Participation in work: a source of wellness for people with psychiatric disability

Not enough is known about the relationship between work and health, particularly for people with psychiatric disability. A review of research investigating variables that predict success at work showed inconsistent and contradicting results. The voice of people with psychiatric disability was found to be largely missing from literature. A study was therefore undertaken to explore the influences that impacted on the work-lives of people with psychiatric disability. This paper elucidates the importance of participation in work as an essential ingredient in the promotion of occupational justice, in identity construction and in the process of recovery for persons with psychiatric disability.

Interpretive biography was utilised to explore the experiences of people with psychiatric disability in the Western Cape, South Africa. Seventeen participants were identified using maximum variation sampling. Life story narratives were elicited during an average of three individual interviews per participant. Processes of analysis and interpretation were informed by a combination of paradigmatic narrative analysis and narrative analysis strategies.

A complex interplay of influences that shaped the identities of participants in ways that can assist or hinder their participation in work was revealed. Participation in work was perceived to be a means of recovery and a source of wellness for participants.

More conscious effort is needed to promote the use of work as source of support and resource for health for persons who live with psychiatric impairment.