Lived Experiences of a Sustained Mental Health Recovery Process Without Ongoing Medication Use

This paper builds on the concept of mental health recovery to critically examine three football projects in the United Kingdom and their effects on the recovery process. Drawing on qualitative research on the lived experiences of mental health clients and service providers across the three projects, we explore the role of football in relation to three components of recovery: engagement, stigma, and social isolation. The findings indicate how the projects facilitated increased client engagement, peer supports, and the transformation of self-stigma. The perception of football as an alternative setting away from the clinical environment was an important factor in this regard. Yet, the results also reveal major limitations, including the narrow, individualistic conceptualization of both recovery and stigma within the projects, the reliance on a biomedical model of mental illness, and the potentially adverse consequences of using football in mental health interventions.

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Personal recovery and socio-structural disadvantage: A critical conceptual review

Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine ◽

10.1177/13634593211014250 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136345932110142

Author(s):

Dimitar Karadzhov

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Recovery Process ◽

Mental Health Recovery ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Structural Constraints ◽

Personal Recovery ◽

Structural Disadvantage ◽

Mental Health Difficulties ◽

The Impact

Despite its seeming breadth and diversity, the bulk of the personal (mental health) recovery literature has remained strangely ‘silent’ about the impact of various socio-structural inequalities on the recovery process. Such an inadequacy of the empirical literature is not without consequences since the systematic omission or downplaying, at best, of the socio-structural conditions of living for persons with lived experience of mental health difficulties may inadvertently reinforce a reductionist view of recovery as an atomised, individualised phenomenon. Motivated by those limitations in extant scholarship, a critical literature review was conducted to identify and critique relevant research to problematise the notion of personal recovery in the context of socio-structural disadvantage such as poverty, homelessness, discrimination and inequalities. The review illuminates the scarcity of empirical research and the paucity of sociologically-informed theorisation regarding how recovery is shaped by the socio-structural conditions of living. Those inadequacies are especially pertinent to homelessness research, whereby empirical investigations of personal recovery have remained few and undertheorised. The gaps in the research and theorising about the relational, contextual and socio-structural embeddedness of recovery are distilled. The critical review concludes that personal recovery has remained underresearched, underproblematised and undertheorised, especially in the context of homelessness and other forms of socio-structural disadvantage. Understanding how exclusionary social arrangements affect individuals’ recovery, and the coping strategies that they deploy to negotiate those, is likely to inform anti-oppressive interventions that could eventually remove the structural constraints to human emancipation and flourishing.

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Music Activities and Mental Health Recovery: Service Users’ Perspectives Presented in the CHIME Framework

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18126638 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (12) ◽

pp. 6638

Author(s):

Janne Brammer Damsgaard ◽

Anita Jensen

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Social Practice ◽

Recovery Process ◽

Mental Health Recovery ◽

Complex Nature ◽

Service Users ◽

Emotional Wellbeing ◽

Music Activities

Internationally, mental health service developments are increasingly informed by the principles of recovery, and the availability of arts and creative activities are becoming more common as part of provision. Mental health service users’ experiences, reflecting on the complex nature of using music participation in recovery are, however, limited. This essay considers literature that explores how music can support mental health service users in a recovery process. We have selected studies that include a broad spectrum of music activities, as well as literature considering various concepts about recovery. The conceptual recovery framework CHIME, that includes five important components in the recovery process, is used as the backdrop for exploring music activities as a contribution to recovery-oriented practice and services in mental health care. Eleven key components are identified in which music can support the recovery process: Feelings of equality; Social and emotional wellbeing; Tolerance; Hope and social agency; Triggering encounters; Redefining and reframing; A social practice; Moments of flow and peak experiences; Moments of meaning; Continuity; and Potentials instead of limitations. This essay concludes that the experiential knowledge of music activities from service users’ perspectives is essential knowledge when developing and using music activities in mental health recovery services. While this essay acknowledges that music activities can also produce unintended negative outcomes, the focus is on the positive contributions of music to mental health recovery processes.

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Cross-cultural conceptualization and implementation of recovery in mental health: a literature review

Mental Health and Social Inclusion ◽

10.1108/mhsi-08-2020-0057 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Eleni Sofouli

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Services ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

Minority Groups ◽

Recovery Process ◽

Supported Housing ◽

Mental Health Recovery ◽

Content Type ◽

The Future

Purpose This paper aims to review how the recovery concept among cultural and ethnic minorities has been conceptualized within extant literature. Drawing on the Connectedness; Hope and optimism about the future; Identity; Meaning in life; and Empowerment (CHIME) framework, this paper highlights the cultural adaptations of supported housing – a prominent recovery-oriented intervention – as it has been implemented in a multicultural western country and delineates the future implications for research, policy and practice in regard to mental health recovery interventions for cultural and ethnic minorities. Design/methodology/approach An online search was performed to identify recent empirical studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Findings The reviewed studies confirmed what Leamy et al. (2011) had initially reported: spirituality and support networks can act as enablers or inhibitors in the recovery process of mental health services users with diverse cultural backgrounds. The stigma surrounding mental illness is a key challenge that skews the recovery experience among minority groups. Other cultural-specific factors influencing recovery include linguistic peculiarities of the maternal language and gender. The cultural adaptation of a recovery-oriented intervention is not only feasible and effective but also challenging. Originality/value By studying the cultural variations of mental health recovery, the intention is to inform mental health practitioners and other key stakeholders of the distinct cultural components that influence the recovery process, thereby promoting the development of culturally sensitive, accessible and effective recovery-oriented interventions. It is worth noting that providing culturally appropriate mental health services could be viewed as a human right issue for minority groups.

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The Lived Experiences of Participating in Physical Activity among Young People with Mental Health Problems. A Recovery-Oriented Perspective

Physical Culture and Sport Studies and Research ◽

10.1515/pcssr-2015-0010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 41-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Anna Staal ◽

Ejgil Jespersen

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Physical Activity ◽

Young People ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Psychiatric Treatment ◽

Social Activity ◽

Recovery Process ◽

Evaluation Study ◽

Health Problems

AbstractThere is a growing understanding that psychiatric treatment is more than psychotherapy and medication, and that people themselves can be active in preventing and handling mental health problems. This brings non-medical solutions into play. Physical activity (in terms of exercise, sport, and fitness) becomes an important contribution in this particular context. The perceived mental and physical benefits of physical activity (both preventative and therapeutic) for people experiencing mental health problems are well documented. Typically, this kind of research focuses narrowly on “size of effect” or “most successful type of intervention” or “exercise versus other treatment.” Less research has explored the lived experience of physical activity and the meaning and relevance it has for individuals in their everyday lives. This article suggests that sport and exercise can play a valuable role in and contribute to the recovery process for young people with mental health problems. Results from an evaluation study of a developmental project in Denmark shows how physical activity affects a person‟s lived experiences, relationships, and pursuits. The findings is discussed in relation to the concept of recovery, especially focusing on exercise as a form of self-care strategy, as an opportunity to create social relationships, and as a way to become part of a meaningful social activity.

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