Capabilities for recovery-oriented practice in mental health occupational therapy : a thematic analysis of lived experience perspectives

Introduction: Recovery in mental health is both a policy imperative and a contested concept with individual and systemic elements. Occupational therapy research and pre-registration education have not engaged in a substantial way with these ideas, raising questions about how well graduates are equipped for real world practice. We aimed to address this gap by developing lived experience informed recovery-oriented capabilities to inform occupational therapy practice and pre-registration curricula. Method: A participatory qualitative approach guided by a consumer reference group was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 mental health consumers, wherever possible with a lived experience co-interviewer. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Three core capabilities were developed: knowing, comprising five types of knowledge; doing, focused on three key areas of action in practice; and being/becoming, emphasising the lifelong learning journey of becoming a recovery-oriented practitioner who can ‘be’ in authentic partnerships with consumers to support recovery. Conclusion: These lived experience-informed capabilities offer new areas of focus for pre-registration education, practice and research. A need to engage with systemic factors, build students’ capacity for critical thinking about power and structural inequality, and integration of knowledge frameworks through participatory research is suggested.