The role of hope in recovery from mental health problems: a grounded theory analysis

Hope is an area of rapidly increasing interest within clinical psychology and mental
health. It has emerged as a major theme within qualitative research based on
recovery narratives, and government guidelines recommend that clinicians
encourage hope in their clients in order to facilitate recovery. Although theoretical
papers have proposed models of the role of hope in recovery from mental health
problems, there is no model grounded in how people with experience of recovery
speak about this process. In addition, existing literature fails to address how
clients speak about the role of mental health professionals in this process.
This study used eight interviews with people who had experience of recovery from
mental health problems to investigate how they spoke about the role of hope in
recovery, and the role of clinicians in this process. A grounded theory analysis
resulted in the construction of a model of the complex interaction between hope
and recovery. The three main categories were 'the influence of others on hope',
'personal hope' and 'doing recovery'. Important findings included that the model
of hope in recovery was characterised by sudden increases in hope throughout a
slow and fluctuating recovery 'journey' and that hearing positive narratives of
recovery from similar others was a particularly important source of hope and
inspiration. Clinicians were also considered to have a pivotal role in clients' hope
for recovery. This study contributes towards operationalising how clinicians may
implement the guidelines advising them to encourage hope in their clients and
highlights the powerful role that they have in this process.

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