Enabling or Engaging? The Role of Recovery Support Services in Addiction Recovery.

Recovery capital-the quantity and quality of internal and external resources to initiate and maintain recovery-is explored with suggestions for how recovery support services (RSS) (nontraditional, and often nonprofessional support) can be utilized within a context of comprehensive addiction services. This article includes a brief history of RSS, conceptual and operational definitions of RSS, a framework for evaluating RSS, along with a review of recent empirical evidence that suggests that rather than enabling continued addiction, recovery supports are effective at engaging people into care, especially those who have little recovery capital, and/or who otherwise would likely have little to no "access to recovery."

Becoming expert and understanding mental illness.

In the process of becoming an expert in the mental health field the newcomer, through reading, lectures, and supervision, is taught what to notice and how to structure and conceptualize that information. A less recognized part of this learning process is that the newcomer is also taught, explicitly or implicitly, what not to notice, what not to pay attention to. Much of the subjectivity of the newcomer and of the patients and clients he or she sees is pushed, purposely or not, out of the way and is then lost to view. Although these experiences may help the newcomer survive and manage in a complex and difficult world, they also lead to ignoring potentially crucial information. Given how difficult it is at best to know another human being, ignoring available information is particularly unfortunate. In what often appears to be the learning of an important scientific--and objective approach, much data become ignored, potentially leading to a very unscientific "expertise." In this report by making use of first person reports and creative writings, we will describe instances to illustrate how this process takes place and what can be lost or ignored in the effort to be objective and scientific and the implications of this problem for the eventual practice, teaching, or research carried out by the person becoming an expert.

Cascading crises, resilience and social support within the onset and development of multiple chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and better understand adults' responses to the onset, accrual and influence of multiple chronic conditions and to social support in adapting to consequent difficulties. METHODS: Qualitative study of 33 adults with multiple chronic illnesses randomly sampled from an urban primary care clinic. Semi-structured interviews targeted retrospective accounts of illness onset, consequent loss, as well as current accounts of social support and adaptation. All interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed and analysed according to established phenomenological procedures. RESULTS: Participants' responses revealed illness onset as a virtual cascade of medical, emotional and social hardships, leading to loss and subsequent adaptation through personal resilience and particularly, available social support. Participants also described patterns of adaptation punctuated by the felt need and rewards of providing care to others. DISCUSSION: The experience of multiple chronic illnesses has a distinct pattern of development and consequence, involving challenges to personal identity and the benefits of social support from and to others. Our results suggest that programmes addressing the needs of persons with multiple chronic conditions might tailor interventions in ways that maximally address their unique challenges.

Self-efficacy and self-care: missing ingredients in health and healthcare among adults with serious mental illnesses.

To help inform the design of a self-management intervention for improving the physical health of adults with serious mental illnesses, we conducted focus groups about their perceived medical care and physical health needs. Adults with serious mental illnesses participated in four semi-structured focus groups conducted at a transitional living facility, a social club, and a Hispanic outpatient mental health clinic. Questions included their recent experiences of seeking medical care, the effect of having a mental illnesses diagnosis, strategies for active self-care, and perceived barriers to better physical health. In addition to various systemic barriers to better medical care, participants articulated limited knowledge and self-efficacy regarding active self-management of their physical health. Despite their interest in learning more about health promotion, most participants expressed a sense of personal futility and powerlessness in improving their health. These data suggest that any effort to improve the wellbeing of these adults will need to address self-efficacy in the hope of improving self-care for their physical health needs.

Beyond generic support: incidence and impact of invalidation in peer services for clients with severe mental illness.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored experiences of validation and invalidation among clients with severe mental illness in treatment with either peer providers or traditional providers. Associations between six- and 12-month outcomes and validating and invalidating provider communications were also examined. METHODS: A total of 137 adults with severe mental illness were randomly assigned to either peer-based or traditional intensive case management. At six and 12 months participants completed self-report questionnaires on their quality of life, obstacles to recovery, and perceived invalidating and validating qualities (positive regard, empathy, and unconditional acceptance) of relationships with their providers. RESULTS: Mixed analysis of variance showed that communications from and interactions with providers were perceived to be more validating than invalidating by clients in treatment with peer providers than by those in treatment with traditional providers. Regression analyses showed an association at six months, but not at 12 months, between favorable outcomes and the experience of invalidation from peer providers; invalidation from peer providers was linked to improved quality of life and fewer obstacles to recovery, an association that was not found for clients who experienced invalidation from traditional providers. CONCLUSIONS: Peer providers, who reveal their experiences of mental illness to their clients, were perceived to be more validating, and their invalidating communications were linked with favorable short-term outcomes. Both peer and traditional providers sometimes express disapproval of clients' attitudes, values, or behaviors-a form of invalidation. This study found that early in the course of treatment peer providers may be effective in fostering progress by challenging clients' attitudes, values, or behaviors.

A peer-support, group intervention to reduce substance use and criminality among persons with severe mental illness.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the effectiveness of two interventions in reducing alcohol use, drug use, and criminal justice charges for persons with severe mental illnesses: first, a community-oriented group intervention with citizenship training and peer support that was combined with standard clinical treatment, including jail diversion services, and second, standard clinical treatment with jail diversion services alone. METHODS: A total of 114 adults with serious mental illness participated in a 2 x 3 prospective longitudinal, randomized clinical trial with two levels of intervention (group and peer support for the experimental condition and standard services for the control) and three interviews (baseline, six months, and 12 months). Self-report questionnaires assessed alcohol and drug use, and program databases assessed criminal justice contacts. The authors used a mixed-models analysis to assess alcohol and drug use, repeated-measures analysis of covariance to assess criminal justice charges, and correlational analyses to assess the relation between intervention participation and outcome variables. RESULTS: The experimental group showed significantly reduced alcohol use in comparison with the control group. Further, results showed a significant group-by-time interaction, where alcohol use decreased over time in the experimental group and increased in the control group. Drug use and criminal justice charges decreased significantly across assessment periods in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Of the outcomes, only decreased alcohol use was attributable to the experimental intervention. Although this may be a chance finding, peer- and community-oriented group support and learning may facilitate decreased alcohol use over time.

Sober housing and motivational interviewing: the Treatment Access Project.

This paper describes an innovative program that provides rental subsidies for sober housing and supportive services to persons in early recovery who are homeless and have substance use disorders. Preliminary data point to the success of this program in enhancing recovery and exiting from homelessness. In supporting sober house placements, the Treatment Access Project creates a bridge that supports these individuals in their transition from clinical treatment services to the community. Integration with natural community supports can help to build self-efficacy, which can enhance the likelihood that this population will obtain and maintain abstinence, gainful employment, and permanent housing.

The treatment relationship in peer-based and regular case management for clients with severe mental illness.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the quality of treatment relationships and engagement in peer-based and regular case management. It also assessed the value of positive relationship qualities in predicting motivation for and use of community-based services for persons with severe mental illness. METHODS: One hundred thirty-seven adults with severe mental illness participated in a 2x2 prospective longitudinal randomized clinical trial with two levels of case management intervention (peer and regular) and two interviews (six and 12 months). Self-report questionnaires assessed treatment relationships, motivation, and service use, and providers rated participants' initial engagement and monthly attendance in treatment. RESULTS: Participants perceived higher positive regard, understanding, and acceptance from peer providers rather than from regular providers at six months only, with initially unengaged clients showing more contacts with case managers in the peer condition and decreasing contacts in the regular condition. Six-month positive regard and understanding positively predicted 12-month treatment motivation for psychiatric, alcohol, and drug use problems and attendance at Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. CONCLUSIONS: Early in treatment, peer providers may possess distinctive skills in communicating positive regard, understanding, and acceptance to clients and a facility for increasing treatment participation among the most disengaged, leading to greater motivation for further treatment and use of peer-based community services. Findings strongly suggest that peer providers serve a valued role in quickly forging therapeutic connections with persons typically considered to be among the most alienated from the health care service system.