Use Of Narratives Research Articles

Stigma and fear of schizophrenia and severe mental illness: the positive effect of peer support

Purpose The purpose of this service user narrative is to highlight the stigma and prejudice that is often targeted at people with schizophrenia and severe mental illness, which causes fear and isolation. The therapeutic effect of peer support is further explored as offering hope, connection, aspirations, advocacy, autonomy and openness for service users as well as the possibility of recovery and a reduction in feelings of stigma, prejudice and exclusion. Design/methodology/approach Ben was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2003, so this paper draws on over 20 years of experience of the harmful label of schizophrenia. In the last 15 months, he has been working as a peer worker on a men’s mental health ward in the East of England. He has kept a reflective journal and conducted participant observation on the ward, which informs this paper and its findings. Findings There are observations based on peer support on the ward in the last 15 months and over 20 years as a schizophrenic. People with schizophrenia and severe mental illness are stigmatised and experience discrimination and prejudice. This paper introduces the new idea and neologisms of schizophobia and insanophobia that people with severe mental illness will experience in their daily lives, in health and social care settings (such as the men’s ward), in education and in employment. People with mental illness are also often discriminated against as being a danger or a risk to themselves and others. They are often considered as aggressive or violent. Their diagnosis can stop them from getting a job, a mortgage or even from travelling to some places in the world. But this paper details the violent assault by a nurse on a patient while Ben was working on a long stay ward in a large psychiatric asylum in 1990. It is pertinent to note that things have progressed since the 1990's but there continues to be the stigmatisation of people with a severe mental illness, which requires societal and systemic change. In Ben’s experience, people with mental illness seem far more likely to experience violence upon their person rather than being violent towards other people, such as staff, members of the public, family or carers. Originality/value This service user narrative is a first person account, so it is original. It is of further value because it outlines the ways in which peer support can help with feelings of stigma and exclusion as well openness about hearing voices/ seeing things (hallucinations) and strange thought or beliefs (delusions).

Challenging the narrative: social work students’ views on the impact of service user and carer-led pedagogy to knowledge and practice

ABSTRACT Service user and carer involvement is firmly established as an integral part of social work education in the UK, with a growing body of evidence demonstrating its beneficial effects on student learning. Calls have been made to further develop its theoretical base and evaluate its impact on students’ future practice. This article contributes to these aims, by following a cohort of undergraduate UK-based social work students. Using a focus group, the research elicited the views of the students on how classroom-based learning by people with lived experience affected their learning and practice pre-qualification. The findings are underpinned by the theme of ‘challenging the narrative’. They assert the powerful effect service user narratives have on bringing issues ‘to life’ and challenging stereotypes, as well as affecting students’ practice. However, challenging the narrative also linked to students’ reflections on what counts as ‘legitimate’ and reliable knowledge and a disconnection between University-based learning and messages received in practice. The paper argues for an ongoing critical evaluation of the impact of pedagogy led by people with lived experience, with the dual aims of identifying what benefits student learning, as well as critically dissecting power, authority and knowledge.

Narrative drives design decision-making

AbstractScholars in economics, psychology, and business have recently defined narrative as the underlying mechanism by which humans internally process information and drive a decision forward. In this paper, we study narrative's use in design across Design Society publications. We discuss how narrative's role as the driver of design decision-making is an important, but missing, element of the design literature. We explain how engineers will be expected to move the design process forward despite facing decisions where the information is simultaneously too much to process, conflicting, and incomplete.

Providing peer support on a men’s mental health ward: a service user narrative

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe peer support work in a men’s mental health unit from a lived experience and service user’s perspective. The intertwining of process (a lived experience perspective) and subject (the therapeutic value of peer support) leads to greater knowledge and insight into peer support for people with mental health problems. Design/methodology/approach This service user narrative draws on the extracts from a reflective journal of interactions and conversations with people with mental health problems as well as feedback from service users and staff about the value of peer support. These methods allow a first-person, service user’s, reflective and narrative account of peer support work. Findings Peer support work, particularly hearing voices sessions, are found to be highly therapeutic and worthwhile. They promote insight and create feelings of safety and hope in what can sometimes be a frightening and hostile ward environment. Peer support provides emotional and practical support. Sharing stories and experiences of mental illness with people leads to trust, feelings of being valued, heard and accepted as well as better experiences of care and being seen as a person first. Due to their shared experiences, peer support workers are able to befriend people with mental health problems on the ward. Peer support work bridges the gap and vacuum of care between people with mental health problems and staff. It compensates for understaffing to provide more holistic and person-centred care and support. Originality/value Lived experience/ service user perspectives and narratives on peer support are rare, particularly in a hospital setting. This article provides a rich, perhaps overlooked and hidden narrative on the nature of peer support work. People with mental health problems, like Ben, are often excluded from society, health and social care, education, employment and research. This narrative opens up a pathway to understanding peer support from a service user perspective.

Brand heritage on Twitter: a text-mining stereotype content perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how users on social media view brands with a heritage. Consumers commonly post opinions and accounts of their experiences with brands on social media. Such consumer-generated content may or may not overlap with content desired by brand managers. Drawing from “The medium is the message” paradigm, this study text-mines user narratives on Twitter1 to shed light on the role of social media in shaping public images of brands with heritage through the lens of the stereotype content model.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a data set of almost 80,000 unique tweets on 12 brands across six categories, compares brands high versus low in heritage and combines dictionary-based content analysis with sentiment analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that both user-generated content and sentiment are significantly more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding warmth, consumers use significantly more positive words on sociability and fewer negative words on morality for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding competence, tweets include more positive words on assertiveness and ability for low-heritage brands. Finally, overall sentiment is more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage.Practical implicationsImportant from co-creation and integrated marketing communication perspectives, the findings provide brand managers with actionable insights on how to more effectively use social media.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to examine user-generated content in a brand heritage context. It demonstrates that heritage brands, with their longevity and strong links to the past, need to be aware of how contemporary social media can detract from their image.

Barriers of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): Narratives of Older Users and Their Facilitators

As world populations are ageing, more attention is given to the social and digital inclusion of older people. The level of ICT non-use among older adults in Lithuania is significantly higher than in Western European countries. In 2023, 29% of the Lithuanian population aged 65–74 had never used the Internet, while in most Western countries, this share varied between 2 and 8%. Insufficient research efforts in Eastern and Central Europe prompted this study to explore the barriers to ICT use in Lithuania based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with older users (N=36) and their facilitators (N=9). The difficulties revealed by the study are divided into three groups. First, the participants found it difficult to adjust to the technologies as a unique system (to understand its specific principles of functioning, to deal with information on English and technical language). Second, their psychological relationship with the unknown and complex subject have caused some problems, as they faced a spectrum of fears, insecurity, the shame of not knowing, the experience of one’s limitations, lack of patience. Third, changes that informants relate to old age like diminishing motivation to engage with innovations, learning difficulties, and bodily changes (sensitivity of fingers, weakening sight and memory) constituted additional barriers for older ICT users. To overcome the barriers, access to mentoring and consulting would be beneficial.

User Narratives of Transnational Multilingual Small Business Entrepreneurs in Disaster Relief Programs

Purpose: This article argues that transnational multilingual entrepreneurs, particularly immigrant Asian/American small business owners, negotiate their access to disaster recovery-related resources by tactically sharing their own user cases through translocal business networks and developing local ethnocultural collaborative entrepreneurships.Method: This study was based on a 9-month user experience study across 14 entrepreneurial sites in two cities located in U.S.-Mexico border regions. Results: User narratives from this study demonstrate that transnational multilingual small business workers tactically adopted nuanced collaboration tactics in navigating resource-constrained environments in post-pandemic workplace settings.Conclusion: The study findings suggest that the binary notion of use and non-use of multilingual resources and the arrangement of multilingual content in federal disaster relief programs should be reconsidered to better situate human-centered design for transnational multilingual users in workplaces in under-resourced disaster-specific bureaucratic writing contexts.

Health Preserving Practices of Russians with Post-COVID-19 Syndrome

Introduction: Post-COVID-19 syndrome, its symptoms, duration and treatment are the subject of discussion not only within the professional medical community, but also among various groups of the population. Health-related narratives of Internet users about post-COVID-19 syndrome help understand what behavioral strategies can be implemented in people facing this condition and increase the effectiveness of health-preserving measures. Objective: To characterize health preserving practices of the Russians suffering from post-COVID syndrome based on the analysis of digital narratives about the disease, rehabilitation methods and therapies. Materials and methods: This qualitative research explored health practices in narratives of a sample of 23 Russian Internet users that struggled with post-COVID-19 syndrome. Results: Narratives about post-COVID-19 syndrome include documenting a) symptoms of the disease, b) ways of searching for and maintaining information about treatment methods, c) details of communication with representatives of the medical community and the social environment (including medical gaslighting), and d) health care practices (in terms of therapy and rehabilitation) and their efficiency. The narrator’s initial focus on formal/traditional medicine or selftreatment largely determined the behavioral strategy in the context of post-COVID conditions. Three types of strategies have been identified: 1) a strategy of maximum institutionalized health care, which involves responsible behavior (visiting a doctor for the first symptoms, complying with recommendations), 2) a strategy of independent health care based on the importance of one’s own opinion (following “habitual algorithms”), and 3) a strategy of independent health care focused on the opinion of the social environment (Internet search for information about post-COVID-19 conditions, discussions with friends and acquaintances). For all types of strategies, health care practices included taking medications, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and striving for psycho-emotional balance. Conclusion: The study of narratives about post-COVID-19 syndrome made it possible to describe human behavior in the face of a new health challenge, systematize basic health preserving practices, raise questions related to the functioning of the health care system, and establish certain manifestations of social attitudes towards health.

A Market of Lived Experience-User Involvement and the Commodification of Personal Experiences of Mental Illness.

Working actively to engage service users in participatory practices is both a policy expectation and a moral imperative for mental health social workers in contemporary Western mental health care. Recent research suggests that such practices of service user involvement are becoming increasingly individualised and driven by market logic. Based on an ethnographic study within a Swedish public psychiatric organisation, this article applies the concept of commodification to examine this trend. By showing how the practice of user involvement takes the form of a market where personal narratives and experiences of mental health problems are bought and sold as commodities, the analysis illuminates how market logic permeates the everyday practice of user involvement. One consequence of this commodification is that user organisations, as well as individual service users, are restricted in their role as independent actors pursuing their own agenda, and instead increasingly act on behalf of the public and as providers of personal experiences. While it is vital that service user perspectives are heard and recognised within mental health services, mental health social workers need to be aware of the risks of commodifying lived experience. When attention is directed to individual experiences and narratives, there is a risk that opportunities to advocate on behalf of the user collective as a whole and speak from a more principled and socio-political standpoint are lost. In addition, the commodification of personal experience tends to rationalise and privilege user narratives that conform to the dominant institutional logic of the mental health organisation, while excluding more uncomfortable and challenging voices, thereby undermining the ability of service users to raise critical issues that do not align with the interests of the mental health organisation.

On the use of aspect-based sentiment analysis of Twitter data to explore the experiences of African Americans during COVID-19

According to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as of June 2020, a significant number of African Americans had been infected with the coronavirus disease, experiencing disproportionately higher death rates compared to other demographic groups. These disparities highlight the urgent need to examine the experiences, behaviors, and opinions of the African American population in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding their unique challenges in navigating matters of health and well-being, we can work towards promoting health equity, eliminating disparities, and addressing persistent barriers to care. Since Twitter data has shown significant promise as a representation of human behavior and for opinion mining, this study leverages Twitter data published in 2020 to characterize the pandemic-related experiences of the United States’ African American population using aspect-based sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is a common task in natural language processing that identifies the emotional tone (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) of a text sample. Aspect-based sentiment analysis increases the granularity of sentiment analysis by also extracting the aspect for which sentiment is expressed. We developed a machine learning pipeline consisting of image and language-based classification models to filter out tweets not related to COVID-19 and those unlikely published by African American Twitter subscribers, leading to an analysis of nearly 4 million tweets. Overall, our results show that the majority of tweets had a negative tone, and that the days with larger numbers of published tweets often coincided with major U.S. events related to the pandemic as suggested by major news headlines (e.g., vaccine rollout). We also show how word usage evolved throughout the year (e.g., outbreak to pandemic and coronavirus to covid). This work also points to important issues like food insecurity and vaccine hesitation, along with exposing semantic relationships between words, such as covid and exhausted. As such, this work furthers understanding of how the nationwide progression of the pandemic may have impacted the narratives of African American Twitter users.

Developing a System of Health Support for Young People Experiencing First-Episode Psychosis: Protocol for a Co-design Process.

People living with psychosis face a substantially increased risk of poor psychological well-being and physical health and premature mortality. Encouraging positive health behaviors from an early stage is crucial to the health and well-being of this population but is often overshadowed by symptom management within early intervention services. Experience-based co-design is a participant-centered approach that aims to combine service user narratives with service design methods to design systems of support for health and well-being. This study aims to use experience-based co-design principles to co-design a system that supports the health and well-being of young people experiencing first-episode psychosis (FEP), which considers the lived experience of these people within the context of early intervention services. We also aim to develop a set of principles to guide future systems to support the health and well-being of young people experiencing FEP. Up to 15 young people living with FEP aged 16 to 24 years who are service users of early intervention services in psychosis, their immediate support networks (family or friends), and health professionals involved with early intervention services in psychosis will be invited to participate in a series of co-design workshops. Data will be collected in various forms, including expressive forms (eg, art and spoken word) and traditional methods (interview transcription and surveys), with phenomenographic and thematic analyses being used to understand these data. Furthermore, the co-design process will draw upon indigenous (Māori) knowledge and the lived experience of mental health services from the perspectives of the members of the research team. The co-design process will be evaluated in terms of acceptability from the perspective of service users via rating scales and interviews. The study will be conducted within the Lower North Island in Aotearoa New Zealand. Data collection will be performed between August 2022 and February 2023. Drawing from extended consultations with service users and service providers, we have developed a robust co-design process with which we intend to collect rich qualitative and quantitative data. The results of this process will be used to create a system of support that can be immediately applied and as preliminary evidence for funding and resource applications to deliver and evaluate a "full" version of the co-designed system of support. The co-designed system of support and accompanying set of principles will offer a potentially impactful health and well-being intervention for young people experiencing FEP in Aotearoa New Zealand. Furthermore, making the co-design process transparent will further the field in terms of providing a blueprint for this form of participant-focused research. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12622001323718; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=384775&isReview=true. DERR1-10.2196/44980.

The COVID-19 storytelling narratives of Nigerian social media users

ABSTRACT Studies on the storytelling narratives of social media users have understandably emphasized the typology, interpersonal dynamics, trust, and disinformation that emanate from these virtual communities. This study extends this scholarly conversation by investigating both the storytelling and the narratives generated by Nigerian social media communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Communication Infrastructure Theory served as framework, while a mixed method triangulation was employed. During a 3-month (May 2 to August 3, 2020) digital ethnographic participant-observation, a total of 153 manually purposive samples from social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) were analyzed. Twenty themes emerged from the quantitative content analysis of the COVID-19 storytelling of Nigerian social media users. Findings also showed multilayered digital storytelling narratives that possessed popular validity, debunked disinformation, and provided narratives that mitigated the spread of coronavirus. The findings also suggest that applying journalistic contextual knowledge on the COVID-19 social media storytelling narratives provided credible news sources for media stories.

Influence, Reconstruct, and Promote Agenda via Content on Social Media

The rise of social media sites has completely changed the lifestyle of people. From entertainment to information, it has transformed and affected the way of thinking and changed perceptions regarding people, culture, society, religion, country, and so on. In recent years, it has been discovered that the content on social media sites has a significant influence on people's lives. It has positively changed lives but regarding many aspects, it played the role of an agenda or reconstructing narratives to an individual’s mindset. Thus, it has the power to revolutionize all the practices and norms in any society. The study is a literature review and descriptive which is based on secondary sources like books, research articles, website content, and reports. Henceforth, the findings made it clear that the content on social media platforms has revolutionized all the practices, customs, and cultural influences on individual lives. Social media is an extremely powerful tool and has the ability to break and brainwash all the existing stigmas and stereotypes. It has a remarkable effect on changing the thoughts and building narratives of users.

'As for dignity and respect…. me bollix': A human rights-based exploration of service user narratives in Irish methadone maintenance treatment.

This paper explores the narratives of service users of contemporary methadone maintenance treatment services (MMT) in the Republic of Ireland to obtain their perspectives in the context of them negotiating their right to health METHODS: Participants were recruited and interviewed by a former service user of MMT services. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 current and recent users of MMT services RESULTS: Participants overwhelmingly reported a reduced sense of personal agency because of their experiences in MMT treatment. Participants observed that their perceptions of treatment were forged by a sense of reduced autonomy, coercive and disrespectful approaches from healthcare workers. Within a system which the participants considered to be failing, the services that they accessed were predicated on a process of reward and punishment, where best practice was often ignored by practitioners, all of which resulted in adverse consequences for service users DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that there is a significant 'chasm' between human rights, policy and best practice and how these are operationalised within the structures and practices of Irish MMT services. The treatment of service users, based on human rights principles such as equality, respect, autonomy, empowerment and personal choice remains aspirational and is unlikely to be fulfilled without addressing more systemic challenges such as funding, training of staff, service culture, governance and independent oversight of MMT services.

Archiving Black Diasporas

Archiving Black Diasporas

Reference in Discovery: Pilot Study and Future Directions

This poster will describe the results of a pilot study focusing on the reference experiences of librarians working in web-scale discovery systems like Ex Libris Primo and Summon, EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), and WorldCat Discovery. Web-Scale discovery systems rely on a central index and proprietary algorithms to provide a keyword-based search of library content to users that builds on their existing skills using commercial search engines. These systems are ubiquitous in academic libraries but require a shift in reference practice that has not been fully explored in the literature. This pilot study represents a developing dissertation project that will be in the proposal phase at the time of the poster session. The pilot study was based around four semi-structured qualitative interviews with academic librarians. Though the pilot study revealed some interesting insights on the research questions, one of the lessons learned from this study is that the “one voice” of librarian users is not enough to fully explore this issue. The author will discuss changes to the methodology of the project to include the narratives of users and other stakeholders in the data. The poster will also discuss changes to the theoretical foundations of the study that were developed through the data collected in the pilot study, including a greater focus on information literacy instruction in the reference encounter.

Psychedelics in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders

Growing evidence from observational studies and clinical trials suggests that psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and psilocybin may hold treatment potential for alcohol, opioid, tobacco, and other substance use disorders (SUDs). The mechanisms by which psychedelics might exert therapeutic efficacy in these conditions have not been fully elucidated, although the subjective effects of the psychedelic experience appear necessary. Given the often profound nature of psychedelic experiences, they may serve as turning points in the life narratives of users, eliciting lasting behavioral change. To better characterize the extent of psychedelics' therapeutic potential in patients with SUDs, randomized, placebo-controlled trials are needed, with some already underway. However, even if such trials demonstrate compelling evidence of psychedelics' therapeutic potential, these substances may still face considerable challenges to integration into the current SUDs treatment paradigm because of clinician concerns about their addictive potential and philosophical objections from 12-step facilitation programs. [ Psychiatr Ann. 2022;52(9):365–370.]

Work and recovery from schizophrenia in India: a mixed methods study in Kerala

ABSTRACT Background According to the WHO, people diagnosed with schizophrenia in developing countries recover more fully than people with the same diagnosis in developed countries. At a time when international organizations are attempting to scale up biomedical psychiatric interventions in India and other low-income countries, it is important to understand why a place like India is doing better in recovery from serious psychosis. Method Interviews of 20 people diagnosed with schizophrenia in Kerala, India were conducted to determine level of functioning and quality of worklife. Quantitative assessments of the relations between these factors were undertaken along with qualitative, ethnographic analysis of narratives of interviewees. Results Analysis of interviews shows that quality of worklife is correlated with higher functioning among this group, and service user narratives claim that work enabled their recovery. Comparisons to other research further indicates that people in India with this diagnosis are more often employed than people with the same diagnosis in the United States and Europe. Discussion Employment and the quality of worklife appear to be positively related to recovery in terms of increasing functionality among people diagnosed with schizophrenia in this part of India. Certain employment programs and sociocultural factors likely contribute to differences in outcome.

Consumption, not decriminalization: How Nigerian drug dealers/users account for cannabis harms.

Studies have shown that support for cannabis decriminalization and legalization is highest among users, but there is little research on constructions of cannabis decriminalization in the narratives of users who are also dealers. The aim of this study was to explore discursive constructions of cannabis consumption and decriminalization in dealers'/users' accounts of the drug's harms. A qualitative study was undertaken in which in-depth interviews were conducted with 31 commercially oriented Nigerian men drug dealers who also use drugs. They were recruited through snowball sampling. Data analysis was based on a social constructionist approach to grounded theory, which emphasizes the role of language and discourse in the construction of reality. While harms from cannabis use were recognized, these were constructed as being relative to consumption practices and user's ability to manage drug effects. Accounts used different discourses and rhetorical strategies to deconstruct popular views of cannabis as a dangerous drug, including minimizing harms by juxtaposing them with harms from more potent drugs as well as with benefits from use. Harms were, however, amplified in relation to decriminalization to delegitimize the policy approach due to concerns about potential increase in consumption and harms to inexperienced consumers. Constructions of cannabis-related harms in the participants' accounts served discursively to delegitimize cannabis decriminalization, without stigmatizing its use and the users. There exists a need to raise awareness on cannabis decriminalization and legalization as part of measures to bolster support for policy reforms among stakeholder groups (e.g., consumers).

“Might relapse today” - The categorization of discussions in the r/benzorecovery subreddit

IntroductionThe social media platform Reddit is a contemporary context where we have an opportunity to identify problems experienced by people regarding different aspects of life. The platform is virtually anonymous which might make users discuss their problems more freely. Reddit is divided in subreddits where different subjects are discussed and the discussions are controlled by creators and moderators. I have identified a quite active subreddit targeted towards recovering addicts of benzodiazepines; r/benzorecovery.Objectives* To analyze strategies of recovery in user narrative * To identify techniques commonly used and the how they are described * To construct metadata in order to assess how frequent the discussion of a different techniques areMethodsTechnically, what is done in this study, is adding mark-up metadata to different discussion. A rudimentary form of analysis suitable with a larger digital corpus where content metadata is added (Gilliland Swetland 2000). The metadata is constructed through a hermeneutical method in which the researcher analyses the subreddit.ResultsAnswering question like: Example: DIY-tapering; different ways to limit drug use by using less. 1) how common are discussion of taperings in relation to other subjects? 2) Is tapering commonly discussed together with other subjects and techniques?ConclusionsUsing a method of categorization and metadata mark-up we could gain a good understanding of the problems among recovering benzodiazepine addicts. We will also have the possibility to identify concepts that addicts themselves discuss and relate these to professional concepts thus creating better possibilities of communication between professionals and clients.DisclosureNo significant relationships.