Mood and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders. People with such disorders implement self-management strategies to reduce or prevent their symptoms and to optimize their health and well-being. Even though self-management strategies are known to be essential to recovery, few researchers have examined them. The aim of this study is to explore strategies used by people recovering from depressive, anxiety, and bipolar disorders by asking 50 of them to describe their own strategies. Strategies were classified according to dimensions of recovery: social, existential, functional, physical, and clinical. Within these themes, 60 distinct strategies were found to be used synergistically to promote personal recovery as well as symptom reduction. Findings highlight the diversity of strategies used by people, whether they have depressive, anxiety, or bipolar disorders. This study underscores the importance of supporting self-management in a way that respects individual experience.

Context: A shift toward person-centered care has been occurring in services provided to people with mood and anxiety disorders. Recovery is recognized as encompassing personal aspects in addition to clinical ones. Guidelines now recommend supporting people's engagement in self-management as a complementary recovery avenue. Yet the literature lacks evidence on how individualized combinations of self-management strategies used by people relate to their clinical and personal recovery indicators.Objectives: The aims of this study were to identify profiles underlying mental health recovery, describe the characteristics of participants corresponding to each profile, and examine the associations of profiles with criterion variables.Method: 149 people recovering from anxiety, depressive, or bipolar disorders completed questionnaires on self-management, clinical recovery (symptom severity), personal recovery (positive mental health), and criterion variables (personal goal appraisal, social participation, self-care abilities, coping).Results: Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed three profiles. The Floundering profile included participants who rarely used self-management strategies and had moderately severe symptoms and the lowest positive mental health. The Flourishing profile was characterized by frequent use of self-empowerment strategies, the least severe symptoms, and the highest positive mental health. Participants in the Struggling profile engaged actively in several self-management strategies focused on symptom reduction and healthy lifestyle. They concomitantly reported high symptom severity and moderately high positive mental health. The study revealed that Floundering was associated with higher probabilities of being a man, being single, and having a low income. People in the Flourishing profile had the most favorable scores on criterion variables, supporting the profiles' construct validity.Discussion: The mixed portrait of Struggling participants on recovery indicators suggests the relationship between health engagement and recovery is more intricate than anticipated. Practitioners should strive for a holistic understanding of their clients' self-management strategies and recovery indicators to provide support personalized to their profile. While people presenting risk factors would benefit from person-centered support, societal efforts are needed in the long term to reduce global health inequalities. The integration of constructs from diverse fields (patient-centered care, chronic illness, positive psychology) and the use of person-oriented analysis yielded new insights into people's engagement in their health and well-being.

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Although tenants of public housing face numerous challenges, recent research suggests they can experience positive well-being. The study examines a group of tenants' perspective on structures of their residential environment that influence their positive well-being, using the empowerment-based Photovoice method. Ten peer-researchers took pictures, participated in facilitated group discussions, and performed a thematic analysis. The study presents themes emerging from the pictures, as well as concrete outcomes of implementing such a method in a public housing setting. Findings: Six themes emerged from the pictures taken: (1) a pleasant home, inspiring pride; (2) variety of local resources; (3) mutual support and social participation; (4) control over life situations; (5) social, leisure and growth opportunities; (6) beneficial access to nature. The findings reveal the nuances of tenants' relationships with their residential environment, which has the potential to support their emotional, psychological, and social well-being. However, several needs for improvement were also identified, as well as avenues for tenants to take more power over these negative situations. The Photovoice method appears to have produced positive outcomes in terms of environmental improvement and tenant empowerment. Applications: The study suggests social workers should bear in mind the multifaceted person-environment relationship of the people they work with. It also emphasizes that public housing tenants can play an active role in making their environment a place where they can flourish. The Photovoice method is highlighted as a useful tool for social work community practitioners to support tenant empowerment.

Historically, positive psychology research and practice have focused on studying and promoting well-being among individuals. While positive psychology interventions focusing on the well-being of communities and marginalized groups have recently been developed, studies reporting on their nature and characteristics are lacking. The aim of this paper is to examine the nature of community-level positive psychology interventions. It reviews the target populations, intervention modalities, objectives, and desired effects of 25 community-level positive psychology interventions found in 31 studies. This scoping review shows that community-level programs based on positive psychology vary greatly in all these aspects. However, most interventions are aimed at individual-level changes to achieve target group outcomes. Contextual issues such as social conditions, values, and fairness affecting well-being are rarely considered. Discrepancies between community-level positive psychology interventions and community psychology in terms of values and social change are discussed.