Recovery, community, and belonging in complex psychosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An ethnography of recovery, community, and belonging amongst people living with complex psychosis in inner London
IRAS ID
366293
Contact name
Henry J Whittle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
SOAS University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Complex psychosis is a clinical term that refers to forms of long-term psychotic illness where affected individuals experience ‘treatment-resistant’ features (enduring hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking/behaviour, cognitive impairments, and/or negative symptoms), physical and mental health comorbidities, and resultant functional impairments. People living with complex psychosis remain amongst the most marginalised people in the UK, with recent studies suggesting they are experiencing worsening stigma. Prior to deinstitutionalisation, such people were confined in asylums. Today, however, they live outside hospitals, supported predominantly through outpatient community care. Yet, despite frequent rhetorical commitments to supporting their ‘recoveries’ by fostering 'participation' to promote ‘belonging’ in ‘the community’, psychiatry lacks theories of each of these concepts that are sufficiently grounded in the everyday experiences of people living with complex psychosis. Mental health specialists rarely specify what they mean by recovery, community, and participation or belonging in ways that are specific and relevant to such people's lives. This has diminished our understanding of how people with complex psychosis might be supported to live well and flourish outside hospitals. The proposed project is a community-based ethnography of complex psychosis in Islington, an inner London borough with a state-of-the-art rehabilitation pathway for complex psychosis. This pathway comprises an inpatient rehabilitation ward (where people stay for an average 12 months and where the primary researcher previously conducted ethnographic fieldwork), followed by step-down to a community pathway consisting of two residential community rehabilitation units (CRUs; where people stay for an average of two years) and, afterwards, various supported accommodations mostly run by non-governmental organisations. This research will use ethnographic methods to study the experiences of people living and working with complex psychosis in Islington, following residents of the CRUs and supported accommodations out into the wider community whilst also studying the services, bureaucracies, and institutions that design and deliver local community care.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/LO/0346
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jun 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion