Tara Loewen & Alysha Paiaro

Tara_Alysha

Project Title:  Experiences from participants attending a “Hearing voices group” – a qualitative approach

Authors:  Tara Loewen, Alysha Paiaro, Gill Walker, Dr. Regina Casey & Michael Lee

Introduction: Literature has shown that quality of life, perceived health, well-being, self-mastery and social interaction among people with psychiatric disabilities are closely linked with participation in meaningful occupaitons. (Eklund, Bjerhorlm & Leufstadius, 2009; Goldberg, Britnell & Goldberg, 2002). By contrast, the experience of hearing voices and sounds not heard by others, can cause distress and negatively impact an individual’s engagement in meaningful occupations (Ruddle, Mason & Wykes, 2011). In other words due to stigmatization people may be marginalized in their communities. Hearing Voices Groups (HVG) aim to support those in search of a deeper understanding, acceptance and control over their voice hearing experiences.  Despite HVG gaining popularity, existing research has not examined how HVG influences an individual’s experience of participation in meaningful occupations.

Objectives: This research aims to examine the subjective experience of occupational engagement of HVG members, to advance the existing body of literature and to inform future mental health service provision.

Approach: Participants have been recruited from a HVG and in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted.  Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to explore meaning from the raw data and generate several common themes (Smith, Flower & Larkin, 2009).

Practice Implications: Understanding HVG members experiences of occupational engagement will inform current practice and future research to more effectively support confident engagement in meaningful occupations.

Conclusions: This study will better illuminate the experience of engaging in HVG groups and will therefore advance our knowledge of meaningful occupation participation for people who may otherwise be marginalized.