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Background: Students from a range of health disciplines need to learn from people with lived experience of mental distress and recovery to develop recovery capabilities for mental health practice. Aims: The aims of this study are to describe the co‐design of a teaching resource, to explore the experience of people with lived experience during the resource development, and to evaluate the outcome of the resource on student recovery capabilities. Method: Using a sequential mixed method, a project group consisting of six people with lived experience and 10 academics from five health disciplines was convened to co‐develop teaching resources. People with lived experience met independently without researchers on several occasions to decide on the key topics and met with the research team monthly. The teaching resource was used in mental health subjects for two health professional programmes, and the Capabilities for Recovery‐Oriented Practice Questionnaire (CROP‐Q) was used before and after to measure any change in student recovery capabilities. Scores were compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The people with lived experience were also interviewed about their experience of being involved in constructing the teaching resources. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Results: The finished resource consisted of 28 short videos and suggested teaching plans. Occupational therapy and nursing student scores on the CROP‐Q prior to using the educational resource (n = 33) were 68 (median) and post scores (n = 28) were 74 (median), indicating a statistically significant improvement in recovery capability (P = 0.04). Lived experience interview themes were (i) the importance of lived experience in education; (ii) personal benefits of participating; (iii) co‐design experience; and (iv) creating the resource. Conclusion: Co‐design of teaching resources with people with lived experience was pivotal to the success and quality of the final product, and people with lived experience described personal benefits of participating in resource development. More evidence to demonstrate the use of the CROP‐Q in teaching and practice is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Delayed discharge from inpatient mental health units is the continued hospitalisation of consumers after being assessed as ready to be discharged. This is common in adult inpatient mental health services and is usually due to a lack of appropriate housing for discharge. Research indicates a range of possible negative impacts, but no studies have explored consumers' perspectives on this issue. This study explores consumers' perspectives of the experience of housing related delayed discharge (HRDD). Method: Using a grounded theory approach, in‐depth interviews were conducted with 10 consumers. All consumers were experiencing HRDD from inpatient mental health units in one Sydney local health district. The data were analysed using constant comparative analysis. Findings: A lack of choice and control was the central theme that characterised participants' experiences. The combined experience of being delayed in hospital and being homeless led to a lack of choice and control over the basics in life, how consumers spent their time and with whom, and their futures. This lack of autonomy was shaped by the features of the hospital and participants' personal circumstance. The hospital features included rules and routines, physical and social environments, resources, and support from staff. Personal circumstances included individual situations, social networks, and support from community organisations. Participants described a variety of impacts, including reduced mental and physical well‐being, and anticipated difficulty transitioning back into the community. Conclusion: This study is the first of its kind and provides consumer perspectives on the impacts of HRDD on their well‐being and recovery. The inability to participate in meaningful and necessary occupations is an occupational injustice and implies the need for occupational therapists to advocate for both the prevention of HRDD through government investment in affordable and readily available housing and the mitigation of its effects through modified hospital environments and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recovery in mental health is both a policy imperative and a contested concept with individual and systemic elements. Occupational therapy research and pre-registration education have not engaged in a substantial way with these ideas, raising questions about how well graduates are equipped for real world practice. We aimed to address this gap by developing lived experience informed recovery-oriented capabilities to inform occupational therapy practice and pre-registration curricula. Method: A participatory qualitative approach guided by a consumer reference group was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 mental health consumers, wherever possible with a lived experience co-interviewer. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Three core capabilities were developed: knowing, comprising five types of knowledge; doing, focused on three key areas of action in practice; and being/becoming, emphasising the lifelong learning journey of becoming a recovery-oriented practitioner who can 'be' in authentic partnerships with consumers to support recovery. Conclusion: These lived experience-informed capabilities offer new areas of focus for pre-registration education, practice and research. A need to engage with systemic factors, build students' capacity for critical thinking about power and structural inequality, and integration of knowledge frameworks through participatory research is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: Mental health reform in Australia emphasises recovery, partnership working and prioritises consumers' needs over professionals'. Occupational therapy students must develop capabilities for working in this way. Learning from consumers' lived experience of mental illness and recovery is considered critical to developing such capabilities and aligns with occupational therapy programme accreditation for consumer involvement in designing, delivering and evaluating curricula. No definitive capability standards exist to inform curricula and little is known about Australian mental health consumers' preferred modes of involvement in health professional education. This study sought to identify consumers' priorities for curricula, and ways in which they would like to participate in entry‐level student education. Methods: An eDelphi study utilising the Policy Delphi approach was employed. Consensus by 70% of participants was set as the standard for item inclusion. The first round asked open questions about participants' priorities for recovery‐oriented curricula, their experiences with mental health workers and asked participants to identify their preferred methods of participating in education. Items generated were rated in subsequent rounds until consensus was reached in round three. Results: Twenty‐eight participants completed round one, 18 completed round two and 14 completed round three. Five core values and 171 curriculum priorities, forming 12 capability domains, reached consensus. Each capability domain comprised knowledge and understanding; skills and abilities; and behaviours and actions. Ten ways of participating in mental health curricula in entry‐level occupational therapy programmes were identified, with an emphasis on active participation in design, delivery and review of curricula. Conclusion: These findings highlight important capabilities from consumers' perspectives, suggesting key content for curricula. Active roles in designing, delivering and evaluating curricula were preferred, providing some guidance for educators seeking to involve consumers. Further research is required to refine these priorities, and to evaluate acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of varying modes of consumer involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how mental health service user involvement in health professional education adds value to student learning about recovery-oriented practice and to determine the quality and suitability of instruments used in studies to evaluate this involvement in terms of their: relationship to recovery-oriented practice; and psychometric properties. Design/methodology/approach – Studies of service user involvement were reviewed to identify their research objectives. These were mapped against an Australian recovery-oriented practice capability framework together with the constructs measured by instruments used in these studies. Psychometric properties for each instrument were evaluated using the COSMIN checklist. Findings – While research objectives are not stated in terms of recovery-oriented practice, they do relate to some elements of a recovery-oriented practice framework. No instrument measures outcomes against all recovery-oriented practice domains. The AQ has the strongest evidence for its psychometric properties. The most commonly used instrument measures only stigma and has poorly validated psychometric properties. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates that the “value add” of service user involvement in health professional education has been poorly defined and measured to date. Learning from lived experience is central to a recovery-orientation and is an expectation of health professional education programmes. Defining objectives for service user involvement in terms of recovery-oriented practice and developing an instrument which measures student learning against these objectives are important areas for ongoing research supporting improved approaches to supporting people’s recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim Consumer participation in design, delivery and evaluation of occupational therapy educational programs is a recently introduced requirement for accreditation. It aligns with the principle of recovery, which underpins Australian mental health policy. Graduates' capabilities for recovery-oriented practice are thought to be enhanced through learning from consumers' lived experience. This structured literature review evaluates the current evidence for mental health consumer participation in health professional education to inform occupational therapy educators. Method Searches were completed in five online databases, one journal and published reading lists on the topic. Studies were included if they addressed mental health consumer participation in health professional education programs, were published in peer reviewed journals between 2000 and 2014 and were in English. Articles were critically reviewed, and analysed for key findings related to stages of the educational process and recovery-oriented practice capabilities. Results An emerging body of evidence for consumer participation in mental health education was identified. Studies are characterised by a lack of quality and a low to medium level of evidence. Findings relate to design, planning, delivery and evaluation of education as well as to most aspects of recovery-oriented practice. Emphases on exploratory research and proximal outcomes, and a reliance on published outcome measurement instruments designed for other purposes are key limitations in this body of evidence. Conclusion and significance of the study This study identifies a weak evidence base for the requirement for consumer participation in occupational therapy programs, specifically related to mental health curricula. A research agenda is proposed in response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]