Barriers to recovery for Chinese mental health service-users in the UK: A case for community development

Abstract

© Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2017 All rights reserved. Community development (CD) has been argued to be important in challenging discrimination and social exclusion faced by mental health service-users. This article focuses on the experience of Chinese mental health service-users in the United Kingdom and discusses what a CD approach might entail for their recovery. Based on a qualitative research, it was found that Chinese users look for self-determination in living arrangements and community participation as well as economic participation. The barriers that hindered the development of these capabilities suggests the problematic of 'community control' discourses, the importance for practitioners to understand cultural fluidity and the necessity for a transformative CD approach to tackle the intersecting structural inequalities that limit the life chances of Chinese service-users.