Community care and mental disorder: An analysis of discursive resources

Abstract

The number of people with mental disorders living in the community has recently increased with further increases likely. This study provides a post-attitudinal examination of the discursive resources on which ordinary New Zealanders draw when talking about 'community care'. Four common resources were identified: dual community, rights, disorder and patronization. Each of these resources is examined by using a range of analytic concepts which illustrate the rhetorical achievements and social practices found in the data. We argue that the dual community resource works to position the disordered as being outside the community which is contrary to the broad aim of community care. The analysis of talk of rights was cast as an ideological dilemma for participants who endorsed both universality and conditionality of rights for the disordered. The disorder resource was notable for its flexible rhetorical deployment, while patronization contributed to the positioning of the disordered as subordinate. The implications of these resources are discussed in terms of existing notions of stigma and possibilities for change centred around affiliative resources.