Mental Health Recovery
What Helps and What Hinders?   

The release of Phase One Research Report: A National Study 
of Consumer Perspectives on What Helps and Hinders Recovery is now available. Consumer researchers and non-consumer researchers used a grounded theory approach concerning the phenomenon of recovery and the ways in which the social environment, including the mental health system, impacts the process.

To get a free copy of the Phase One Research Report: A National Study of Consumer Perspectives on What Helps and Hinders Recovery, contact: Isehia Haynie
National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning
66 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 302 Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: (703) 739-9333 Fax: (703) 548-9517
General Inquiries: ntac@nasmhpd.org
You can also download the report.

 Project Sponsors:

• Center for Mental Health Services, Survey and Analysis   Branch

• Columbia University Center for the Study of Social Work Practice

• Human Services Research Institute (HSRI)

• Missouri Institute of Mental Health (MIMH) Program in

•  Consumer Studies and Training

• NASMHPD National Research Institute

• NASMHPD National Technical Assistance Center

• The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research: The Center for Study of Issues in Public Mental Health

 

State Mental Health Authority Research Partners:

• Arizona (Bernadette Phelan)
• Colorado (Deb Kupfer)
• New York (Chip Felton)
•  Oklahoma (Steve Davis)
• Rhode Island (Noelle Wood)
• South Carolina (Ellen Sparks
• Texas (Sue Lummus)
• Utah (Denny Geertsen)
• Washington (Judy Hall)

Project Summary

 People with mental illness make strides in managing and overcoming their disabilities.  Formal helping services may or may not help them in the process.  This project aims to learn from the experience of persons who live with psychiatric disabilities as to what helps and what hinders them in their recovery.  It will then take this information and develop a measure that will help mental health systems improve their services.

The performance of the mental health system and its services must be accountable to the people it serves.  Performance indicators, that is, finding out how well staff and services are performing, is one way in which services and service systems can be improved.  Mental health systems and its services must be shaped in a way that makes recovery a reality in policy and practice and not just name only.  This project will result in the development of a set of performance indicators encouraging recovery.  It is important that such performance indicators be developed from the lived experience of consumer/survivors.  The findings from this project will be based on the lived experiences of consumers and will be developed into performance indicators.  These will be incorporated into an instrument to measure how well the mental health system is performing in terms of facilitating recovery in the people it is serving.

The project involves representatives from nine state mental health authorities (Arizona, Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington) consumer and non-consumer researchers and a consortium of funders and sponsors that includes the Human Services Research Institute, the Center for Mental Health Services, the National Technical Assistance Center, the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, and the Columbia School of Social Works Center for the Study of Social Work Practice.

There are two phases to the overall project and several steps involved in each phase to achieve the goals of this project.  Phase one involves focus group data collection in each of the nine states from a diverse group of consumer/survivors about what helps and hinders them in their recovery.  These focus groups are recorded and then transcribed.  Trained coders analyze this data, focusing first on the individual transcripts and then analyze the data across all the focus group transcripts.  Phase two involves taking the findings from the data analysis and creating indicators of a recovery facilitating/ recovery hindering mental health system.  These indicators will be made into a measure that will be piloted tested by the state participants.

Some of the work has already been completed.  The data has been collected.  Ten focus groups in nine states were held involving 113 consumers/survivors.  The focus group audiotapes have been transcribed.  Each individual transcript has been coded for unique concepts and critical themes.  Individual transcript reports are being developed that can be used by states to check back with their focus group participants to confirm initial findings.  We are in process of developing a common codebook.

Once the common codebook is complete, each transcript will be recoded based on it.  We will then produce a report summarizing the findings of phase one and proceed to phase two, development of indicators.  

Pictured from left to right: Doug Dornan, Jeanne Dumont, Ruth Ralph, Priscilla Ridgway, Steve Onken

Roles of Investigators

Steve Onken, Ph. D. is assistant professor at Columbia Universitys School of Social Work.   His current research focuses on understanding the subjective experiences of people with mental illness and how such understanding contributes to formulating a more effective response in not only mental health service design, delivery, evaluation but also addressing larger issues of stigmatization, oppression, empowerment and recovery.   As a co-principal investigator he is providing oversight for this projects development and implementation as well as conducting data analysis and interpretation.

Jeanne Dumont, Ph. D. is a consultant in health services research.  She was recently the principal investigator of a randomized trial assessing the effectiveness and costs of a consumer-run crisis hostel that was designed as an alternative to inpatient treatment and is currently developing instrumentation from the perspective of consumers and sexual abuse survivors. As a co-principal investigator she is providing oversight for this projects development and implementation as well as conducting data analysis and interpretation.

Doug Dornan, M.S. is a research scientist at the Office of Mental Health NYS Bureau of Evaluation and Targeted Studies.  He has conducted qualitative research on the dimensions of recovery.  As a co-investigator he is collaborating on the development and implementation of this project and will conduct data analysis and interpretation.

Ruth Ralph, Ph.D. is senior research associate at the Edmund Muskie School of Public Service, University  Maine.  Her recent research is as a principal investigator at one of the 7 sites of the national evaluation of consumer operated services and developing a measure based on recovery model developed by the Recovery Advisory Group. As a co-investigator she is collaborating on the development and implementation of this project and will conduct data analysis and interpretation.

Priscilla Ridgway, M.S.W. is the coordinator of the recovery paradigm project of the Office of Mental Health Research and Training at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare where she is a doctoral student.  Her recent research includes analysis of consumer recovery narratives and elements of recovery enhancing environment. As a co-investigator she is collaborating on the development and implementation of this project and will conduct data analysis and interpretation.

For more information regarding the Recovery Project Indicator Measurement Project click on the links below.

Focus Group Facilitator Training

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