULTS: The preliminary results include 7 main categories consisting of various themes. Defining elements of northern practice included the need for generalist knowledge and cultural sensitivity. The task of working with and negotiating membership in community was identified as essential for northern mental health support. The need for revised codes of ethics relevant to the reality of northern work was a major category, as was insight on how to best sustain northern practice. CONCLUSION: Many of the practitioners who participated in this study have found ways to overcome the biggest challenges of northern practice, yet the limitations of small populations and lack of resources in small communities to adequately address mental health support were identified as existing. Empowering communities by building community capacity to educate, supervise and support formal and informal mental health workers may be the best approach to overcoming the lack of external resources. Co-Action Publishing 2013-08-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3751326/ /pubmed/23977648 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21203 Text en © 2013 Linda O'Neill et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Supplement 1, 2013
O'Neill, Linda
George, Serena
Koehn, Corinne
Shepard, Blythe
Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title_full Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title_fullStr Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title_full_unstemmed Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title_short Informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
title_sort informal and formal mental health: preliminary qualitative findings
topic Supplement 1, 2013
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751326/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23977648
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21203
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