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Brief Psychoeducation Program to Enhance Recovery Knowledge and Attitudes of Mental Health Service Providers and Users: Randomized Controlled Trials

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Abstract

Recovery-oriented transformation of mental health service systems not only necessitates changes in mental health policies and practices, it also requires an adoption of recovery-oriented mindset, which includes knowledge and attitudes, among service providers. It is also important that service users are informed about the changes and can fully participate in the process. The present study developed and evaluated the efficacy of a recovery psychoeducation program in enhancing recovery-oriented knowledge and attitudes among mental health service providers and users in Hong Kong. In study 1, 111 service providers were randomly assigned to 2-day psychoeducation group or control group. Results showed that participants in psychoeducation group had significantly better recovery knowledge and more positive attitudes towards recovery after the intervention than the control counterparts. The effect of the recovery psychoeducation program on recovery attitudes was fully mediated by the improvement in recovery knowledge. In study 2, 93 people with mental illness were randomized into 2-week psychoeducation group or control group. Participants in the psychoeducation group had a significant improvement in the level of recovery-oriented knowledge immediately after the workshops, but the effect could not be sustained at follow-up. To transform into a recovery-oriented service system, having an effective program to orient service providers and users to recovery is essential. This study provided initial support to the use of a brief psychoeducational program for recovery-oriented knowledge enhancement. Given the short-term efficacy and feasibility of the interventions, service leaders and managers in different clinical and social service settings should consider implementing the programs as part of staff and users’ service orientation to build a recovery-supporting workforce and empower their service users early in the recovery process.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Candice Ling-Powell, Ka Tsun Ting, Ellery Wu, and staff of New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association for their assistance throughout the process of delivering of recovery psychoeducation program to service providers and users.

Funding

The authors did not receive any grant or funding support for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

    Winnie W. S. Mak & Randolph C. H. Chan

  2. New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Sania S. W. Yau

Authors
  1. Winnie W. S. Mak
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  2. Randolph C. H. Chan
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  3. Sania S. W. Yau
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Winnie W. S. Mak.

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Conflict of interest

All authors have no conflicts of interest related to this study.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mak, W.W.S., Chan, R.C.H. & Yau, S.S.W. Brief Psychoeducation Program to Enhance Recovery Knowledge and Attitudes of Mental Health Service Providers and Users: Randomized Controlled Trials. Adm Policy Ment Health 46, 200–208 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-018-0905-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-018-0905-7

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