Structure and Agency in Mental Healthcare: A Case Study of a Volunteer Advocacy Group

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Health Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Through a lens of Structuration Theory, this study highlights the ways that specific structures within the current community-based model of mental healthcare might enable and constrain individuals and families living mental illness. Though a case study of a volunteer mental illness advocacy group, the authors employed a duality analysis on a variety of data collected from the case (i.e., interviews, organizational documents, and community healthcare data). Findings indicate that while group members encountered structural barriers to their organizational mission, they also used communicative agency creatively and collectively to (re)create structures within the current community-based model of mental healthcare. Theoretical and practical applications of the findings are discussed.

Authors

• Alaina C. Zanin, Arizona State University

• Cameron Wade Piercy, U of Kansas