https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459318785712 Health 2020, Vol. 24(1) 59–78 © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1363459318785712 journals.sagepub.com/home/hea Not talking about illness at meeting places in Norwegian community mental health care: A discourse analysis of silence concerning illness-talk Lill Susann Ynnesdal Haugen, Vegard Haugland and Andreas Envy University of Bergen, Norway Marit Borg University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway Tor-Johan Ekeland Volda University College, Norway Norman Anderssen University of Bergen, Norway; Uni Research Health, Norway Abstract Research on the topic of not talking about psychosocial hardships describes the presence of ‘house rules’ against illness-talk in common areas in ‘meeting places’ (‘day centres’) in community mental health care. The aim of this article was to explore the complexity of not talking about psychosocial hardships (‘silence’) in meeting places in Norwegian community mental health care. The research team consisted of first-hand and academic knowers of community mental health care (participatory research team). We performed two series of focus group discussions with service users and staff of meeting places. The focus group interviews were analysed within a discourse analytic framework, and five discursive constructions were identified: (1) biomedical colonization of illness-talk, (2) restricted access for biomedical psychiatry and problem-talk in the common spaces Corresponding author: Lill Susann Ynnesdal Haugen, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christies gate 12, N-5015Bergen, Norway. Emails: lill.haugen@uib.no, lill_haugen@hotmail.com 785712HEA 0 0 10.1177/1363459318785712HealthYnnesdal Haugen et al. research-article 2018 Article