Coping with mental health problems. An intervention study in groups with focus on salutogenesis

Project summary

Although the theory of salutogenesis provides generic understanding of how coping may be created, this theoretical perspective has not been explored sufficiently within research among people suffering from mental health problems. The main purpose of this study is to develop salutogenic treatment principles and get knowledge about the effectiveness of these principles in talk therapy groups for persons living at home with mental health problems. The purpose of the treatment is to increase the participants` perception of social support, self-efficacy, coping, mental health and quality of life. To get knowledge about the participants own perception of mental health before and after treatment may contribute to organising rehabilitation where the purpose is to improve the participants` ability to cope with everyday life. All treatment- and caring activities ought to include self-evaluation which makes it possible to assess whether we do the right interventions in the right ways or not. In an experimental design, the participants (residents in the community) are randomly allocated to a coping-enhancing experimental group and a control group receiving standard care. Coping is measured using the sense of coherence (SOC) questionnaire.