A narrative study of mental health recovery: exploring unique, open-ended and collective processes

Nina Petersen Reed,Staffan Josephsson,Sissel Alsaker

doi:10.1080/17482631.2020.1747252

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: Guided by narrative theory and by use of a narrative-in-action approach, the aim of this study was to explore how mental health recovery unfolds through individuals’ engagement in everyday activities. Method: Data were created through participant observations with four individuals while doing everyday activities, and analysed through a narrative, interpretive approach. Findings: The findings show how mental health recovery involves unique and open-ended processes of narrative meaning-making, which unfold through an interplay between everyday activities, places and persons. Discussion: Based on these findings, we discuss how we may understand and support mental health recovery as collective processes.

Highlights

Everyday activities are an important focus for recoveryoriented research and practice
The transformative potential of everyday activities has been explored in research on mental health recovery, suggesting that recovery progresses through activities and describing recovery as an occupational journey embedded in everyday life contexts (Borg & Davidson, 2008; Davidson et al, 2006; Doroud et al, 2015; Kelly et al, 2010; Sutton et al, 2012)
Building on narrative theory we have argued that individuals create meaning through their activities and that such meaning-making processes offer possibilities of transformation and recovery

Summary

Introduction

Everyday activities are an important focus for recoveryoriented research and practice. The transformative potential of everyday activities has been explored in research on mental health recovery, suggesting that recovery progresses through activities and describing recovery as an occupational journey embedded in everyday life contexts (Borg & Davidson, 2008; Davidson et al, 2006; Doroud et al, 2015; Kelly et al, 2010; Sutton et al, 2012). Acknowledging the importance of everyday activities in recovery, several authors call for more in-depth, processual and contextual knowledge of how processes of recovery unfold through everyday activities (Doroud et al, 2015; Duff, 2016; Ellison et al, 2018; PriceRobertson et al, 2017; Topor et al, 2011). As research suggests a multifaceted understanding of recovery, there has been some critique on research and services that focus primarily on the individual, with social and contextual factors serving only a secondary role (Kogstad et al, 2011; Price-Robertson et al, 2017)

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