Search

Objective: Recovery Colleges support recovery for adults with mental health problems, through coproduction and education principles. This study aimed to determine whether students at three Recovery Colleges in England were representative of mental health service users. Methods: Gender, age, ethnicity, diagnosis, involuntary detention, and inpatient admission were extracted from clinical records. Data for all service user students enrolled, and those who had attended 70% of a Recovery College course were compared to mental health services caseloads, using chi-square goodness-of-fit tests. Results: Clinical records were identified for 1,788 students. Significant differences were identified for gender, age, and diagnosis (p <.001). In some Colleges, more students had recent inpatient admissions or involuntary detentions. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Service user students were largely representative of mental health service users, although some groups were underrepresented. Further research is needed to understand why, so that Recovery Colleges can continue to address inequalities. Impact and Implications: This is the first multisite investigation into the characteristics of Recovery College students. It found that students are largely representative of people using mental health services, at different stages of their recovery. However, Colleges and mental health services could work on improving access for male, younger and older service users, and individuals with certain mental health diagnoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of our study was to gain insight into how practitioners in mental health care support people with severe psychiatric disabilities in setting and pursuing personal goals that are meaningful to them. Method: We conducted focus groups with 36 mental health practitioners in Norway and interpreted the data by using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes emerged from the analysis: (a) active collaboration to understand what is meaningful to the individual, (b) being nonjudgmental during the process of goal setting, (c) helping individuals break goals into smaller goals and steps, and (d) allowing time for the process of trying to achieve goals. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Although goal setting is central to the Illness Management and Recovery program, practitioners perceive the work as quite demanding. To succeed, practitioners need to acknowledge goal setting as a long-lasting and shared process, not as a means to an end. As people with severe psychiatric disability often need help in goal setting, practitioners should play an important role in supporting them in setting goals, making plans for achieving them, and taking actual steps in that direction. Impact and Implications: Goal setting is a shared process where true collaboration is needed. Practitioners should monitor an individual's ambitions and goals even when they face increasing demands to treat individuals quickly, cheaply, and efficiently. If practitioners let financial and administrative priorities dictate their clinical practice, there is a risk that they will become less responsive to individuals' ambitions, rush to set goals too quickly, and not really attend to where individuals are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]