Person first: what people with enduring mental disorders value about community psychiatric nurses and CPN services

Based on a Scottish study, this article presents findings from qualitative analysis of interview data, on views of people with enduring mental disorders (people) regarding services provided by community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) and what these people value in working with CPNs. Thirteen people took part in semi-structured interviews, and data were analysed using strategies including thematic analysis. The main finding was that people value their interpersonal relationship with CPNs. This relationship has a specific function in the individual's overall social network. The CPN-person relationship forms the context of 'purposeful talk', and is shaped and developed through the talk. It provides comfort and a greater sense of confidence with which people can cope with daily life. A valued feature of the personalized relationship with CPNs is continuity, associated with regularity of contact with CPNs, accessibility (both physical and emotional) and respect for and commitment to people as individuals. We interpret CPNs, as they appear in these accounts given by people with enduring mental disorders, as 'beings-in-between', bridging symbolically the worlds of hospital and community. They are figures between 'friends' and professionals, to whom people who have been ill can relate and show feelings which would, if otherwise expressed, compromise participation in community. CPNs help sustain people experiencing 'illness in the context of life' and enhance their potential for participation in the community. In doing so they contribute to public health. Viability of sustaining relationships and personal care, valued at the micro-level of interaction, depends on support at the meso-level by managers, and at the macro-level by policy makers and funders. Health service managers who play a key role in instigating and managing service changes should engage in regular dialogue with CPNs about the impact of change on the ability of CPNs to maintain sustaining relationships with people. The adaptability of CPNs to the situation and the person-in-the-situation needs to be facilitated, not compromised, by the requirements of record-keeping and accounting systems. Practice described in this study indicates the possibility of CPNs relating to the person in ways consistent with a 'community development approach'. Limitations of the study are noted. Our findings are highly contextualized and based on a small sample. Nonetheless, they are consistent with findings from other studies also based on listening to service users' accounts of problems of living with enduring mental disorder. Implications of the analysis of peoples' perceptions of the role of CPNs are considered, with attention to service providers, policy makers and future research.