Eleventh International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Persons with mental illness living in community residential facilities may encounter barriers to improve the quality of their nutrition. Therefore, a study was conducted to identify the barriers and difficulties they experienced to advance the quality of their nutrition during their participation in a health promotion program and the differences in their perception of the barriers as a result of participation in the programs. A mixed methods study was implemented with 84 persons with mental illness who participated in 6 health promotion programs and live in community residential facilities in Israel. The findings illuminate that this population may face some unique challenges to advance their wellness. Among the challenges are individual barriers, such as period of relapse in their mental health situation and co-morbid illnesses. In addition participants experienced systemic barriers such as limited room for choice or control over the nutrition served in community residential facilities or lack of companionship for wellness related activities. These are elements that could be essential to advance their wellness, such as control and choice. Comparison between the beginning and end of the program indicate significant differences in the perceived knowledge and accessibility related barriers. The findings indicate that any health promotion program should include not only the provision of knowledge about healthy nutrition, but also approaches aimed at reducing individual and systemic barriers. Organizations serving persons with mental illness could support them in overcoming the individual and systemic barriers hindering the advancement of healthy nutritional habits.