Seems like a very good idea. The social aspects to my recovery have been on of the most important aspects.

Support to enhance social networks for mental health

The term ‘social capital’ is most closely associated with the late French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu (Grenfell, 2014). Social capital can be viewed as the wider social and cultural resources that are embedded with networks. Bourdieu’s work in this field was largely concerned with the ways, in which, elites are created and perpetuated within modern industrial societies.

Bourdieu sought to explain the paradox, whereby such societies which claim to be committed to social mobility and equal opportunities continue to be dominated by narrow elites. As this interesting and thought provoking paper notes, the idea of social capital has been recognised as an important factor in health and well-being.

Put very crudely, increased social capital is a clear factor in improved health outcomes. It is important to note here that social capital is not a matter of financial resources, it is a much broader concept than that. As an analytical tool social capital has been increasingly used in the area of social work, particularly mental health social work (Webber, 2005). It is easy to see why this approach is attractive. It has echoes of other developments such as the Recovery Model with emphasis on taking a holistic approach to the causes of mental distress and the importance of individuals making decisions about treatment, care and other options.

The aim of the study was to explore how mental health workers went about supporting people who were recovering from psychosis to enhance their social networks.

[CANDC]

Enhancing social networks is something PC has done for me. That has been a help. Makes sense others would benefit from that too.