Culture-dependent and Universal Constructs and Promoting Factors for the Process of Personal Recovery in users of Mental Health Services: Qualitative Findings from Japan

Abstract

Background: The conceptualization of personal recovery began in Europe and North America and has spread worldwide. The concept of personal recovery and recovery-promoting factors may be influenced by culture. We explored how users of mental health services in Japan perceive their own personal recovery and the factors that promote it.Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with individuals using mental health services. The interview data underwent thematic analysis, and we adopted a grouped framework analysis approach. We used a coding framework based on the existing CHIME framework (connectedness, hope and optimism about the future, identity, meaning in life, and empowerment). We counted the number of narratives for each element of the framework.Results: Data were obtained from 30 users of mental health services (mean age: 40.4 years; 46.7% women; 50.0% with schizophrenia). “Compassion for others” was newly extracted in “Connectedness”, and “Rebuilding/redefining identity not being as shaped by social norms” was newly extracted in “Identity” as personal recovery. “Positive experiences in childhood” (including positive parenting support from neighbours) was newly extracted as a recovery-promoting factor. Connectedness was most frequently coded in our study.Conclusions: Our unique findings of the rebuilding/defining identity free from conformity to social norms through communications with relatively familiar people including peers may be culture dependent. This study raises overarching questions regarding how socio-cultural values influence the development of identity and personal values and how they are in turn reflected in personal recovery.

Personalized values in life as point of interaction with the world: Developmental/neurobehavioral basis and implications for psychiatry

“…43 On the other hand, in a subsequent qualitative study, they found that connections with others and freedom from social norms, which are unique to Japanese, are important for recovery. 44…”

“…Kanehara et al showed that the concept of personal recovery is generally applicable to the Japanese 43 . On the other hand, in a subsequent qualitative study, they found that connections with others and freedom from social norms, which are unique to Japanese, are important for recovery 44 …”

“…It may be the fate of terms like personalized value, personal recovery, and so forth to take on a vector nature in the interaction between the individual and society. Since the state of the relationship between individuals and society also depends on the culture, when the concept of personal recovery, which originated in Western countries, was introduced to Japan, we should have been cautious 44 . In order for values‐informed psychiatry to be trauma‐informed, consideration must be given to the possibility of re‐traumatization caused by the client's exposure to the word “value.”…”