EN:

Objective: There is little known about the role of Peer Support Workers (PSWs) in mental health programming in Western Canada. To contribute to this body of knowledge, Canadian Mental Health Association – Calgary Region (CMHA Calgary) sought to clearly define and understand how PSWs could support mental health programming in a non-clinical way. Research Design and Methods: CMHA Calgary planned to integrate PSWs into all existing mental health programs. The integration of PSWs was piloted in the organization’s group counselling program to collect information and gain learnings that could be used to spread the initiative to all programs. The project team developed a developmental evaluation framework as a guide to collect feedback and understand the impact of the initiative. Qualitative data was collected from PSWs, counsellors, and program management using formal one-on-one interviews, anonymous surveys, and consensus building in group settings. This information was analyzed using a collaborative thematic analysis approach. This involved two reviewersworking together to analyze and identify themes within the data. Results: This project provided CMHA Calgary with information on how to integrate PSWs into all programs. The project further allowed for the development of program materials for future application. Conclusions: The results of this project contribute to the overall knowledge of PSWs in Western Canada and can be used by other organizations looking to integrate PSWs into mental health programming.

EN:

Objectives

Mental health staff play an important role in facilitating personal recovery. We examined how mental health staff perceived personal recovery and the professional and personal benefits of their experience with supporting the personal recovery of service users.

Research Design and Methods

Forty-eight mental health staff wrote a narrative about a service user with severe mental illness that they believed to be in the process of personal recovery and elaborated on the impact of this professional experience. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to illuminate 1) staff conceptualizations of personal recovery, 2) professional contribution to recovery, and 3) positive impactof recovery-oriented care on staff.

Results

Staff conceptualizations of recovery focused on social connections and positive subjective states, as well assymptom remission and illness management. Professional contributions were narrated as encompassing treatment, relationships, and conversations as well as time and team collaboration. Impact on the staff included strong positive emotions, professional gains with respect to learning and self-esteem, motivation for and meaning in work, as well as belief in recovery.

Conclusions

This latter finding suggests that sharing narratives about service users in the process of personal recovery may increase work pleasure and help reduce burnout in mental health staff.

EN:

Objective: Methods for characterizing mental health recovery narratives are needed to enable the selection of helpful narratives which can support the recovery processes of other people. The Inventory of Characteristics of Recovery Stories (INCRESE) is an existing English-language tool to characterize recovery narratives, which is not available in Dutch. The aims of this study were to create a Dutch translation of INCRESE and to evaluate the feasibility of sustained and routine use, as well as its validity and reliability.

Research design and methods: INCRESE was translated into Dutch (INCRESE-NL) using an established translation methodology. Six coders with different professional backgrounds rated 30 purposively selected Dutch narratives using INCRESE-NL and then completed an evaluation survey. Feasibility was assessed qualitatively and content validity both qualitatively and quantitatively. Gwet’s AC1 agreement coefficient was used to calculate intercoder reliability.

Results: Coders evaluated INCRESE-NL as a suitable instrument to capture important characteristics of recovery narratives with an acceptable administrative burden. The content validity index was sufficient for 5/7 sections of INCRESE-NL. Most items were found to be clear and suitable for capturing the corresponding characteristic, although some missed strict coding rules or clear descriptions, especially in section 4 on narrative characteristics. Gwet’s AC1 could be calculated for 67/77 items, of which 62 scored sufficient and five scored below threshold. Gwet’s AC1 coefficients corresponded well with the original INCRESE Fleiss Kappa values.

Conclusions: INCRESE-NL has sufficient feasibility, validity and reliability and can be used to characterize Dutch recovery narratives.