Citation

Sunnqvist C, Persson U, Lenntorp B, Traskman-Bendz L. J. Psychiatr. Ment. Health Nurs. 2007; 14(3): 250-257.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1365-2850.2007.01071.x

PMID

17430448

Abstract

Since many years, life charting has been used to describe the life course and life events of psychiatric patients. The aim of the present study was to describe and evaluate time geographic life charts of 11 former psychiatric patients in order to promote systematic descriptions of their life events over time. Information on all events which was gathered from the life charts was analysed by manifest content analysis and reduced to four categories: information received by asking only about moves, social capacity, predisposing life events and/or stressful as well as precipitating life events. Our findings showed that this kind of life charts offered a comprehensive and structured picture. They describe a detailed life situation from one time period to another, where geographical sites serve as anchors. The patients expressed satisfaction with this method of combining an interview with a time geographic life line.

Language: en

Keywords

Adult; Audiovisual Aids; Case-Control Studies; Data Collection; Female; Geography; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Life Change Events; Male; Medical History Taking; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Models, Psychological; Narration; Nursing Assessment; Nursing Evaluation Research; Nursing Methodology Research; Patient Satisfaction; Psychiatric Nursing; Risk Factors; Suicide, Attempted; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sweden; Time Factors