Resilience and social support of young adults living with mental illness in the city of Tshwane, Gauteng province, South Africa.
Nok'khanya F Hadebe, Tendani S Ramukumba
PMID 33354974WHAT IT FOUND
10 young adults with mental illness described family and friend support.
Poor family relationships included lack of support, loneliness and alienation; good family relationships included treatment involvement and financial help, while some friends were empathetic.
Key findings
01The social support theme had three categories: poor relationship with family, good relationship with family and good relationships with friends.
02Under poor family relationships, participants reported lack of support, loneliness and alienation.
03Under good family relationships, participants mentioned supportive relationships, treatment involvement, financial support and therapeutic relationships; friendships were described as empathetic, tolerant and compassionate.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Five clinics were approached, but only two were used, so it reflects a narrow service setting. 10 participants were analysed after 21 were recruited and four withdrew, so the themes rest on a small purposive sample. The setting was a low-resource part of Tshwane, and the authors say the findings may not generalise to other contexts. People with substance abuse, intellectual disability or difficulty giving informed consent were excluded. The article reports only the social support theme, although adaptability, purposefulness and confidence also emerged.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that family support makes young adults resilient. The study interviewed 10 people and only reported themes of family and friend relationships; it did not test whether family involvement changes resilience.