Mental Health Service Users' Aspirations for Recovery: Examining the Gaps between what Policy Promises and Practice Delivers (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
Background: one key component of recovery-oriented mental health services, typically overlooked, involves genuine collaboration between researchers and consumers to evaluate and improve services delivered within a recovery framework. Method: Eighteen mental health consumers working with staff who had received training in the Collaborative recovery Model (CrM) took part in in-depth focus group meetings, of approximately 2.5 hours each, to generate feedback to guide improvement of the CrM and its use in mental health services. results: Consumers identified clear avenues for improvement for the CrM both specific to the model and broadly applicable to recovery-oriented service provision. Findings suggest consumers want to be more engaged and empowered in the use of the CrM from the outset. limitations: improved sampling procedures may have led to the identification of additional dissatisfied consumers. Conclusions: Collaboration with mental health consumers in the evaluation and improvement of recovery-oriented practice is crucial with an emphasis on rebuilding mental health services that are genuinely oriented to support recovery.
2010
BACKGROUND One key component of recovery-oriented mental health services, typically overlooked, involves genuine collaboration between researchers and consumers to evaluate and improve services delivered within a recovery framework. METHOD Eighteen mental health consumers working with staff who had received training in the Collaborative Recovery Model (CRM) took part in in-depth focus group meetings, of approximately 2.5 hours each, to generate feedback to guide improvement of the CRM and its use in mental health services. RESULTS Consumers identified clear avenues for improvement for the CRM both specific to the model and broadly applicable to recovery-oriented service provision. Findings suggest consumers want to be more engaged and empowered in the use of the CRM from the outset. LIMITATIONS Improved sampling procedures may have led to the identification of additional dissatisfied consumers. CONCLUSIONS Collaboration with mental health consumers in the evaluation and improvement ...
Recovery without autonomy: Progress forward or more of the same for mental health service users?
International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 2018
In Western nations, the Recovery approach has become a widely accepted philosophy and treatment concept in mental health. Yet, community understanding of the Recovery approach remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to investigate (i) people's awareness of the principles underpinning the Recovery approach in mental health, and (ii) the treatment approaches people consider most important, and whether these align with the Recovery approach. To achieve these aims, a random sample of 1217 Australian adults participated in the National Social Survey (QSS) via telephone interview. People's experience with mental health services, the importance they place on various treatment approaches, and their awareness of principles underpinning the Recovery approach were assessed. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics. Most participants (94%) agreed that 'regardless of the severity of symptoms experienced and/or the mental illness diagnosis, being diagnosed with a mental illness means there is always hope for a meaningful life'. Moreover, most participants considered treatments in line with the Recovery approach as important. However, few participants (35%) agreed with the principle that 'after diagnosis, the person themselves should direct the long-term management of their mental illness, rather than a medical professional'. Australian people were to some extent aware of the principles underpinning the Recovery Approach, particularly with regard to hope, ability to live a meaningful life, and the importance of support from family, friends, and others living with mental illness. Nonetheless, autonomy was not highly prioritized, with the prevailing view that management of mental illness should be directed by the medical profession.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: Recovery-oriented practice (ROP) is a framework focusing on recovery through hope, choice, and meaning, to live with or without enduring symptoms and challenges. Aims: To examine clinicians’ attitudes about the involvement of service users and family or supporters in ROP. Methods: A bespoke Qualtrics survey obtained views of mental health clinicians working in an Australian public mental health service about service user and family involvement in ROP, using a five-point Likert scale of agreement and free-text responses. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and content analysis methods. Results: Two hundred and three clinicians completed the survey. Most (79%) clinicians agreed with the statement that service users want clinicians to use ROP principles, and the majority (63%) also ‘strongly believed’ that ROP made a difference to service users’ mental health outcomes. Only 15% ‘strongly agreed’ and 57% somewhat agreed with the statement that service users know w...
Administration and policy in mental health, 2018
Little is known about how recovery oriented policy and legislative changes influence service users' perceptions of mental health care over time. Although the recovery approach is endorsed in many countries, qualitative research examining its impact on service use experiences has been lacking. This study aimed to explore this impact as well as experiences of service utilisation and suggestions for change with people diagnosed with a First Episode Psychosis between 1995 and 1999. Participants had used services during the 10 year period prior to, and 10 years post, policy and legislative shifts to the recovery approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants who met criteria for 'full functional recovery' and 10 who did not. Data were analysed using Thematic Networks Analysis to develop Basic, Organising, and Global Themes. Over time, recovered participants perceived an improvement in service quality through the 'humanising' of treatment and ...
International Journal of Mental Health, 2009
recovery has recently reemerged in many countries as a key concept in mental health. Several long-term outcome studies have highlighted much higher recovery rates than previously assumed for persons with long-term mental illness. Service users (consumers) and professionals are now promoting this approach, and for users, recovery is about taking control over their own lives and introducing improvements which may or may not be related to clinical indicators of recovery. this approach also requires that professionals work with consumers in a much more collaborative fashion then in the past. australia, Canada, england, and israel have all formally accepted recovery as the cornerstone of their mental health policies and are currently in various phases of implementation. this paper describes these developments and identifies the implications for mental health social work.
Community mental health work: Negotiating support of users' recovery
International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
Mental health services have changed over the last decades through an increased emphasis on deinstitutionalization and normalization, and with recovery processes situated in everyday life as a new locus of support. These changes have led to a need for new knowledge and methods concerning provision of community mental health services. The aim of this study was to explore how community mental health workers provide support to users, by investigating professionals' own narratives of how they work. Seven community mental health workers participated in narrative interviews, which were subject to a qualitative, interpretive analysis. A primary finding was that community mental health workers provide flexible and individually adjusted support through engaging in negotiations with users, management and others. Our findings show both opportunities and challenges of negotiating support, raising this question for discussion: How and when are negotiations a valuable way for professionals and users to collaborate?
This paper reports on research undertaken in an acute inpatient mental health facility in rural Australia to explore the lived experience of inpatient care. Conceptualised within a recovery framework that emphasises the biopsychosocial approach acknowledging con-sumers' lived experiences alongside clinical perspectives, this study contributes to addressing a gap in the literature about what consumers experience as being most important to their recovery during an episode of inpatient care. Traditionally, mental health service delivery has been weighted towards clinical recovery with a biomedical approach dominating. This is especially so in an inpatient setting. In this qualitative study, the personal and social components of recovery emerge as critical factors for consumers even in an acute phase of care indicating a need to redress the imbalance. Eight in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with consumers during their stay in the inpatient facility. Drawing on a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis and the use of NVivo, three themes emerged: the importance of listening, facilitating peer support and the inclusion of families. All three themes resonate with core social work practice suggesting social workers have a critical role to play in the transformation of mental health services to reflect the recovery paradigm.