Transforming mental health services: a participatory mixed methods study to promote and evaluate the implementation of recovery-oriented services.

Background: Since 2007, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has worked collaboratively across all provinces to publish a framework and strategy for recovery and well-being. This federal document is now mandated as policy for implementation between 2012 and 2017. The proposed strategies have been written into provincial health plans, hospital accreditation standards, and annual objectives of psychiatric departments and community organizations.

Mental health consumers and providers dialogue in an institutional setting: a participatory approach to promoting recovery-oriented care.

Objective: This brief report presents the preliminary findings of a participatory project, to answer a question raised by stakeholders in mental health services: How can providers and patients create a process for knowledge exchange to support recovery-oriented care?

Method: Participatory action research (PAR) and narrative phenomenological methodology guided the selection of methods, which consisted of an iterative process between telling stories and dialoguing about personal values related to recovery. The sample consisted of three occupational therapists, a psychiatrist, an academic-clinician, and five consumers of mental health services who were involved in each stage of the research, including design, interpretation, dissemination, and implementation.

Results: Significant interpersonal and intrapersonal tensions were named, and conditions for a more sustainable process of knowledge exchange were explored.