Developing accommodation to support social interactions an ongoing innovation in France

Resumen

: Historically, accommodations for people with physical disabilities have appeared much earlier than for those with mental illness. For the latter, a variety of community support services, recovery-oriented or not, have subsequently been created. These supports are generally person-centered. But what would result from working on environmental factors, and especially on social interactions in order to reduce disabling situations? This article presents the results of research carried out in a French peer-run organization. Four modalities of accommodations of social interactions have been analyzed: 1) accommodation of social interactions with partners and psychiatric professionals, 2) accommodation of social interactions between "peers", 3) organization of power sharing in the peer-led organization, 4) accommodation for the individual's development in the peer group. These accommodations are particularly important to enable social interactions to take place in a supportive environment, and to support the social participation and citizenship of people living with mental illness. These arrangements for social interaction need to be improved. The discussion will highlight three obstacles that still need to be overcome: adhering to these accommodations by new peer group participants; peer distinctions and hierarchization through power sharing that undermine the horizontality of peer relationships; and an improvement in partnership relationships over the long term.