Experience of discrimination, collective identity and health. : Two studies carried out in Sweden and England, UK

Sammanfattning: Both England and Sweden has an aim to improving the health of those groups that are most vulnerable to ill health, and those groups in society, who are most vulnerable to ill health, are also those who face the most discrimination. The main purpose of this paper is to study how female mental health service user/survivor experiences their health. The paper is composed of two studies carried out in a city in Sweden and a city in England, UK.  Four women from Sweden participated and two from England, UK. The empiric material has been collected by semi-structured interviews and the method that has been used for analysing the material was qualitative content analysis. The result shows that almost all of the women did experience discrimination. Almost all of the women that did experience discrimination did also express that experience of discrimination also influenced their health in a negative way. However, all of the women also resisted the experience of an oppressive society and the view that they are just “victims”, by reclaiming their identity and experiencing a collective identity or a self-identity. These experiences of identity have given them a sense of wellbeing and health.