Disease model as attitude
A doxastic framework and the challenges of peer support work in mental health
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19225019 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Guillermo Ruiz‐Pérez (0000-0003-3753-0796, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane, corresponding author), Guillermo Ruiz-Pérez |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Theory & Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-8211 • E-ISSN: 1477-822X |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1057/s41285-026-00258-9 |
| OpenAlex | W7161831421 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 47 |
The integration of peer support workers (PSWs) in mental healthcare challenges not only the prevailing medical model in practice but also its underlying attitudinal structures. This paper develops a theoretical framework based on Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy of belief to conceptualize disease models as attitudes that shape how stakeholders perceive mental health issues, and secondarily, act with regard to them. Understanding the medical model as an embodied system of beliefs allows for an analysis of resistance to PSWs, as beliefs regarding their usefulness may conflict with stakeholders’ previous attitudes and therefore force attitudinal transformation. We argue that PSW integration can foster a shift from a hierarchical, deficit-based system to a co-productive model that values lived experience and recovery and loosens fixed medical categories. However, this process may not only require structured training, institutional support, and collaborative engagement, but also necessitate professionals to self-reflect on their own attitudes and belief systems. Our proposed theoretical framework posits that attitudinal change, rather than policy reform alone, is key to making peer support a meaningful component of mental healthcare
Component (thermodynamics) · Embodied cognition · Health care · Mental health · Peer support · Process (computing) · Resistance (ecology) · Work (physics) · Empathy and Medical Education · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Mental Health and Patient Involvement
The rise and fall of the biopsychosocial model
Epistemic injustice in psychiatry
Conceptual framework for personal recovery in mental health
An enactivist reconceptualization of the medical model
Problems for enactive psychiatry as a practical framework
The medical model, with a human face
Epistemic injustice in healthcare
More ‘milk’ than ‘psychology or tablets’
The existential dimension in psychiatry
Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward Patients With Psychiatric Disorders Among Medical Students and Professionals
Mental Health Clinician Attitudes about Service User and Family Agency and Involvement in Recovery-Oriented Practice
Unconscious bias and the medical model
Peer Support Specialists and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice
El habitus. Una revisión analítica
Attitudes of Peer Support Workers towards the Medical Model
The Professional Experiences of Peer Specialists in the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network
The Social Construction of Illness
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |