Recovery in the Community: Relational and Cultural Sensitivity

Objective: Recovery takes place within social contexts, and the community is the medium through which personal transformation becomes possible. The aim of the article is to deepen the understanding of social and cultural context sensitive aspects of personal recovery. The purpose of the research is to explore the reflections of people with mental illness experience on relational and social-cultural context sensitive aspects of personal recovery. Research Design and Methods: Thirteen people with mental illness experience and over five years’ experience of getting mental health services were interviewed. The semi-structured interview was designed based on the INSPIRE measurement and the Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning in life and Empowerment (CHIME) framework structure. The qualitative content analyses, discursive framing approach, and CHIME as a framework made it possible to explore the social and cultural sensitive aspects of recovery revealed in the interview data. Results: Interviewees’ reflections indicated that people with mental illness experience lack the skills to develop connections with the community because they were not taught to think in this manner, and earlier traumatizing and victimizing events are so powerful that they take over memory. Two cultural peculiarities related to the notion of “hope” in the recovery concept revealed that people in Estonia, compared with people in other countries, generally have little trust in other people and that living in a language context which does not make a grammatical distinction between the present and future influences how hopeful perspectives are created. Conclusion: People need information and education to develop meaningful personal relationships in their community