Hindawi Publishing Corporation Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2013, Article ID 265247, 12 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/265247 Research Article Professionals’ Experiences of the Relations between Personal History and Professional Role Hege Sjølie, 1 Bengt Karlsson, 2 and Per-Einar Binder 3 1 Faculty of Health Sciences, he University College of Buskerud, Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway 2 Institute for Research in Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Faculty of Health Sciences, he University College of Buskerud, Box 7053, 3007 Drammen, Norway 3 Department of Clinical Psychology, he University of Bergen, Box 7807, 5020 Bergen, Norway Correspondence should be addressed to Hege Sjølie; hegesjo@gmail.com Received 13 December 2012; Revised 15 February 2013; Accepted 21 February 2013 Academic Editor: Ivo Abraham Copyright © 2013 Hege Sjølie et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how workers in a crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) team experience the relationship between their personal history and professional role. his paper is based on 13 in-depth interviews with health professionals working in CRHT. he interviews were analysed using a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Participants expressed that there is a relationship between their personal history and professional role, and three themes are highlighted as particularly important in, namely experiences related to the participants as individuals, work-related experiences and family-related experiences. he participants write meaning into the relationship between their personal history and professional role. By relating and exploring their own life stories in the interviews, they work on forming meaning and identity. 1. Introduction Crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) is a work approach that may put high emotional, relational, and professional demands on the team members. It challenges some tradi- tional professional roles within the mental health care ield by moving crisis resolution away from in-patient care and into the patients’ home. In most western countries, the services for people with mental health problems have gone through major changes over the last decades [1–3]. Norway, like many other western countries, is experiencing a rapid transition from traditional institutional care to an expansion into community-based mental health care for people with mental health problems [4]. CRHT team workers’ experience of their personal back- ground and how they think it may contribute to their interest and motivation for their work roles as professionals is relatively little explored. he following research question will be explored and discussed. How do CRHT team members experience possible rela- tions between their personal histories and professional roles? A professional role consists of experiences based on working background, education, career [5–9], and personal experiences [5, 7]. At the same time, the construction of a personal self is closely related to one’s history, family background, and life experiences, including the narrative organization of everyday life and speciic events that are memorable to them [10, 11]. If and how a professional role as a CRHT team member and the experience of one’s personal self may be interrelated is an interesting question. he aim of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding by exploring how the team members relect upon the experiences of their own personal histories and professional roles throughout life and any possible relationship between these. 1.1. he Development and Characteristics of CRHT Teams. Crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) team is a sig- niicant recent development within the home-based mental health services. hese teams provide an alternative to in- patient acute care services, ofering assessment as well as direct care [4, 12]. Models of community care are being estab- lished that aim to minimize hospitalisation and maximize