Capabilities for recovery-oriented practice in mental health occupational therapy: A thematic analysis of lived experience perspectives

Abstract

Introduction: Recovery in mental health is both a policy imperative and a contested concept with individual and systemic elements. Occupational therapy research and pre-registration education have not engaged in a substantial way with these ideas, raising questions about how well graduates are equipped for real world practice. We aimed to address this gap by developing lived experience informed recovery-oriented capabilities to inform occupational therapy practice and pre-registration curricula. Method: A participatory qualitative approach guided by a consumer reference group was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 mental health consumers, wherever possible with a lived experience co-interviewer. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Three core capabilities were developed: knowing, comprising five types of knowledge; doing, focused on three key areas of action in practice; and being/becoming, emphasising the lifelong learning journey of becoming a recovery-oriented practitioner who can 'be' in authentic partnerships with consumers to support recovery. Conclusion: These lived experience-informed capabilities offer new areas of focus for pre-registration education, practice and research. A need to engage with systemic factors, build students' capacity for critical thinking about power and structural inequality, and integration of knowledge frameworks through participatory research is suggested.

Patient and public involvement in research published in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy 2015–2021: A scoping review

“…We discuss the challenges of categorising data further in the discussion section. The total number of ways the public were involved is greater than the total number of included studies as in Arblaster et al (2019) and Farr et al (2017) where the public were involved in more than one way.…”

Learning from lived experience: Outcomes associated with students' involvement in co‐designed and co‐delivered recovery‐oriented practice workshops

“…The questionnaire included basic demographic information (age and gender identity) and two surveys: Recovery Knowledge Inventory (RKI) (Bedregal et al, 2006 ; Happell et al, 2015 ) and Capabilities for Recovery Oriented Practice Questionnaire (CROP‐Q) (Arblaster, 2020 ). In Week 10, students were also given a separate, blank sheet of paper for qualitative feedback with the trigger question “Please reflect on your experiences of having individuals with lived experience of mental illness as part of the teaching team in this unit of study.…”

“…The CROP‐Q included 24 items designed to measured recovery‐oriented practice capabilities based on respondents' perceived actions when working with an individual described in a vignette (Arblaster, 2020 ). The CROP‐Q has three variants based on different vignettes.…”

“…This is consistent with previous studies that have suggested that knowledge about recovery is enhanced by teaching delivered by Lived Experience Educators (Arblaster et al, 2015a ). In an attempt to address the criticism that many studies assess only knowledge rather than actual capabilities (Arblaster et al, 2015b ), this study also incorporated the CROP‐Q (Arblaster, 2020 ) in an attempt to measure recovery‐oriented capabilities in students. Scores on the CROP‐Q also demonstrated a significant increase (suggesting an increase in students' recovery‐oriented capabilities over the duration of the semester).…”

Terapia ocupacional e Paulo Freire: uma revisão de escopo

“…A abordagem dialógica é reiterada muitas vezes nos estudos como eixo estruturador da intervenção, que propicia a participação ativa dos sujeitos, a construção de vínculo e a valorização das experiências cotidianas vividas (Arblaster et al, 2019;Silva et al, 2018;Serpa et al, 2018). b) Paulo Freire com Referencial para Auxiliar a Pesquisa em Terapia Ocupacional Dez (17,8%) artigos 7 utilizam o referencial freireano para subsidiar alternativas de pesquisa em terapia ocupacional.…”