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Published in: Community Mental Health Journal 4/2008

01-08-2008 | Original Paper

Refuge or Rehabilitation? Assessing the Development of a Women’s Empowerment Center for People with Severe Mental Illness

Authors: Rob Whitley, Maxine Harris, Jerri Anglin

Published in: Community Mental Health Journal | Issue 4/2008

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Abstract

Recent calls for psychiatric services to focus upon psychosocial recovery for people with severe mental illness has led to a renewed interest in recovery communities. Hence, Community Connections (Washington DC) set up a Women’s Empowerment Center as an intentional recovery community. The aim of this paper is to qualitatively chronicle the development of this center to assess emerging challenges. Focus groups and participant observation were conducted regularly over a 16-month period. Analysis suggested three emerging challenges (i) concern regarding unmet practical and physical needs (ii) the struggle to establish internal rules and corrective mechanisms (iii) frustration regarding differential participation.
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Metadata
Title
Refuge or Rehabilitation? Assessing the Development of a Women’s Empowerment Center for People with Severe Mental Illness
Authors
Rob Whitley
Maxine Harris
Jerri Anglin
Publication date
01-08-2008
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Community Mental Health Journal / Issue 4/2008
Print ISSN: 0010-3853
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2789
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-008-9125-z

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