The life world of the adolescent with mental health problems

Adolescents are currently being more and more exposed to the expectations of parents, educators, health-workers/helpers and policy makers to meet the demands of society and conform to it. The perception arises that adults are not able to let the adolescent take responsibility for the HOW of his own life story, despite all the expectations and demands. Under the influence of the post-modernistic approach to science and the narrative therapy it appears that each person is an expert of his own life and that each person is responsible for the how and the writing and rewriting of his own life story. This means that even the adolescent with mental health problems is busy with the writing and rewriting of his life story till even unpleasant incidents and experiences gain new meaning. This demands from the adolescent with mental health problems to be actively involved with his treatment program while the therapist is a participating observer of the therapeutic events. A one-sided approach, where the therapist's objectives and ideas make the difference in the treatment of adolescents with mental health problems, becomes redundant. An alternative approach is suggested where the adolescent with mental health problems becomes co-author of his own life story and his treatment program. In this research the researcher aimed to explore and describe the HOW of the life world of the adolescent with mental health problems. The utilization of the case-study format as research method enabled an in-depth, holistic description of the life world of the adolescent with mental health problems. The implementation of the strategies to ensure trustworthiness, as described by Guba was applied to ensure the validity and reliability of this study. Focus was specifically placed on the application of the strategy of cross validation. This implies that multiple data-collection sources, different experts, theories and respondents were utilized in the exploration of the life world of the adolescent with mental health problems before this life word was described in depth. The researcher makes a few conclusions and based on these make recommendations for application in practice, education and research.