Mental health service users’ lived experiences of recovery-oriented services: a scoping review

Abstract

Purpose

Over the past 15 years, mental health organisations have taken steps to move towards providing services that are more recovery-oriented. This review was undertaken to explore what is known about service users’ experience of services that have introduced a recovery-oriented approach to service provision. There is limited research evaluating consumers’ lived experiences of recovery-orientated care; a scoping review was chosen to provide an overview of the available research in this area (Munn et al., 2018). The purpose of this review was to summarize and synthesize current qualitative research exploring consumers’ experience of recovery orientated mental health care provision.

Design/methodology/approach

This scoping review was undertaken as outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). The five steps consisted identifying the research question; searching for relevant studies; selecting the studies; charting the studies; and collating, summarising and reporting the findings.

Findings

Three key themes emerged from this review: translation of recovery policy to practice; ward environment; and recovery principles with five subthemes: engagement; not being listened to; shared decision-making; informational needs; and supportive and collaborative relationships. The themes and subthemes identified in each of the 18 studies are presented in Table 3.

Research limitations/implications

This review highlights the different degree to which service users have received recovery-oriented recovery care. In the majority of cases, most service users reported few opportunities for nursing engagement, poor communication, inadequate information provision, a lack of collaborative care and mostly negative experiences of the ward environment. Because of the limited studies on mental health service users’ lived experiences of a recovery-oriented service, more clinical studies are needed and in different cultural contexts.

Practical implications

On hindsight, the authors should have included service users in this review process as consumer inclusion is progressively emphasised in mental health educational and research activities. This review highlights that not all studies have involved service users or consumers in their research activity.

Social implications

Service users need relevant information in a timely manner to participate in decision-making regarding their treatment and care. This review found that either no information was provided to the service users or it was provided in a limited and fragmented manner. This review also found inpatients reported limited opportunities to have meaningful participation in decision-making about their care. These findings have important social implications, as greater consumer engagement in the design and delivery of mental health services will increase community trust in the care provided. This in turn has the potential to facilitate greater community engagement in preventative mental health care.

Originality/value

This is the first review to systematically synthesis consumers perspectives on the extent to which service providers are achieving the goal of implementing recovery-orientated practice into their service provision. Despite important policy changes, the findings of this review demonstrate that more work is needed to truly operationalise and translate these principles into practice.

Citation

Lau, R. and Hutchinson, A. (2021), "Mental health service users’ lived experiences of recovery-oriented services: a scoping review", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 403-423. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-09-2020-0064