Mothers with a mental illness as users of the public welfare system

In a qualitative study mothers suffering from a mental illness were asked about their needs, their strategies in the communication with the professional welfare system, and the provided help. The sample frame consists of 14... [ view full abstract ]

In a qualitative study mothers suffering from a mental illness were asked about their needs, their strategies in the communication with the professional welfare system, and the provided help. The sample frame consists of 14 guideline based interviews with mothers suffering from a mental illness. The applied research method for the analyses is guided by Grounded Theory. The results consist of case studies and a comparative study over the 14 cases.

The findings show individual strategies of the mothers to address their needs and to communicate with the professionals. In most cases the women’s communication is influenced by an ambivalence between the hope of getting support and the fear the authorities may take action over an alleged lack of parenting skills. This is particularly visible when they are asked about their children. Many of them wish for more practical help in everyday life, instead of screenings and normative guidelines. Some of them show considerable difficulties to make sense of the many different professionals and their functions in the big public welfare system. A key factor for successful support can be found in long term contacts, where a trusting relationship between users and professionals of the public welfare system can be established. Often it takes a long period of time to strengthen the sense of being supported and weaken the sense of being controlled.

Existing data gives insight into how the communication is seen from the perspective of professionals, yet to date the views of the mothers have not been looked at a great deal. The aim of this research is to fill this gap and connect the two perspectives. To understand the view of the users can help to professionalize the work with and support for this target group.