Recovery: what mental health nurses and service users say about the concept of recovery

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  This qualitative study investigated the subjective experiences of recovery in mental health with service users and mental health nurses.
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  Data from two focus groups were analysed and found differing perceptions of how mental health services are delivered and the barriers that are seen to hinder the implementation of a recovery philosophy.
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  The main findings of the study are that recovery is a difficult-to-define concept and remains a challenge for both this group of service users and nurses.

This study presents a thematic analysis of focus group talk to examine what recovery in mental health means to service users and nurses. Data were collected from two focus groups, one group of service users and one group of nurses. The service user group (n= 6) were adults with previous or recent experience of inpatient mental health services. The nursing group were registered nurses (n= 5) of various grades and experience currently working in inpatient mental health services in one region of the UK. Thematic analysis using Krueger and Casey’s framework led to four themes being developed. These were ‘understandings of recovery’, ‘semantics’, ‘therapeutics’ and ‘a journey’. While the recovery concept was not new to either group, understandings of recovery were vague and contradictory.