Den sociale konstruktion af pårørendeinddragelse i behandlingspsykiatrien – et ph.d. forsvar

– et ph.d. forsvar

Abstract

This article accounts for the insights drawn from the defense of a PhD thesis, aiming to clarify the underpinnings of health political and clinical involvement efforts directed to- wards families in which a person has been diagnosed with depression. By posing the following questions, the research issue involves a clarification of political, clinical and every- day-oriented understandings of involvement that largely have remained implicit in existing research literature on involvement: How is involvement of relatives understood and prac- ticed in health political and clinical contexts in Denmark? And how is involvement understood and practiced among persons diagnosed with depression and their relatives in their everyday life? The study was designed as a multisited field study that shed light on the transformation of the understanding of involvement between three interconnected empirical fields. Discourse analysis of the empirical materials drawn from these fields showed, how the hegemonic understanding of involvement of relatives in psychiatric treatment and practice does not have much to do with the ways that involvement is articulated among the seven families participating in the study. Conclusively, the dominant political-clinical understanding of involvement of relatives signals a prevention- and deinstitutionalization strategy that constitutes a range of consequences and paradoxes. In order to develop practices that avoid these issues, the article calls for more specific analysis and efforts that take into account the social and gendered context of involvement.