Easier Said Than Done: The Challenge to Teach “Personal Recovery” to Mental Health Professionals Through a Short, Targeted and Structured Training Programme

Laura Giusti,Massimo Casacchia,Rita Roncone,Donatella Ussorio,Anna Salza

doi:10.1007/s10597-021-00910-w

Laura Giusti, Massimo Casacchia + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-021-00910-w

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Abstract

This study assesses the effectiveness of our short Personal Recovery Training Program (PRTP) for mental health professionals. Fifty-two healthcare professionals from Italian mental health services and forty students in psychiatric rehabilitation completed the Recovery Knowledge Inventory (RKI) pre- and post-training, divided into two groups: the PRTP (N = 45) and the Family Psychoeducational Training Program (FPTP; N = 47). Participants’ understanding of personal recovery improved more significantly for those in the PRTP than for those in the FPTP group in two domains, “Roles and responsibilities” and “Non-linearity of the recovery process”; the FPTP group showed a significant improvement in the “Role of self-definition and peers in recovery” domain. Two consumers were involved in the PRTP and represented a resource to help participants understand the personal recovery process. Our findings indicate that a brief PRTP supported by consumers can improve staff and students' recovery orientation. The translation of the training into clinical practice remains unevaluated.

Highlights

From the perspective of the person with mental illness, recovery means gaining and retaining hope, understanding one’s abilities and disabilities, engagement in active life, personal autonomy, social identity, meaning and purpose in life, and a positive sense of self (WHO, 2012)
Based on the aforementioned model, we developed our short and targeted Personal Recovery Training Program (PRTP) for mental health professionals to improve the understanding of the users’ “personal recovery” paradigm, in a country such as Italy that has practiced community mental healthcare for 40 years
The aim of our study was to preliminary examine the effectiveness of the PRTP for mental health professionals and students of psychiatric rehabilitation techniques compared to the Family Psychoeducational Training Program (FPTP), which was used as comparison program

Summary

Introduction

From the perspective of the person with mental illness, recovery means gaining and retaining hope, understanding one’s abilities and disabilities, engagement in active life, personal autonomy, social identity, meaning and purpose in life, and a positive sense of self (WHO, 2012). In contrast to clinical or social recovery, comprising a reduction or absence of symptoms and a significant improvement in occupational and social functioning, personal recovery was defined as a process that individuals go through to live a satisfying life and achieve life goals (Lemos-Giraldez et al, 2015), a process of helping people to live a life ‘beyond illness’—i.e. to recover a meaningful life, with or without symptoms is the traditional meaning applied to ‘personal’ recovery (Slade, 2009). Lower cognitive and clinical insight, lower social functioning, and total independence from the illness condition and the functional status were

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