The use of social environment in a psychosocial clubhouse to facilitate recovery-oriented practice

BACKGROUND: Recovery-oriented language has been widely adopted in mental health policy; however, little is known about how recovery practices are implemented within individual services, such as psychosocial clubhouses. AIMS: To explore how recovery practices are implemented in a psychosocial clubhouse. METHOD: Qualitative case study design informed by self-determination theory was utilised. This included 120 h of participant observation, interviews with 12 clubhouse members and 6 staff members. Field notes and interview transcripts were subject to theoretical thematic analysis. RESULTS: Two overarching themes were identified, each comprising three sub-themes. In this paper, the overarching theme of ‘social environment’ is discussed. It was characterised by the sub-themes, ‘community and consistency’, ‘participation and opportunity’ and ‘respect and autonomy’. CONCLUSIONS: Social environment was used to facilitate recovery-oriented practice within the clubhouse. Whether recovery is experienced by clubhouse members in wider society, may well depend on supports and opportunities outside the clubhouse. DECLARATION OF INTERESTS: None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.