Too Much, Too Little, the Wrong or the Right Kind? Negotiating Homes’ Material Stuff in the Context of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Home Visiting

Abstract This study asks what is regarded as (in)appropriate material stuff in home spaces, and how it is negotiated between professionals and clients in home visit interactions in three substance abuse and mental health services in Finland. In analysing negotiations between professionals and clients, three interpretational frames theorising its meanings and proper place in home spaces are applied, of which two are located in social anthropology and one in psychomedical ideas. The study demonstrates that negotiations on (in)appropriate material stuff deal with the cleanliness of the clients’ flats and the personal meanings of material objects in their homes. Both negotiations are connected to the institutional task of the services, which is aimed at supporting clients’ everyday lives in their communities and reducing their risk of losing their homes. When professionals enter clients’ homes with this institutional task, homes partially become institutional spaces and the privacy of the home is broken.