Family recovery and psychosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the concept of ‘family recovery’ in families and individuals with lived experience of psychosis.
IRAS ID
234044
Contact name
Edward Mundy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
This project seeks to understand how family members and those with lived experience of psychosis understand and experience ‘family recovery’. In doing so, it will interview those with lived experience of psychosis and a family member to explore their perspectives and experiences of family recovery.
Recovery from mental illness for individuals has been defined as a “deeply personal, unique process of changing one’s attitude, values, feelings, goals, skills and/or roles…a way of living satisfying, hopeful and contributing life, even with the limitations caused by illness” Whilst it has traditionally focussed on the person experiencing a mental health problem, there have been calls from researchers to extend ideas of recovery to include families. They argue that recovery is a shared experience; not only do families contribute significantly to someone recovering from mental illness, they can also be effected, both positively and negatively, by the experience of having a loved one experience mental health problems.
In seeing recovery as a shared experience, there is a need to more explicitly incorporate the experiences of families into recovery models which have hitherto focussed primarily on the needs of the person with lived experience of mental health difficulties. However, there is an absence of research which explores how recovery takes place within families. Consequently, this project seeks to explore the relevance, applicability, and accuracy of ‘family recovery’ as defined by Wyder and Bland (2014) to the experiences of family members and those with lived experience of psychosis. By interviewing those with lived experience of psychosis and family members to explore their experience and perspectives on family recovery, we will explore the extent to which their experiences fit the theory of family recovery as defined by Wyder and Bland (2014).
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0202
Date of REC Opinion
28 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion