The "unknown soldier" : exploring the lived experiences of mental health care users during and after a public sector workers' strike

Abstract

This research study explored the effects of a public servants‟ strike on psychiatric patients. This is achieved through investigating the subjective lived experiences of events prior to, during and ensuing a public servants' strike. In addition, strike action within the health care sector as a worldwide phenomenon is discussed. This provides a conceptual understanding of strike action within the health care sector, as well as critical issues raised around the use of strikes as a medium of communication. During the public servants' strike of August 2010, 446 patients were discharged from a specialized psychiatric facility in the greater Gauteng region. The sample for this research was taken from this population and comprises of three (n=3) psychiatric patients, two Afrikaans speaking males and one Sotho speaking male. At the time of the interview, all three participants had been hospitalized and received further psychiatric treatment. The researcher made use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as the method to gather and interpret the raw data. The data is discussed within three subordinate themes, namely the subjective experiences prior to, during and ensuing the strike. In addition global themes throughout the patient‟s subjective lived experiences are discussed without sequential significance. The results from this study support current literature that strikes have a direct impact on the treatment of psychiatric patients. In addition the subjective accounts of the patients did not indicate any significant deterioration in functioning during the strike. However in subsequent months following their discharge, all of the participants experienced some form of conflict which contributed to their rehospitalisation. Copyright