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Introduction: Occupational therapy has long had a strong presence in military mental healthcare. Today's veterans have complex needs and can face challenges reintegrating into civilian life. This exploratory study investigated whether veterans receiving mental health treatment who participated in a bespoke occupational therapy and resilience workshop intervention improved their perceived participation in everyday life. Method: An interpretivist hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to explore veterans' perspectives. Ten participants took part in two semistructured focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse patterns within the data. Findings: Most participants developed occupational goals and started to make lifestyle changes; participants developed an appreciation of the value of occupation; participants developed insight into their recovery journeys; and value was placed on the 'healing power' of the group. Conclusion: This exploratory study provides preliminary evidence to suggest occupational therapy was influential in helping participants understand the impact of occupation on health and start making lifestyle changes. Participants also reflected on their recovery journeys. The benefits of doing this within a group environment appear to have been particularly therapeutic. Original occupational therapy research in this specialism is sparse. This novel study provides insight that can further discussion and enhance understanding about what the profession can offer this client group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about what recovery means to those with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, a poorly understood, disabling chronic health condition. To explore this issue, semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients reporting improvement (n = 9) and deterioration (n = 10) after a guided self-help intervention, and analyzed via "constant comparison." The meaning of recovery differed between participants—expectations for improvement and deployment of the sick role (and associated stigma) were key influences. While some saw recovery as complete freedom from symptoms, many defined it as freedom from the "sick role," with functionality prioritized. Others redefined recovery, reluctant to return to the lifestyle that may have contributed to their illness, or rejected the concept as unhelpful. Recovery is not always about eliminating all symptoms. Rather, it is a nexus between the reality of limited opportunities for full recovery, yet a strong desire to leave the illness behind and regain a sense of "normality." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of literature evaluating the development and use of vignettes to explore contested constructs in qualitative health care research where a conventional interview schedule might impose assumptions on the data collected. We describe the development and validation of vignettes in a study exploring mental health worker and service user understandings of risk and recovery in U.K. mental health services. Focus groups with mental health workers and service users explored study questions from experiential perspectives. Themes identified in the groups were combined with existing empirical literature to develop a set of vignettes. Feedback focus groups were conducted to validate and amend the vignettes. Following use in research interviews, results suggested that the vignettes had successfully elicited data on issues of risk and recovery in mental health services. Further research using creative, comparative methods is needed to fully understand how vignettes can best be used in qualitative health care research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the personal experiences of mental distress of people involved in the British service user/survivor movement were shaped or transformed by this involvement, and the impact of involvement on their recovery journeys. The analysis was based on 12 in-depth interviews with service users/survivors who are, or were once, involved with the service user/survivor movement. Three large themes were identified regarding the ways in which social movement involvement affected the personal experience of mental distress: (a) making sense and reframing mental distress, (b) the social experience of involvement and (c) identity and identity reconstruction. We discuss how some features of the service user/survivor movement, such as self-help, user involvement, the centrality of experience to collective action, and the range of political positions adopted by activists can affect experience and recovery in different forms. As an exploratory study that looks into a complex topic, our findings illuminate the ways of surviving, recovering and experiencing mental distress in the context of a significant social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]