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The purpose of this paper is to share Ella Vadasz’s story.

Ella wrote a biography of her experiences, including two poems. Robert then asked a series of questions from the perspective of a mental health academic.

Ella shared stories from her life and how her experiences have shaped her. She talked about the emotional impact of a custody battle.

Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experiences to explore their story in depth.

What Ella has written is very emotional. Her story will give readers an insight into her life and experiences.

There is so much to learn from stories such as Ella’s, in particular from her critique of social services in Scotland and England.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that Ella has chosen to share her unique story. This paper features two poems written by her – a first for Remarkable Lives. The value of Ella sharing her story is apparent upon reading it.

The purpose of this paper is to share Danielle Jeffries’ story.

Danielle wrote a biography of her experiences. Robert then asked a series of questions from the perspective of a mental health academic.

Danielle shared stories from her life, and how her experiences have shaped her, including being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.

What Danielle has written is very powerful. Her story will give readers an insight into her life and experiences.

There is so much to learn from stories such as Danielle’s. In particular, the way that she speaks about the impact of a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

This is the first time that Danielle has chosen to share her unique story. The value of Danielle sharing her story is apparent upon reading it.

The purpose of this paper is to share Khia Stacey’s story.

Khia Stacey wrote a short piece detailing her journey, and she was then interviewed by Robert Hurst.

Khia Stacey spoke about experiencing trauma, facing difficulties within child and adolescent mental health services and how she chose to fight on.

Recovery narratives such as the current one give the readers an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.

Khia Stacey stresses the importance of listening to service users and gives advice on how mental health professionals can better support those in services.

There is so much to learn from a story such as Khia’s – for those who have had similar experiences and for those who work in mental health services.

This is the first time that Khia has chosen to share her unique story. Its value is apparent immediately upon reading it.

The purpose of this paper is to share Laura Scranage’s story.

Laura wrote a short piece detailing her journey and was then interviewed by Robert.

Laura spoke about the difficulties she has faced in life and how her experiences with horses have been deeply therapeutic.

Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.

Laura advocates for more research into how horses can be used in therapeutic interventions.

There is so much to learn from a story such as Laura’s, for those who have had similar experiences and for those who work in mental health services.

This is the first time that Laura has chosen to share her unique story.

The purpose of this paper is to share Kirsty Lilley’s story.

Kirsty wrote a biographic piece detailing her journey, then shared a creative piece of writing about trust before being interviewed by Robert.

Kirsty shared stories from her life and how her experiences have shaped who she is. In Trust, she gives the reader an intimate insight into her internal and psychological experiences.

Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.

Kirsty writes evocatively – her stories will connect with readers.

There is so much to learn from stories such as Kirsty’s. For those who have had similar experiences and for those who work in mental health services.

This is the first time that Kirsty has chosen to share her unique story. It is also the first time in Remarkable Lives that a piece of creative writing has been included alongside a biography.

The purpose of this paper is to share Robyn Clegg-Gibson’s story.

Robyn wrote a biography of her experiences. Robert then asked a series of questions from the perspective of a mental health academic researcher.

Robyn shared stories from her life, and how her experiences have shaped her life and herself.

Narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.

What Robyn has written is very emotional. Her story will give readers an insight into her life and experiences.

There is so much to learn from a story like Robyn’s. In particular, from her experiences of police processes after a crime.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that Robyn has chosen to publish her unique story in the written form. The value of Robyn sharing her story is apparent upon reading it.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing literature on post-traumatic growth (PTG), particularly in the ways that it relates to grief.

This narrative literature review brings together 125 sources and presents them in a readable way.

There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that PTG can come from grief. This is not always the case, however.

This review presents only a selection of the existing literature – the review is not systematic. However, this allows for a narrative to be crafted, to aid readability.

Suggestions for future research are made throughout, and potential therapeutic applications are mentioned.

This paper discusses stigma, in the form of “disenfranchised grief”. In this, social pressures and expectations affect how a person processes their grief psychologically. While movements to increase discourse and reduce stigma are on the rise, more is needed.

This review guides readers through existing literature, providing a wide overview of the topic of PTG in grief.

The purpose of this paper is to review the 16 published non-student Recovery Heroes and Remarkable Lives accounts published in Mental Health and Social Inclusion, using the connection, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (CHIME) framework.

All 16 accounts were rated independently by four researchers and evaluated in terms of whether each account met the five criteria for the CHIME model.

All accounts met the criteria for the CHIME model, with the exception of one, which still met four of the five criteria. Evidence was presented which suggests that the model can be extended to creativity, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (C-CHIME), to incorporate creativity.

While a certain level of subjectivity is required in deciding how each account meets the CHIME criteria, there were high levels of inter-rater reliability within the research team. Creativity had a central place in all the accounts.

The revised C-CHIME model can be used by practitioners to examine accounts of recovery in a more focussed manner and may also help in devising recovery action plans.

The recovery model privileges both professional and lived experience perspectives on recovery. The current review highlights how much we can benefit from the wisdom contained in first person accounts.

This review adds to the existing literature and highlights the importance of creativity for mental health recovery.

The purpose of this paper is to review the 20 remarkable lives of student accounts published in this journal. These recovery narratives (RNs) are examined first in terms of whether they meet the five elements of the connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (CHIME) model of recovery and then in terms of what makes each account remarkable.

Two Excel spreadsheets were created. One had each author’s name and the five elements of the CHIME model, the other the features of a remarkable life.

All 20 accounts fulfilled the criteria for the CHIME model, independently validating this model of recovery. Hence, each account showed evidence of connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment. A number of additional characteristics stood out from the accounts such as the importance of motherhood and of education.

All 20 accounts were only reviewed by the two authors, who may be subject to bias. To reduce this, the first author did the bulk of the ratings. This paper shows the importance of education for recovery.

Some 15/20 accounts reported problems with mental health services, mainly around waiting lists. Must mental health always remain a Cinderella service?

This is the first attempt to synthesise this particular set of recovery narratives, entitled remarkable lives. These accounts show the richness of the recovery journeys embarked on by many sufferers and these are just drawn from one University. Like the authors of these stories, we too as recovery specialists have much to learn from their inspiring accounts.