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An increasing literature points to the efficacy and importance of mutual aid groups for people recovering from substance dependency. However, there is a paucity of qualitative evidence into the experiences and perceptions of service users attending UK-based mutual aid groups, and the implications they could have for recovery and mental wellbeing. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A phenomenological approach was chosen to explore the experiences and perceptions of service users and mentors at a mutual aid group in Leeds. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with service users and mentors (ex-service users) involved with the project. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

This paper focuses on the influence of mutual aid attendance on mental wellbeing. It was found that attendance seemed to have positive influences on providing structure, reducing stress and boredom, “broadening the mind” and providing service users with a social network that supported their recovery and mental wellbeing. However, it was also found that for those that have little outside the project, dependency on the group could develop, resulting in negative consequences on mental wellbeing.

This paper provides an increased understanding of why mutual attendance has influences on mental wellbeing, as well as the implications such impacts have on recovery trajectories.

This study aims to explore and describe staff working in a Norwegian supportive housing site’s experiences with promoting social community participation for residents with co-occurring problems. The research question addressed was: how does residential support staff experience promoting social community participation for residents with co-occurring problems?

Nine residential support staff participated in qualitative interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analysed using Braun and Clarke's approach to thematic analysis.

The analysis process resulted in two themes: “It is all about economics” and “Who will pay for it?”

Regarding the Nordic welfare system, the need for a redistribution of financial resources in health services is discussed. The authors recommend that further studies explore people outside the regular health-care system perspectives on how they can contribute to making community inclusion a reality for persons experiencing co-occurring problems.

This study provides a nuanced understanding of how financial resources can impede or support efforts and opportunities to promote community inclusion for residents experiencing co-occurring problems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe experiences of recovery among people with co-occurring mental health and substance use conditions (co-occurring conditions) in a rural community in Norway.

In-depth individual interviews with eight persons with co-occurring conditions were conducted, audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using a phenomenological approach. This study is part of a research project investigating recovery orientation of services in a Norwegian district.

The analysis yielded four dimensions of recovery: feeling useful and accepted; coming to love oneself; mastering life; and emerging as a person. Insecure and inadequate housing and limited solutions to financial problems were described as major obstacles to recovery.

Further research into the facilitation of recovery as defined by persons with concurrent disorders is needed, particularly regarding the facilitation of community participation.

This study supports an increased focus on societal and community factors in promoting recovery for persons with co-occurring conditions, as well as service designs that allow for an integration of social services and health care, and for collaboration among services.

The results suggest that the community can aid recovery by accepting persons with co-occurring conditions as fellow citizens and welcoming their contributions.

The paper provides an enhanced understanding of how persons with co-occurring conditions may experience recovery.

Many people with dual diagnosis present with social complexity that impedes service access. The role of social work support in such service navigation is poorly understood. This study aims to characterise client presentations to an Australian telephone-based social work alcohol and other drug (AOD) service navigation and linkage program, with consideration of presentation complexity compared between those clients who present with or without self-reported mental health (MH) concerns and a history of MH diagnoses, to identify differences in baseline characteristics, and linkage outcomes.

A retrospective audit was conducted of routinely collected clinical information from a six-month period, selected to capture the social and health challenges experienced during the mid-pandemic period (mid-2021) in Victoria, Australia, during which a number of lockdowns resulted in a reliance on telephone-based services. The audit focused on client and presentation characteristics, and compared clients with and without a history of co-occurring MH and AOD concerns.

It was found that three in four people accessing an Australian telephone-based AOD service navigation and linkage program presented with dual diagnosis. Individuals with dual diagnosis required more support from the service compared to those without a co-occurring MH disorder; but overall, were just as likely to achieve a successful linkage to services, when offered holistic, long-term social work support.

This study focused on the role of social workers in this service navigation program in supporting individuals with complexity. It also highlights the challenges in operationalising social complexity factors alongside clinical MH and AOD diagnoses, and points to the need for further research to guide future service development for this vulnerable client group.

The purpose of this paper is to explore two research questions: how do people with concurrent substance abuse and mental health disorders (concurrent conditions) experience and describe meaningful activities? And how do meaningful activities influence the recovery process?

This qualitative study uses an explorative and interpretive design in a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Transcribed interviews are analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method for researching lived experience. The study was submitted to the Norwegian Center for Research Data where it was approved (Case No. 54661).

Structural analysis resulted in three overarching themes: achieving a positive identity through actions and feeling worthwhile; physically outside but inside the norms of society, and idleness, isolation, and obstacles on the road to recovery. Meaningful activities, considered a cornerstone in the recovery process, vary widely and are primarily described in social contexts, thereby confirming the significance of social aspects of recovery in addition to recovery as an individual journey. The findings also show that experiencing meaningful activities contributes to recovery capital and the development of recovery-promotive identities.

The study consisted of a small sample size, recruited at one location which served as a primary research limitation.

This paper provides insights for health care practitioners and health care decision makers regarding the importance of meaningful activities viewed through a recovery perspective.

Few studies to date have used a comprehensive approach to describe the influence of experiencing meaningful activities on the recovery process.

Caring for a person with a substance use disorder (SUD) and/or mental health disorder (MHD) represents a significant burden for family members. The features of “carers/family members” experiences reflect trauma signatures. Consequently, working through this trauma for carers corresponds with psychological recovery, empowerment processes and intrapersonal/interpersonal needs. The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework called the “personal and relational empowerment (PRE)” framework which enables family support practitioners to help family members to be able to take control of their own lives, develop meaningful relationships and live purposeful and fulfilling lives, regardless of whether the person with the SUD and/or MHD is in recovery or not.

This paper critically reviews existing frameworks for carer recovery, through a systematic literature search, and proposes a “PRE” alternative to redress the shortfalls in these existing frameworks.

The PRE framework takes a multi-level needs-based approach to understand carer recovery. This framework links the concepts – psychological recovery, empowerment processes and intrapersonal/interpersonal needs.

The PRE framework recognises the importance of recovery support practitioners being able to balance the immediate carer crisis intervention needs responses with personal growth and well-being supporting interventions.

The PRE framework of family recovery attempts to answer the need to broaden the focus on the family journey to better reflect the principles and practices of contemporary SUD and/or MHD recovery-based support.

The role of employment in dual recovery from mental illness and substance use is scarcely addressed in previous studies and a deeper understanding of this issue is needed. The purpose of this paper is to cast further light on the conditions that either facilitate or block the road to employment for dually diagnosed people (DDP) and how these conditions could either promote or hinder recovery.

Drawing on the principles laid out by health researchers Sandelowski and Barroso (2007), the study is designed as a qualitative meta-synthesis comprising a systematic literature search, a critical assessment of the identified studies and an integrative synthesis of the articles’ findings.

The synthesis outlines that the findings from the seven identified studies show a recovery process in which unemployed, DDP are becoming employed people – or where there is an attempt to restore their status as working persons – and how this process is driven or hindered by personal, interpersonal and systemic facilitators or barriers.

The synthesis adds nuances to the understanding of employment in dual recovery processes and suggests that unconnected means of, and goals for, intervention among these individuals and systems might reduce the chances of DDP obtaining and maintaining a job.

The paper calls for more advanced research and policy on the multiple – and often contradictory – aspects of gaining and maintaining employment as part of dually diagnosed persons’ recovery.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the two visions of recovery that are now being developed in the UK are consistent with each other and question what impact the development of parallel approaches will have on people at the intersections between them.

The paper looks first at the origins and current implementation of the two approaches and then examines the commonalities and differences in the context of what they might mean for people using both sets of services simultaneously.

The ideas behind Recovery in mental health and substance misuse services have some differences but significant common ground in focusing on improving quality of life.

This paper points to the need to understand recovery in both services from the perspectives of those who have a dual diagnosis and need support from each service.

This paper could be used to develop new approaches to supporting people with a dual diagnosis with a consistent Recovery focus.

Placing personal recovery at the heart of both mental health and substance misuse services may, over time, improve their efficiency and effectiveness.