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Understanding recovery in the context of lived experience of personality disorders: a collaborative, qualitative research study.

Gillard, S; Turner, K; Neffgen, M (2015) Understanding recovery in the context of lived experience of personality disorders: a collaborative, qualitative research study. BMC Psychiatry, 15 (1). p. 183. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0572-0
SGUL Authors: Gillard, Steven George

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Concepts of recovery increasingly inform the development and delivery of mental health services internationally. In the UK recent policy advocates the application of recovery concepts to the treatment of personality disorders. However diagnosis and understanding of personality disorders remains contested, challenging any assumption that mainstream recovery thinking can be directly translated into personality disorders services. METHODS: In a qualitative interview-based study understandings of recovery were explored in extended, in-depth interviews with six people purposively sampled from a specialist personality disorders' service in the UK. An interpretive, collaborative approach to research was adopted in which university-, clinical- and service user (consumer) researchers were jointly involved in carrying out interviews and analysing interview data. RESULTS: Findings suggested that recovery cannot be conceptualised separately from an understanding of the lived experience of personality disorders. This experience was characterised by a complexity of ambiguous, interrelating and conflicting feelings, thoughts and actions as individuals tried to cope with tensions between internally and externally experienced worlds. Our analysis was suggestive of a process of recovering or, for some, discovering a sense of self that can safely coexist in both worlds. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that key facilitators of recovery - positive personal relationships and wider social interaction - are also where the core vulnerabilities of individuals with lived experience of personaility disorders can lie. There is a role for personality disorders services in providing a safe space in which to develop positive relationships. Through discursive practice within the research team understandings of recovery were co-produced that responded to the lived experience of personality disorders and were of applied relevance to practitioners.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2015 Gillard et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
Keywords: Psychiatry, 1103 Clinical Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: BMC Psychiatry
Language: ENG
Dates:
DateEvent
31 July 2015Published
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
PubMed ID: 26227023
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/107456
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0572-0

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