Commentary: Experiences of being cared-for: the perspective of an expert-by-experience in mental health

Abstract

Fox (1) has created a certain academic value by analyzing and discussing the personal experiences of people with mental ill-health being cared-for and supported by their families, using the research method of autoethnography. However, Fox's discussion (1) seems to have strong implications for the inorganic consumerism model relationship between service users, caregivers, and professionals. I, like Fox (1), am an expert-by-experience (EBE) (2) with mental ill-health, and have been a member of the culture of the mental health welfare field for more than 20 years. This paper is significant because it will lead readers to a new perception of the world by understanding caregiver identity from the perspective of peer support (3), which is inclusive of humanity and not a consumeristic model.As a person who has experienced intense mental health difficulties, I can relate to the relationship that Fox shares with her mother (caregiver) in her Reflective Memories (1). I have experienced chronic crises with severe depression, frequent panic attacks, derangement of ego, and cognitive dysfunction, and I have had the long-term and ongoing support of my devoted mother (caregiver) in my recovery process. Nevertheless, I do not view health and social care practice as a clear dichotomy with a unidirectional power dynamic relationship between "caregivers" and "cared-for" in the consumer model, because as Anthony (4) and Muramatsu (5) have stated, humans are universally in need of personal recovery, and everyone has a mutual support nature as both "caregivers" and "cared-for." I recognize this in the peer support relationship (3).Certainly, there are times when a person in a serious state of mental and requires 34 support. There was a time when I had extreme anxiety could get up all day, to eat a 35 minimal amount of food, and I received full support. However, over the course the recovery process, 36 I have developed a mutually supportive with my caregivers. was also a socially 37 constructed, mutualistic relationship, different in nature compared to a contractual relationship as an 38 inorganic service user in the simple consumer model, that is, an emotional-peer nature as a universal 39 person. We do not live in a mechanical, modern, and scientific world where caregivers provide services 40 to robots, and the robots automatically pays money to the caregiver. We are facing a living, flesh-and-41 blood human who is emotional, irrational, and contradictory, and is subject to the intersubjective 42 influences of dialogue and social structure (6). I do not consider my relationship with my parents and 43 professionals in terms of a one-way power dynamic relationship of "the carer and the cared-for," or in 44 a contractual or paternalistic sense. I think of it more as the concept of "peer," a universal humanity of 45 equality that is directly or indirectly related to my life, walking together through the process of personal 46 recovery. It is a humanistic mutual support relationship that facilitates the process of growth through 47 humanistic perception. 48 For example, in the case of Fox's Reflection 3 (1), she states that her mother was unable to properly 49 manage her overprotective and intrusive spirit. She was isolated, and needed support and help to care 50 in her own right. She thus had very little support in her own right. In some cases, caregivers also have 51 emotional difficulties and ill-health (7). Family caregivers are also more likely to experience social 52 isolation and poor physical and mental health (8-9). Family dynamics influence individual 53 development and well-being, health, illness, and recovery (10). Thus, not only the person requiring 54 care but also their family members, including caregivers, need recovery, as caregiving dynamics are 55 constructed in a relationship that is both complex and ambiguous. To establish truly collaborative 56 support systems and programs, the concept of care must shift from a one-way dynamic pow