The challenge of inclusion in mental health: an analysis of a community center and its work with social bonds

• Main Authors: Sara Ardila-Gómez, María Isabel Hartfiel, Marina A. Fernández, Guadalupe Ares Lavalle, Mariana Borelli, Alicia Stolkiner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Salud Colectiva, Universidad Nacional de Lanús 2016-06-01
• Series: Salud Colectiva
• Subjects: Integración a la Comunidad; Salud Mental; Promoción de la Salud; Argentina
• Online Access: http://revistas.unla.edu.ar/saludcolectiva/article/view/1000

Social inclusion is a key component of transformations in mental health care, because it takes into account the benefits of community life for both those with mental illness and the other members of the community. In order to understand the scope of inclusion within mental health, 45 participants of a community center linked to a psychiatric hospital discharge program which explicitly seeks to provide social inclusion were interviewed. The possible changes in social relationships between users and other community members based in their sustained daily interactions in the community center were explored. Results suggest that the building of social bonds, as part of informal support networks, is one of the benefits of attending the community center. Positive changes in ideas regarding people with “mental illness” were also observed, although these ideas seemed to be more connected to the notion of integration than to social inclusion.