'If there's no stability around them': Experienced therapists' view on the role of patients' social world in recovery in bipolar disorder

Background: Recovery in severe mental illness has traditionally been described as a deeply personal process. At the same time, researchers are increasingly attending to the social nature of such processes. In this article, we aim to sup‑ plement the growing knowledge base regarding these social aspects by exploring the perspectives of experienced therapists: how do they view the role of the social world in processes of healing and growth for people with bipolar disorder? And in what ways can the social world impede recovery? Methods: We conducted 12 semi-structured individual interviews and analyzed the resulting transcripts using a team-based thematic analysis method. Results: We identifed three themes: (a) establishing a sense of belonging; (b) backing ongoing therapy; and (c) relational ripple efects. Conclusions: We relate our fndings to existing theory and research, discuss clinical implications, and highlight study limitations. We argue that our fndings underscore the need to integrate an understanding of recovery as a personal and social process in the mental health care services that we provide

Development and evaluation of the INSPIRE measure of staff support for personal recovery

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0983-0This article presents independent research funded by the NIHR under its Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme (Grant Reference Number RP-PG-0707-10040), and in relation to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London

Confirming mental health care in acute psychiatric wards, as narrated by persons experiencing psychotic illness : an interview study

BACKGROUND: It is important that mental health nurses meet the safety, security and care needs of persons suffering from psychotic illness to enhance these persons' likelihood of feeling better during their time in acute psychiatric wards. Certain persons in care describe nurses' mental health care as positive, whereas others report negative experiences and express a desire for improvements. There is limited research on how persons with psychotic illness experience nurses' mental health care acts and how such acts help these persons feel better. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore, describe and understand how the mental health nurses in acute psychiatric wards provide care that helps persons who experienced psychotic illness to feel better, as narrated by these persons. METHOD: This study had a qualitative design; 12 persons participated in qualitative interviews. The interviews were transcribed, content analysed and interpreted using Martin Buber's concept of confirmation. RESULTS: The results of this study show three categories of confirming mental health care that describe what helped the participants to feel better step-by-step: first, being confirmed as a person experiencing psychotic illness in need of endurance; second, being confirmed as a person experiencing psychotic illness in need of decreased psychotic symptoms; and third, being confirmed as a person experiencing psychotic illness in need of support in daily life. The underlying meaning of the categories and of subcategories were interpreted and formulated as the theme; confirming mental health care to persons experiencing psychotic illness. CONCLUSION: Confirming mental health care acts seem to help persons to feel better in a step-wise manner during psychotic illness. Nurses' openness and sensitivity to the changing care needs of persons who suffer from psychotic illness create moments of confirmation within caring acts that concretely help the persons to feel better and that may enhance their health. The results show the importance of taking the experiential knowledge of persons who have experienced psychotic illness seriously to develop and increase the quality of mental health care in acute psychiatric wards