Life on a waiting list: How do people experience and cope with delayed access to a community mental health center?

The aim of this paper is to explore how people waiting for treatment at a community specialist mental health center experience the time between referral and the first consultation. Within a collaborative-reflexive framework, nine service users were interviewed about their experiences with waiting for treatment. Three main themes were identified: «Expectations about waiting», «The experience of waiting: Shortcomings and struggles with everyday issues», and «Coping with symptoms and challenges by being active and taking control». While waiting, participants actively relied on their existing daily activities and social networks to feel better. The coping strategies they developed may be valuable tools for service users and their therapists, and the strategies may represent important prognostic factors for recovery.