Impacts of attending recovery colleges on NHS staff

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of attending a Recovery College (RC) on NHS staff attitudes towards mental health and recovery, clinical and peer interactions, and personal wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative and quantitative data were collected via online surveys from 94 participants. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used. Findings Themes were identified for change in attitudes towards mental health and recovery: new meanings of recovery; challenging traditional views on recovery; hope for recovery; and increased parity. The majority felt that the RC positively influenced the way they supported others. Themes relating to this were: using or sharing taught skills; increased understanding and empathy; challenging non-recovery practices; and adopting recovery practices. Responses highlighted themes surrounding impacts on personal wellbeing: connectedness; safe place; self-care; and sense of competency and morale at work. Another category labelled “Design of RC” emerged with the themes co-learning, co-production and co-facilitation, and content. Research limitations/implications It is important to understand whether RCs are a useful resource for staff. This research suggests that RCs could help to reconcile Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change’s 10 Key Challenges and reduce staff burnout, which has implications for service provision. Originality/value This is one of the first papers to directly explore the value of RCs for staff attending as students, highlighting experiences of co-learning.

Factors influencing the implementation of mental health recovery into services: a systematic mixed studies review

“… Relationship building Practitioner tutors can experience some challenges related to negotiating their dual role of colleague and clinician if the peer co-tutor is also their client and becomes unwell while working together [ 126 ]. Lived experience Including people with lived -experience as peer tutors delivering recovery college courses was valued because of their insight into what people are going through, because students could identify with them, and because their stories of recovery inspired hope and optimism among staff and service user students [ 125 , 128 , 129 ]. Service navigation and coordination Flexibility In comparison to traditional case management, service navigation and coordination initiatives appeared to have fewer boundaries—for example service providers could do whatever it took to support recovery, and could meet clients in the community rather than in an office [ 110 , 134 ].…”

“…Across innovations, the inclusion of people with lived experience of mental health challenges was a valued aspect of designing and packaging recovery-oriented innovations [ 89 , 90 , 98 , 103 , 104 , 106 , 109 , 114 – 116 , 125 , 128 , 129 , 135 , 137 ]. When the source of the intervention was a person or group of people with lived experience, this was viewed positively [ 109 , 115 , 116 ].…”

“…When staff were disinterested in recovery plans or had negative attitudes towards the training and additional paperwork needed, clients perceived this lack of buy-in and felt disappointed, concerned, or equally dismissive of aspects of recovery planning [ 119 , 121 , 122 ]. Recovery colleges Information gaps about new roles and procedures Guidance was needed for service provider students about how to manage boundaries in co-learning environments and whether they should or should not disclose their status as a member of staff to others [ 128 ]. Interpersonal relationships Achieving good rapport between practitioner and peer tutors paired-up to teach courses may be more difficult to achieve if the practitioner tutor is normally the peer tutorʼs service provider [ 126 ].…”

Development and Evaluation of a Recovery College Fidelity Measure

“…Primary published sources that informed the coding framework were a briefing paper on Recovery Colleges 1 and a single-site study of Recovery College characteristics. 2 Other publications were overviews of recovery college components 17 and of emerging communities of practice, 5,18 reviews of key aspects (coproduction, [19][20][21] outcomes, 8,22 recovery), 23 and preliminary evaluations of impacts on staff 24 and services. 25 The coding framework after literature review and expert consultation comprised 7 components and 12 measurable indicators ( Table 1, column 1).…”

The impact of Recovery Colleges on mental health staff, services and society

“…For example, a survey of 94 staff students, i.e. mental health workers attending Recovery Colleges as students, found 93% would recommend attendance to colleagues, with 54% self-identifying attitudinal change, 63% a positive impact on personal wellbeing and 88% benefits for practice (Perkins et al ., 2017). Staff identify benefits from learning about the expertise of lived experience (Sommer et al ., 2018) and increasing their hopefulness about recovery (Newman-Taylor et al ., 2016), resulting in a positive impact on practice (Perkins et al ., 2018).…”