Combining online and offline peer support groups in community mental health care settings: a qualitative study of service users' experiences.

Background: Peer support for people with long-term mental health problems is central to recovery-oriented approaches in mental health care. Peer support has traditionally been conducted offline in face-to-face groups, while online groups on the Internet have increased rapidly. Offline and online peer support groups are shown to have differing strengths and weaknesses.

Exploring Working Relationships in Mental Health Care via an E-Recovery Portal: Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Service Users and Health Providers.

Background: The quality of working relationships between service users and health providers is fundamental in the processes of recovery in mental health. How Internet-based interventions will influence these relationships for persons with long-term care needs, and the measures that can be taken to maintain and enhance working relationships through Internet, is still not well understood.

Objective: The aim of this study was to gain insights into how service users and health providers experience their working relationships when they are offered the option of supplementing ongoing collaboration with an e-recovery portal.

Shifting Practices Toward Recovery-Oriented Care Through an E-Recovery Portal in Community Mental Health Care: A Mixed-Methods Exploratory Study.

Background: Mental health care is shifting from a primary focus on symptom reduction toward personal recovery-oriented care, especially for persons with long-term mental health care needs. Web-based portals may facilitate this shift, but little is known about how such tools are used or the role they may play in personal recovery.

Objective: The aim was to illustrate uses and experiences with the secure e-recovery portal "ReConnect" as an adjunct to ongoing community mental health care and explore its potential role in shifting practices toward recovery.

Service users' perspectives in the design of an online tool for assisted self-help in mental health: a case study of implications.

Background: The involvement of persons with lived experiences of mental illness and service use is increasingly viewed as key to improving the relevance and utility of mental health research and service innovation. Guided by the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research we developed an online tool for assisted self-help in mental health. The resulting tool, PsyConnect, is ready for testing in two communities starting 2014.