Match or mismatch: Use of the strengths model with chinese migrants experiencing mental illness: Service user and practitioner perspectives

Abstract

The strengths model assists service users and mental health practitioners to identify individual and environmental strengths and to secure resources to facilitate integration into the community and improve quality of life. Interventions are based on goals determined by the person with the mental illness and include support in accessing resources required to achieve goals. Aim: The study aimed to explore the use of the strengths model as a recovery intervention with Chinese people with mental illness in New Zealand. Method: This study was a qualitative study using individual interviews and focus groups to explore the views of Chinese service users, significant others, and health practitioners who have experience in using the strengths model. Analysis: Data were analyzed using a general inductive approach to identify key themes relevant to the research objectives. Results: The focus on personal and collective strengths and pragmatic approach adopted by the strengths model were regarded by participants as distinctive features of the model. On the whole, the service user participants regarded the strengths model as helpful in assisting their settlement and integration into the host society. Practitioners were confronted by the following three challenges in applying the model with Chinese migrants: passive role played by service users, difficulties in understanding the concept of strengths, and service users with complex needs. Conclusion: The Chinese migrant population is a growing community in most English-speaking countries. To provide culturally responsive strengths-based mental health services to Chinese migrants, it is critical for a number of factors to be taken into account, including language barriers and settlement issues, the Chinese cultural values of working with the family, and assessment and training tools that need to be translated from English to Chinese. It is important to measure the effectiveness of applying strengths-model interventions with Chinese users, particularly in comparison with conventional practice of case management. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.