Lived experience research as a resource for recovery: a mixed methods study
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Lived experience research as a resource for recovery: a mixed methods study Anne Honey1* , Katherine M. Boydell2, Francesca Coniglio3, Trang Thuy Do1, Leonie Dunn4, Katherine Gill5, Helen Glover6, Monique Hines1, Justin Newton Scanlan1 and Barbara Tooth7
Abstract Background: Lived experience research is conducted by people who have experience of mental health issues and is therefore better placed than more traditional research to illuminate participants’ experiences. Findings that focus on identifying enablers of recovery from a lived experience perspective have the potential to assist people in their recovery process. However, this lived experience research is often difficult to find, access and interpret. We coproduced user-friendly and engaging resources to disseminate findings from six lived experience research studies. This paper seeks to answer the research questions: a) Did exposure to lived experience research increase hopefulness for participants?; and b) How else did interacting with lived experience research resources influence participants’ lives? Methods: Thirty-eight participants were introduced to four resources of their choosing by peer workers over a fourweek period. The helpfulness of resources was evaluated using mixed methods, including a quasi-experimental analysis of change in hope, an anonymous survey and in-depth interviews. Results: Findings indicated that the resources promoted hope, but that increases in hopefulness may not be seen immediately. Other impacts include that the resources: encouraged helpful activities; provided a positive experience; increased valued knowledge; encouraged people to reflect on their journey and think constructively about mental health issues; helped people to feel less alone; and assisted people to explain their situation to others. Conclusions: The research suggests the potential usefulness of lived experience research resources, presented in user-friendly formats, in the lives of people who experience mental health issues and implies a need to nurture this type of research. Keywords: Lived experience research, Service user research, Knowledge translation, Mental health recovery, Hope
Background Lived experience research in mental health is research that illuminates the perspectives and experiences of people who live with mental health issues and is conducted either by researchers with their own lived experience or in collaborative research teams that include people with lived experience [1, 2]. This paper investigates the usefulness of
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 School of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
lived experience research in the lives of people living with mental health issues. The importance of lived experience research in mental health is increasingly recognised and usually conceptualised in terms of three major benefits. First, consumer rights activists, using the slogan of “nothing about us with
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