Experiences of Hope after Treatment of Hepatitis C Infection-A Qualitative Study.

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of hope people had after undergoing treatment for a hepatitis C virus infection (HCV). Between October 2019 and May 2020, 19 one-on-one interviews were conducted with people who inject drugs and had undergone HCV treatment. All participants had completed treatment and were documented as being virus-free. Data were audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim and analysed; a method inspired by reflexive thematic analysis. Those interviewed conveyed rich and nuanced descriptions of experiences of a life with HCV. Through the course of the analysis we developed four themes. The themes were formulated as metaphors aimed at capturing commonalities about how the participants seemed to "turn their gaze" after receiving HCV treatment: (1) turning their gaze backward; (2) turning their gaze inwards; (3) turning their gaze toward others and (4) turning their gaze forward. Participants' descriptions of their experiences relating to HCV were somewhat gloomy, and HCV treatment seemed to inspire hope and a brighter outlook on several areas of life.

Part I: Dynamics of Recovery: A Meta-Synthesis Exploring the Nature of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery.

Recovery-oriented care has become a leading vision across countries. To develop services and communities in more recovery-oriented directions, enhanced understandings of recovery in terms of personal and social contexts are important prerequisites. The aim of this study is to explore the nature and characteristics of the experiences of recovery. The method used is a form of qualitative meta-synthesis that integrates the findings from multiple qualitative studies published by one research group. Twenty-eight empirical papers with a focus on recovery as personal and contextual experiences were included in this meta-synthesis. Five meta-themes were developed: (a) being normal, (b) respecting and accepting oneself, (c) being in control, (d) recovery as intentional, and (e) recovery as material and social. The themes describe how recovery encompasses dynamics between personal experiences and contextual dimensions. This meta-synthesis consolidated an understanding of recovery as dynamics of the self and others, and as dynamics of the self and material resources. This understanding of recovery suggests the need to work not only with the person, but also with families, networks, social systems, and local communities, thus developing mental health and substance abuse services in more collaborative, open-ended, and context-sensitive directions.

Exploring staff conceptions of prevention and management practices in encounters with staff-directed aggression in supported housing following education and training.

BACKGROUND: Staff-directed aggression is a concern for service providers in mental healthcare, frequently affecting both the quality of services and staff wellbeing. This also applies to supported housing services for people with mental health problems. Staff themselves consider training to be an important route to improve the prevention and management of staff-directed aggression. The aims of this study are to explore how staff in community mental health supported housing services conceptualize practice in prevention and management of aggression and how these conceptions develop following a local education and training endeavor in disempowerment-sensitive, de-escalating and knowledge-based risk assessment and management. METHOD: Phenomenography, a qualitative research approach, was adopted to pursue the study aims. The data consisted of 26 semi-structured interviews with 13 participants from five different municipal housing facilities in Oslo, Norway. Participants were interviewed on two occasions, once prior to participation and once subsequent to the finalization of the education and training sessions. RESULTS: The analysis led to the development of six qualitatively different, yet logically interrelated, categories of description regarding practice in encounters with staff-directed aggression: (1) Observation, alertness and awareness, (2) Established understanding and knowledge of service users, (3) Team-based risk management and deliberation, (4) Adaption of own dispositions and behaviors, (5) Reflexivity, sensitivity and care and (6) Involvement and dialogue. These conceptions were found to vary in meaning and focus; they ranged from implementing safeguarding and protective measures, to drawing on what was portrayed in terms of staff's expert knowledge, to increasingly allowing for, and committing to, tenant perspectives in designing practice. The results indicate a moderate, yet beneficial, effect of the course on conceptual change in the participants. CONCLUSION: This study shows that practice in encounters with staff-directed aggression is conceptualized as complex and multifaceted by staff in mental health supported housing services and that the various conceptions have different implications for the way staff-directed aggression is mitigated individually and collectively. Our findings also suggest that it is beneficial to take conceptual variation regarding practice into consideration when devising education and training aimed at enhancing staff knowledge, skills and practices.

A heuristic model for collaborative practice - Part 1: a meta-synthesis of empirical findings on collaborative strategies in community mental health and substance abuse practice.

BACKGROUND: Collaboration has become a cornerstone for healthcare practice in recent decades resulting in the efforts at international and national levels to integrate the concept into healthcare practice and services. However, there is a paucity of research delineating strategies for professionals to apply in collaborative practice with clients in general as well as in mental health and substance abuse (MHSA) care. METHODS: The method applied in this paper is a form of qualitative meta-synthesis referring to the integration of findings from multiple qualitative studies within a program of research by the same investigators. Eighteen empirical papers with the focus on community MHSA practice and recovery-orientation with relevance to the service user-professional relationship in MHSA practice were included in this meta-synthesis. RESULTS: Three types of processes of collaboration specified by meta-themes were identified. The meta-themes of the interactive-dialogical process type include (a) maintaining human relationship, (b) walking alongside, (c) information sharing, (d) seizing the present moment, (e) taking the perspective of the other, and (f) aligning/scaffolding. The meta-themes of the negotiated-participatory engagement type include (a) feedback-informing process, (b) putting differences to work, (c) negotiated partnering, (d) accommodating user participation, and (e) addressing the tension between help and control. The meta-themes of the negotiated supportive process type are (a) helping in context, (b) coordinating, (c) pulling together, (d) advocating, and (e) availing. These meta-themes are strategies for collaboration applicable in MHSA practice. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-synthesis of collaborative processes found in community mental health practice points to the possibility of developing a set of repertoires of practice for service user/professional collaboration, especially in community MHSA practice.

A heuristic model for collaborative practice-part 2: development of the collaborative, dialogue-based clinical practice model for community mental health and substance abuse care.

BACKGROUND: Various models for collaborative practice in mental health care incorporating the perspectives of service-user participation and collaboration in the care have been developed. However, the emphasis in these practice models has not been on identifying specific features of "how" collaboration and service-user participation can occur and be nurtured. This suggests a need for a collaborative practice model that specifies essential strategies operationalizing the tenets of service-user participation and collaboration applicable in mental health and substance abuse (MHSA) care. METHODS: A double helix approach of coalescing theoretical ideas and empirical findings to develop a practice model that is applicable in MHSA practice. A theoretical analysis is carried out to identify the critical, foundational elements for collaborative practice in MHSA practice, and has identified the philosophical-theoretical orientations of Habermas' theory of communicative action, Bakhtin's dialogicality, and the philosophy of personhood as the foundational features of collaboration. This base is juxtaposed with the results of a qualitative meta-analysis of 18 empirical articles on collaboration in MHSA to advance a collaborative practice model specifically in the domain of service user/professional collaboration. RESULTS: "The collaborative, dialogue-based clinical practice model" (CDCP Model) for community mental health care is proposed, within the structure of four main components. The first specifies the framework for practice that includes person-centered care, recovery-orientation, and a pluralistic orientation and the second identifies the domains of collaboration as service user/professional collaboration, inter-professional collaboration, and service sector collaboration. The third identifies self-understanding, mutual understanding, and shared decision-making as the essential principles of collaboration. The fourth specifies interactive-dialogic processes, negotiated-participatory engagement processes, and negotiated-supportive processes as the essential strategies of collaboration applicable in service user/professional collaboration which were extracted in the empirical work. An illustration of the CDCP Model in a clinical case is given. CONCLUSIONS: The CDCP Model presented fills the gap that exists in the field of community MHSA practice regarding how to operationalize systematically the tenets of person-centeredness, recovery-oriented, and pluralism-oriented practice in terms of user/professional collaboration.

Encountering staff-directed aggression within mental health and substance abuse services: exploring conceptions of practice following education.

BACKGROUND: Staff-directed aggression represents a considerable concern in mental health and substance abuse services, and presents a substantial challenge to the quality and continuity of service provision for people with mental health and substance abuse problems. The practitioners themselves frequently request increased competence as a way to mediate the negative effects of staff-directed violence and aggression. The aim of this study is to explore how practitioners in municipal mental health and substance abuse services conceptualize practice in prevention and management of staff-directed violence. Furthermore, we seek to explore how these conceptions change following participation in two complementary and specially developed courses advancing respectively, qualified risk assessment and situational awareness and disempowerment-sensitive and de-escalation principles for practice. METHOD: The study was conducted by using a qualitative phenomenographic research approach. The data-material comprised two-step semi-structured interviews with ten participants from various parts of community mental health and substance abuse services in the Municipality of Oslo, Norway. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in the development of five qualitatively different, hierarchically ordered, yet logically interrelated conceptual categories of practice concerning prevention and management of staff-directed aggression in community mental health and substance abuse services. These are: (1) Observation, reporting and expectation of organizational intervention, (2) Application of personalized de-escalating skills and behaviour, (3) Delivery of team-based and standardized services, (4) Provision of perceptive and responsive services, and (5) Facilitation of sensitive, involving and reflexive care. The categories vary according to the participants' attentional focus on either the responsibility of the organization, staff members' personally developed skills and techniques, team-based solutions, knowledgeable information processing in making professional judgements and reflexive, interpersonal service provision, as well as according to what meaning participants assign to practice. The authors have identified varying degrees of conceptual change following education in half of the participants. CONCLUSION: The results of this study both show that practitioners conceptualize practice in aggressive encounters quite differently. The study also indicate that it is important to consider participant awareness of the phenomenon of interest when devising educational activities for personnel in mental health and substance abuse services.

Characteristics of mental health recovery narratives: Systematic review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Narratives of recovery from mental health distress have played a central role in the establishment of the recovery paradigm within mental health policy and practice. As use of recovery narratives increases within services, it is critical to understand how they have been characterised, and what may be missing from their characterisation thus far. The aim of this review was to synthesise published typologies in order to develop a conceptual framework characterising mental health recovery narratives. METHOD: A systematic review was conducted of published literature on the characteristics of mental health recovery narratives. Narrative synthesis involved identifying characteristics and organising them into dimensions and types; and subgroup analysis based on study quality, narrator involvement in analysis, diagnosis of psychosis and experience of trauma. The synthesis was informed by consultation with a Lived Experience Advisory Panel and an academic panel. The review protocol was pre-registered (Prospero CRD42018090188). RESULTS: 8951 titles, 366 abstracts and 121 full-text articles published January 2000-July 2018 were screened, of which 45 studies analysing 629 recovery narratives were included. A conceptual framework of mental health recovery narratives was developed, comprising nine dimensions (Genre; Positioning; Emotional Tone; Relationship with Recovery; Trajectory; Use of Turning Points; Narrative Sequence; Protagonists; and Use of Metaphors), each containing between two and six types. Subgroup analysis indicated all dimensions were present across most subgroups, with Turning Points particularly evident in trauma-related studies. CONCLUSIONS: Recovery narratives are diverse and multidimensional. They may be non-linear and reject coherence. To a greater extent than illness narratives, they incorporate social, political and rights aspects. Approaches to supporting development of recovery narratives should expand rather than reduce available choices. Research into the narratives of more diverse populations is needed. The review supports trauma-informed approaches, and highlights the need to understand and support post-traumatic growth for people experiencing mental health issues.