Adding quality to day centre activities for people with psychiatric disabilities: Staff perceptions of an...

To evaluate an intervention aimed at enriching day centres for people with psychiatric disabilities by exploring staff experiences from developing and implementing the intervention.

Each staff group developed a tailor-made intervention plan, following a manual, for how to enrich the day centre. They received supervision and support from the research team. The study was based on focus-group interviews with a total of 13 staff members at four day centres. Narrative analysis with a thematic approach was used. A first round resulted in one narrative per centre. These centre-specific narratives were then integrated into a common narrative that covered all the data.

A core theme emerged: User involvement permeated the implementation process and created empowerment. It embraced four themes forming a timeline: "Mix of excitement, worries and hope", "Confirmation and development through dialogue, feedback and guidance", "The art of integrating new activities and strategies with the old", and "Empowerment-engendered future aspirations".

The users' involvement and empowerment were central for the staff in accomplishing the desired changes in services, as were their own reflections and learning. A possible factor that may have contributed to the positive outcomes was that those who were central in developing the plan were the same as those who implemented it.