Narratives of recovery in mental health and alcohol misuse
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Narratives of recovery in people with co-existing mental health and alcohol misuse difficulties.
IRAS ID
198822
Contact name
Andrew Stott
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
The aim of this study is to investigate the stories (or ‘narratives’) of people who have both mental health difficulties and alcohol difficulties. The main research question is: “How do people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol misuse problems construct their personal narratives?” The research will also investigate what the idea of ‘recovery’ means to this group of people, and how they have experienced support from services.
The reason for undertaking this research is that difficulties with both alcohol and mental health are very common but the stories of people who have both difficulties have not often been researched. This could be useful to people who are working to provide better services for people with these difficulties, and to peer-support and campaigning organisations.
I am going to recruit and interview participants who are currently (or in the last 12 months) in service with both mental health and alcohol misuse services. Each participant will have one individual interview of around an hour. I will be interested in the individual’s story, what recovery means to them, and how they have found the different services that have supported them. The interviews will be transcribed and narrative analysis will be used to analyse the transcripts. Narrative analysis will be particularly appropriate because it aims to explore how people make sense of their experience as a whole, so will highlight the individual stories of participants.
The study will take place at alcohol misuse services in Telford and Wrekin, in particular the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Team in Wellington, and may also recruit from similar services in Staffordshire and Shropshire. The proposed timescale for the study is that the interviews take place during 2016 and the study is written up for publication in 2017.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0099
Date of REC Opinion
29 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion