Spaces of 'Sanctuary': Unfolding older, mental health service users' experiences within the spaces of the home: Mental Distress and Space: Community and Clinical Applications

Research has indicated that older people are more inclined to spend time within their household (or places of care) than anywhere else due to physiological deterioration, financial constraints and, more specifically within this chapter, as a result of psychological barriersThis area is of particular interest within this chapter to gain a further insight into the strategies employed by older service users, in not only reifying their individual micro milieu but in also understanding the constituent nature of how a large portion of everyday service user life is (re)produced. From a somewhat ethereal position, pervasive notions of home can endorse a spatiality of sanctuary, a place where we can ‘breathe a sigh of relief’ as negotiated social identities are replaced by the need to focus on personal needs and wants. Subsequently, the aim of this chapter is to explore how realistic are these ideologies within service user home environments. This work found that these important spaces held a multiplicity of meanings and content and the dichotomous expressions of security/relaxation and anxiety/isolation provided further food for thought in how these emotions were spatially negotiated.