Recovery Mentors as continuing professional development trainers for better recognition of the epistemic value of the experiential knowledge and improved access to recovery-oriented practices.

Jean‐François Pelletier ,Jonathan Bordet,Larry Davidson,David Gaulin

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2019.4.447

Abstract

ObjectivesTo lay the groundwork for the arrival of Recovery Mentors (RMs) in some of its multidisciplinary teams, a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) conference was organized in a large public agency in the province of Quebec, Canada. The aim was to come up collectively with recommendations to improve access to recovery-oriented care and services for this vulnerable population by recognizing the epistemic value of their lived experience.MethodsA series of workshops were organized among health professionals to reflect on their practice and to discuss the role of RMs for improving epistemic equity and recognition of the experiential knowledge. In preparation for these workshops participants completed the Recovery Self-Assessment (RSA). The RSA is a 32-item questionnaire designed to gauge the degree to which programs implement recovery-oriented practices, which should notably include RMs in multidisciplinary teams (five-point Likert scale: 1= strongly disagree ; 5 = strongly agree). The interactive workshops were hosted by RMs as trainers who first shared their lived experience and understanding of recovery.ResultsEighty-height of the 105 participants completed the RSA. The highest score on the RSA was for the item Staff believe in the ability of program participants to recover (mean = 4.2/5). The lowest score was for the item People in recovery are encouraged to attend agency advisory boards and management meetings (mean = 2.2/5). Based on the average inter-item correlation, a reliability test confirmed an excellent internal consistency for the French RSA scale, with a Cronbach's Alpha of .9. Means and standard deviation for each item of the RSA questionnaires were calculated. The results did not differ by participant characteristics. Results to the RSA and results from the workshops that were co-hosted by RMs were reported in the plenary session and further discussed. The workshops, the RSA and the whole CPD conference raised awareness among health professionals about stigmatizing attitudes and epistemic inequity in actual service provision.ConclusionRMs could be invited to actively participate and attend advisory boards and management meetings more frequently and on a more regular basis for ongoing quality improvement towards better access to recovery-oriented practices. This CPD conference has shown the acceptability and feasibility of including RMs as trainers for better recognition of the epistemic value of the experiential knowledge of recovery. They can help health professionals to recognize and better appreciate service users as knowers and potential contributors to knowledge.

Highlights

Mortality due to physical illness is 70% higher among mental health service users compared to the general population [1]
Objectives: To lay the groundwork for the arrival of Recovery Mentors (RMs) in some of its multidisciplinary teams, a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) conference was organized in a large public agency in the province of Quebec, Canada
This paper reports on an accredited CPD conference where RMs acted as trainers to inform and sensitize, about recovery and about the contributive potential of service users as knowers, the health professionals of a large health institution in Canada

Summary

Introduction

Mortality due to physical illness is 70% higher among mental health service users compared to the general population [1]. The explanations generally point to individual lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, and a high body mass index Serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, are not, per se, life-threatening diseases. These people die much younger, yet from the same complications of chronic physical illnesses that affect the rest of the population, such as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer, for example [5] In their meta-analysis of studies of mortality and Major Psychiatric Disorders in 29 countries, Walker, McGee and Druss showed that the risk of premature death in people with psychoses, for example was 2.5 times that of the general population and that the median years of potential life lost was 10 years [6]. Possible causes for this disparity include: delays in preventive health examinations, delays in detecting problems leading to more advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, and delays in the deployment of vital treatments when the diagnosis is made

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion