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Focus Group in Community Mental Health Research: Need for Adaption

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Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the use of focus groups in researching community mental health users, starting with the reasons for using them, their implementation in mental health service users’ research, and the adaptations of focus group use when researching the experiences of users. Based on personal research experience and a review of scientific publications in the Google Scholar, Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Scopus databases, 20 articles published between 2010 and 2016 were selected for targeted content analysis. A checklist for reporting on the use of focus groups with community mental health service users, aiming to improve the comparability, verifiability and validity was developed. Adaptations of the implementation of focus groups in relation to participants’ characteristics were suggested. Focus groups are not only useful as a scientific research technique, but also for ensuring service users’ participation in decision-making in community mental health and evaluating the quality of the mental health system and services .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, Štefanova 5, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Vesna Zupančič

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Majda Pahor & Tina Kogovšek

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  1. Vesna Zupančič
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  2. Majda Pahor
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  3. Tina Kogovšek
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Correspondence to Vesna Zupančič.

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Ethical approval for this research was not required. Questions for patients were formulated in such a manner that did not allow an invasion of privacy or recollection of unpleasant events.

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Zupančič, V., Pahor, M. & Kogovšek, T. Focus Group in Community Mental Health Research: Need for Adaption. Community Ment Health J 55, 168–179 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-018-0271-7

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