Publications by authors named "Stian Biong"

Background: Recovery from substance use is commonly seen as a process of integrating social relationships and creating a sense of meaning in one's life. Dog owners describe a close relationship with their dog that impacts many aspects of their everyday life. Yet for individuals with substance use disorder (SUD), little is known about how dog ownership could affect their lives.

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Immigrants face barriers in seeking and accessing mental health and addiction services. Health professionals are crucial in providing and promoting healthcare and it is important to understand their experiences in order to enhance the access of mental healthcare. The aim of this paper is to explore and describe health professionals' experiences with treatment engagement among immigrants with co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health disorders (MHD) in Norwegian mental health and addiction services.

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Recovery, a prominent concern in mental health care worldwide, has been variously defined, requiring further clarification of the term as processual. Few studies have comprehensively addressed the nature of recovery processes. This study aims to explore the nature and characteristics of experiences of recovery as processual.

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Immigrants are considered at risk of psychological distress and therefore involvement in substance abuse, due to a variety of pre- and post-migration factors. Further, there is lower treatment engagement, a higher dropout rate, and less frequent hospitalizations among this group compared to the general population. There are few studies on the subjective understanding of co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health disorder (MHD) among immigrants in Norway.

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Relatively few individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) seek or receive treatment, and knowledge about the effective ingredients in SUD treatment, from the perspective of those who receive it, is scarce. Our study purpose was to explore the experiences of those with long-term SUDs and the aspects they found helpful during treatment and long-term recovery. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants, each of whom had been diagnosed with a long-term SUD, and who had been abstinent for at least 5 years.

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Individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) often have fewer social support network resources than those without SUDs. This qualitative study examined the role of social relationships in achieving and maintaining stable recovery after many years of SUD. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants, each of whom had been diagnosed with a SUD and each of whom had been abstinent for at least 5 years.

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Background: Recovery-oriented practice is recommended in services for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Understanding practitioners' perceptions of recovery-oriented services may be a key component of implementing recovery principles in day-to-day practice. This study explores and describes staff experiences with dilemmas in recovery-oriented practice to support people with co-occurring disorders.

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Although a significant proportion of adults recover from substance use disorders (SUDs), little is known about how they reach this turning point or why they stop using. The purpose of the study was to explore the factors that influence reasoning and decision making about quitting substance use after a long-term SUD. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 18 participants, each of whom had been diagnosed with a SUD and had been abstinent for at least 5 years.

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The aim of the present study was to investigate and interpret metaphorical expressions of the lived experiences of everyday life in people with young-onset dementia (YOD) and to compare these findings with findings from an analysis via grounded theory to see if the second analysis adds more knowledge to the topic. In this secondary analysis of data, metaphors from 20 Norwegian men and women living with YOD were investigated. Using Steger's anthropological three-step method, three categories were identified: Sliding away, leaving traces, and all alone in the world.

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Hope is a central concept in nursing and other fields of health care. However, there is no consensus about the concept of hope. We argue that seeking consensus is futile given the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of the concept, but instead we encourage in-depth studies of the assumptions behind talk about hope in specific contexts.

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Objectives: Admission of a cancer patient to a palliative unit when near the final stage of their disease trajectory undoubtedly impacts their relatives. The aim of our study was to illuminate and interpret relatives' lived experiences of health personnel's provision of care in a palliative ward.

Methods: A phenomenological/hermeneutic approach was employed that was inspired by the philosophical tradition of Heidegger and Ricoeur and further developed by Lindseth and Nordberg.

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Aims: To assess demographic characteristics, treatment utilization and circumstances of death among those who died from drug-induced deaths in an urban setting and to identify possible subpopulations that should be targeted specifically to further develop preventive public health policies.

Methods: Subjects (N = 231) who died, from drug-induced deaths, in the Norwegian capital Oslo (2006-2008) were identified through the National Cause of Death Registry. Data on toxicology, prison release and contact with health and social services in Oslo were collected.

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Background: Crisis resolution and home treatment (CRHT) is an emerging mode of delivering acute mental health care in the community. There is a paucity of knowledge regarding the workings of CRHT in the literature. This is the first paper in a series of three from the longitudinal survey of patients of a CRHT team in Norway, which was aimed at describing the characteristics of patients served, professional services provided, and clinical outcomes.

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Background: Crisis resolution and home treatment (CRHT) is an emerging mode of delivering acute mental health care in the community. There is a paucity of knowledge regarding the workings of CRHT in the literature. This is the third paper in a series of three from the longitudinal survey of patients of a CRHT team in Norway, which was aimed at describing the characteristics of patients served, professional services provided, and clinical outcomes.

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Background: Crisis resolution and home treatment (CRHT) is an emerging mode of delivering acute mental health care in the community. There is a paucity of knowledge regarding the workings of CRHT in the literature. This is the second paper in a series of three from the longitudinal survey of patients of a CRHT team in Norway, which was aimed at describing the characteristics of patients served, professional services provided, and clinical outcomes.

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Purpose: The aim of the study was to describe the lived experience as it develops over time in stroke survivors suffering from early depressive symptoms.

Method: This paper presents a phenomenological hermeneutical interview-study of nine participants at 6, 12, and 18 months after stroke.

Findings: The participants related the depressive symptoms to the consequences of the stroke, and the experience of loss was crucial.

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