Group leader and participant perceptions of Balancing Everyday Life, a group-based lifestyle intervention for mental health service users

Background: There exist few recovery and occupation-based interventions for mental health service users. Balancing Everyday Life (BEL) is a new occupation-based lifestyle intervention that was created to fill this need. Aim: To gain group leaders’ and participants’ perspectives of the BEL intervention content and format, including factors that helped, hindered, and could be improved. Methods: A constructivist grounded theory method guided data collection and analysis. Interviews took place with 12 BEL group leaders and 19 BEL participants from out-patient psychiatry settings and community-based day centers in Sweden. Results: BEL’s structure and content were appreciated, yet flexibility was desired to adapt to participant needs. BEL could act as a bridge, helping participants connect with others, and to a more engaged and balanced everyday life. Facilitating factors included a person-focused (versus illness-focused) approach, physical and emotional environments, and connection. Barriers included room resources. More sessions were desired for the intervention. Conclusion: Group leaders and participants experienced BEL as a useful tool to instigate meaningful change and connection in the participants’ lives. The combination of a positive person-focused approach and group support was appreciated. These results could inform future research, evaluation, and development of occupation-focused lifestyle interventions for mental health service users.