Patients’ Experiences of Deinstitutionalization from Long-Term Psychiatric Care in Athens, Greece: Shifting Notions of “Asylum”

This research study examined the experience of deinstitutionalization amongst a group of 24 long-term residents of a psychiatric hospital in Athens, Greece. Participants varied in age and gender, but all suffered from schizophrenia. The main issue this study explored was what was the notion of “asylum” for these patients. For them, “asylum” revolved around five basic axes 1) having friends and social network, creating a sense of acceptance, 2) trust in stuff and treatment, 3) financial security, 4) absence of abuse, 5) stress-free daily routine. From the patients’ interviews, four different interpretations of “asylum” as a typology were developed: for one group the mental hospital was perceived as offering “permanent asylum”, and was even perceived as a “home”; for a second group, the mental hospital offered “temporary asylum”, since their familial home could no longer offer them “asylum”, until their next transfer to a Community Care Units (CCU); for a third group, the mental hospital offered “temporary asylum” during periods of serious relapses that patients experienced while in CCUs; for a fourth group of patients, the CCUs offered “permanent asylum”, indicating a successful transition to a community.