Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness
BackgroundMental health patients can experience involuntary treatment as disempowering and stigmatising, and contact with recovered peers is cited as important for countering stigma and fostering agency and autonomy integral to recovery.AimsTo advance understanding of the interaction between involun...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2019-11-01
|
| Series: | BJPsych Open |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2056472419000723/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1827995700369031168 |
|---|---|
| author | Bronte McLeod Denny Meyer Greg Murray Fiona Foley Nev Jones Neil Thomas |
| author_facet | Bronte McLeod Denny Meyer Greg Murray Fiona Foley Nev Jones Neil Thomas |
| author_sort | Bronte McLeod |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundMental health patients can experience involuntary treatment as disempowering and stigmatising, and contact with recovered peers is cited as important for countering stigma and fostering agency and autonomy integral to recovery.AimsTo advance understanding of the interaction between involuntary treatment and contact with recovered peers, and explore hypothesised relationships to mechanisms of self-evaluation relevant to recovery.MethodEighty-nine adults diagnosed with serious mental illness completed items to assess involuntary treatment experience and the extent of prior contact with recovered peers, the Internalised Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, the Self-efficacy for Personal Recovery Scale, the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery and relevant demographic and clinical scales.ResultsContact with recovered peers was found to moderate the effects of involuntary treatment on internalised stigma. Sequential conditional process models (i.e. moderated mediation) then demonstrated that conditional internalised stigma (i.e. moderated by contact with recovered peers) mediated the indirect effect of involuntary treatment on recovery-specific self-efficacy, which in turn influenced recovery. Compared with those with low contact with recovered peers, recovery scores were 3.54 points higher for those with high contact.ConclusionsAlthough study methods limit causative conclusions, findings are consistent with proposals that contact with recovered peers may be helpful for this patient group, and suggest this may be particularly relevant for those with involuntary treatment experience. Directions for future research, to further clarify measurement and conceptual tensions relating to the study of (dis)empowering experiences in mental health services, are discussed in detail. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T05:00:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9677bc0bac1e4c74a57dde2fe73c7920 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-4724 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T05:00:28Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BJPsych Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-9677bc0bac1e4c74a57dde2fe73c79202023-03-09T12:28:54ZengCambridge University PressBJPsych Open2056-47242019-11-01510.1192/bjo.2019.72Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illnessBronte McLeod0Denny Meyer1Greg Murray2Fiona Foley3Nev Jones4Neil Thomas5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7006-6361Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, AustraliaProfessor of Statistics, Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, AustraliaProfessor of Psychology, Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, AustraliaProject Manager, Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, AustraliaAssistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of South Florida, USAAssociate Professor of Psychology, Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology;andThe Alfred Hospital, AustraliaBackgroundMental health patients can experience involuntary treatment as disempowering and stigmatising, and contact with recovered peers is cited as important for countering stigma and fostering agency and autonomy integral to recovery.AimsTo advance understanding of the interaction between involuntary treatment and contact with recovered peers, and explore hypothesised relationships to mechanisms of self-evaluation relevant to recovery.MethodEighty-nine adults diagnosed with serious mental illness completed items to assess involuntary treatment experience and the extent of prior contact with recovered peers, the Internalised Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, the Self-efficacy for Personal Recovery Scale, the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery and relevant demographic and clinical scales.ResultsContact with recovered peers was found to moderate the effects of involuntary treatment on internalised stigma. Sequential conditional process models (i.e. moderated mediation) then demonstrated that conditional internalised stigma (i.e. moderated by contact with recovered peers) mediated the indirect effect of involuntary treatment on recovery-specific self-efficacy, which in turn influenced recovery. Compared with those with low contact with recovered peers, recovery scores were 3.54 points higher for those with high contact.ConclusionsAlthough study methods limit causative conclusions, findings are consistent with proposals that contact with recovered peers may be helpful for this patient group, and suggest this may be particularly relevant for those with involuntary treatment experience. Directions for future research, to further clarify measurement and conceptual tensions relating to the study of (dis)empowering experiences in mental health services, are discussed in detail.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2056472419000723/type/journal_articlePeer contactinvoluntary treatmentinternalised stigmapersonal recoveryserious mental illness |
| spellingShingle | Bronte McLeod Denny Meyer Greg Murray Fiona Foley Nev Jones Neil Thomas Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness BJPsych Open Peer contact involuntary treatment internalised stigma personal recovery serious mental illness |
| title | Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| title_full | Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| title_fullStr | Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| title_short | Contact with recovered peers: buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| title_sort | contact with recovered peers buffering disempowering service experiences and promoting personal recovery in serious mental illness |
| topic | Peer contact involuntary treatment internalised stigma personal recovery serious mental illness |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2056472419000723/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brontemcleod contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness AT dennymeyer contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness AT gregmurray contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness AT fionafoley contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness AT nevjones contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness AT neilthomas contactwithrecoveredpeersbufferingdisempoweringserviceexperiencesandpromotingpersonalrecoveryinseriousmentalillness |