What is a Severe Mental Illness (SMI)?

An SMI is characterised by psychiatric issues that persist for more than 2 years, requiring ongoing care and treatment due to significant limitations across various areas of life, both socially and in society. Conditions may include psychotic symptoms, anxiety, paranoia, or depression. Social challenges often include financial concerns, poor living conditions, limited or no social network, and experiences of discrimination or self-stigma.

Recovery-oriented care

Government policy for mental healthcare increasingly emphasises fewer inpatient beds and a stronger focus on community-based care. However, this shift has not worked well for people with severe mental illness. While community care has expanded, it often fails to meet the needs of individuals with more complex issues. Treatments focused solely on reducing psychological symptoms are inadequate. Recovery-oriented care, which promotes symptomatic, personal, and social recovery, is needed. This approach requires close collaboration among family members and professionals from different sectors.

Despite extensive research on recovery-oriented care and the development of effective standards and methods, these are still underutilized in practice and education. Furthermore, there is limited insight into the impact of recovery-oriented care on clients, their families, and healthcare professionals.

A lot is already going well in supporting oeople with SMI. But we can continue to grow, particularly in supporting clients through setbacks and trauma processing. Through this research group, we monitor whether we are doing the right things, with the right people at the right time, and the right place.

Yolanda Nijssen

Professor

Research themes

• Attitude in recovery-oriented care: What skills do support workers need? What works well, and where are the bottlenecks?
• Improving care with evidence-based methods and measurement tools: How do these methods work in practice, and what impact do they have?
• Collaboration among client, healthcare professional(s), and social network (triadic working): How does this collaboration work, and how can we enhance it?
• Perceptions and stigma: To what extent do people with SMI experience stigma and discrimination? How can we promote inclusion and participation in society?

Integration with education

This research group connects the educational programmes at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), such as the Bachelor's programme in Nursing and the Master's programme Mental Health Nursing, with the research of the Integrated Complex Care research group and clinical practice. Students from various healthcare programmes gain practical experience through internships and contribute to practice-based research conducted by the research group. This involvement helps monitor and improve the quality of care, with a specific focus on people with severe mental illness (SMI).