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Recovery college as a transition space in the journey towards recovery: An Australian qualitative study
Author(s) -
MuirCochrane Eimear,
Lawn Sharon,
Coveney John,
Zabeen Sara,
Kortman Brenton,
Oster Candice
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/nhs.12637
Subject(s) - mental health , qualitative research , lived experience , mental illness , focus group , exploratory research , nursing , psychology , identity (music) , medical education , space (punctuation) , medicine , psychotherapist , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , physics , anthropology , acoustics
Recovery colleges are formal learning programs that aim to support people with a lived experience of mental illness. In this study, we aimed to explore the experiences of participants in a pilot recovery college that opened in Adelaide, South Australia, in 2016. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted involving interviews with learners ( n = 8) and focus groups with lived experience facilitators (course facilitators with a lived experience of mental illness, n = 5), Clinician facilitators (mental health service staff facilitators, n = 4), and care coordinators (staff providing case management support, n = 5). Three main themes (hope, identity, and the recovery college as a transition space) and two subthemes (recovery college experience and outcomes) were identified. The results showed that the recovery college provided a transition space for shifting learners' identities from patient to student, facilitated by the experiences and outcomes of the recovery college, providing hope for the future. This study highlights the importance of providing mentally healthy and non‐stigmatizing learning environments to promote and cement recovery for people with a lived experience of mental illness.