Friendship: a phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of youth and of peer support workers in Youth FACT (flexible assertive community treatment) services

BACKGROUND: Friendship is recognized as vital for mental health and quality of life. It encompasses both protective and challenging aspects, constituting a relational and existential dimension in human life. Despite extensive research on the significance of friendship, less is known about how friendship is experienced in everyday life among individuals facing mental health challenges. AIM: To explore the lived experiences of friendship as described by young people receiving follow-up from Youth FACT and peer support workers employed in these services. METHOD: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach inspired by van Manen was employed. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 7 young people (aged 15-18) and 7 peer support workers (aged 28-45) were analyzed. Analysis involved the selection of rich, experience-near descriptions, their transformation into experiential anecdotes, and reflective, interpretive exploration. FINDINGS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS: Friendship reveals as a complex, living, existential phenomenon, integral, continuously in motion as dynamic processes beyond our control. Friendship offers possibilities without guarantees, unfolding through presence, vulnerability, movement, and freedom. Among young people and peer support workers in Youth FACT, our exploration show how layered meanings of friendship uncover uniquely in each encounter, protective for some, burdensome for others, and at times both within the same relationship and experience.