Public defence: Esther Ogundipe Eradajaye

Esther Ogundipe Eradajaye is defending her thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

She has completed the ph.d programme in Person-centered Health Care. The doctoral work has been carried out at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at campus Drammen.

You are welcome to follow the trial lecture and the public defence on campus or Zoom.

• Link to thesis

Summary

Aim & Background: This project aimed to develop scientific knowledge that can contribute to the promotion of social inclusion, specifically focusing on a sense of belonging and social participation for persons with co-occurring challenges living in supported housing.

It is important to promote social inclusion among persons with co-occurring mental health and substance challenges (i.e., co-occurring challenges). Today, persons with co-occurring challenges face greater difficulties in experiencing social inclusion than the general population. This is despite policy endorsements in Norwegian guidelines for mental health and substance use services for promoting social inclusion. In Norway, some persons facing co-occurring challenges reside in supported housing. While the provision of supported housing is assumed to contribute positively to the goal of social inclusion, there is a need for more knowledge regarding residents’ sense of belonging and social participation. These two dimensions have been recognized as core issues deserving attention. Knowledge is also needed about staff’s experiences with promoting social inclusion for residents. As such, this project explored and described residents’ experiences of social inclusion and the experiences of staff in promoting social inclusion for this group. Furthermore, findings from published qualitative research addressing social inclusion for residents with co-occurring challenges were systematically identified and analyzed.

Findings: The findings reported in paper 1 demonstrated how the social environment within supported housing influenced residents’ sense of belonging and staff’s efforts to promote a sense of belonging. Furthermore, it demonstrated how experiencing a sense of belonging was connected to being able to make a choice. The findings presented in paper 2 outlined how limited financial resources constrained the staff’s capacity to promote social participation in the community context. Moreover, the prevailing impression among staff members is that municipal officials exhibited a reluctance to provide sufficient financial resources for the promotion of social participation among residents. The findings in paper 3 described three core dimensions of residents' experiences with social inclusion. The first was about having access to key resources such as a safe place to live, family and professional support, and support from a broader community. To be the one actively taking the initiative to participate was another vital dimension for experiencing social inclusion. The third dimension was about being existentially grounded. Being existentially anchored consisted of being in the process of belonging, being autonomous and free to make choices, and being able to be oneself.

Conclusion: The findings in this project demonstrate the necessity of establishing basic resources to promote experiences of social inclusion in supported housing and community settings. Basic resources include securing a safe living environment, facilitating staff support, establishing a broad social network, and securing adequate financial resources. Balancing the responsibility of promoting social inclusion, which included active participation from residents themselves, and active support from community members, was important for promoting experiences of social inclusion in supported housing and community settings. The findings in this project call for further research exploring ways to establish basic resources, such as a safe living environment, staff support, a broader social network, and adequate financial resources. As well as the need to explore people outside of the healthcare sector's attitudes towards promoting active support to promote experiences of social inclusion for residents with co-occurring challenges.

Methods: Two research designs were employed: a qualitative collaborative research design for studies 1 and 2, and a qualitative meta-synthesis design for study 3. Participants (i.e., residents and staff) in studies 1 and 2 were recruited from a single congregate supported housing site in a large city in Norway. An advisory group consisting of residents and staff from the supported housing site, along with researchers from the parent research project, were involved in the research process of studies 1 and 2. In study 3, a systematic literature search was performed in six databases. The meta-synthesis included fourteen papers, from which the findings were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.