Le rapport d’usagers de maisons d’hébergement en santé mentale à leur environnement immédiat : une étude socio-écologique
During his life, one in five Canadians will suffer from a mental illness, diagnosed or not, according to the data of the mental health action plan (2015-2020). Furthermore, mental disorders constituting the “13 % of the total load of morbidity at the world level” in 2004 (WHO, 2013), are intended to represent the main cause of morbidity in 2030 (Fleury and Attic, on 2012).  In response to these observations, numerous plans, at a national and international levels, have been implemented, and underline the urgency of new care solutions but also housing solutions for people diagnosed with a mental health disorders. Because the concept of housing is very large and includes not only the residential structure as such, but also its immediate environment, it is essential to perceive it in all its complexity. Investigating the functioning of persons with mental illness in the contexts of their housing and the surroundings of it, becomes a major stage of the mental health-housing research agenda. Considering, as WHO already advanced, that the environment is one of the health, determinants, mental health included, we are interested in the study of the trajectories of the residents of mental health housing to answer the following research question: What relationship do residents of mental health housing establish with their living environment and their neighborhood?  Understanding how these people use the space, appropriate the space, move around it, but also which obstacles and which supports they find there, helps us to determine the best interventions on the territory to make, as much as possible, the environment favorable to the health and the well-being.  To answer our research problem, we designed a methodological two-phase plan and we implemented it in 4 mental health supported houses. Initially, 14 residents answered at 26 open questions during a structured individual interview, at the end of which they drew a mental map of their neighborhood. Then, we organized 4 focus groups, one in each supported house, involving all the participants of the first phase which live there.  Our body of data allowed us to suggest a few recommendations for choosing the new implantation sites for mental health housing. These recommendations concentrate on four aspects of the immediate environment, whether spatial or social: local services, public transportation, natural elements and community.  Our conclusions allow a more comprehensive look of the immediate environment surrounding the mental health supported houses, because the perspectives and experiences of their users are directly considered. Consequently, our recommendations provide the decision makers with an additional tool in the process of selection of the new implantation sites.  Finally, we encourage research to deepen the effects of the environmental features emerged from this study, on the well-being of the residents living in supported mental health houses.
Space appropriation Practices of space Mental health Mental health housing Mental health residents