Professional competencies for promoting recovery in mental illness

This study explored professional caregiving from the perspective of people diagnosed with schizophrenia to develop proposed professional competencies for promoting recovery. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 40 people diagnosed with schizophrenia to explore their experiences of caregiving. Interview segments related to professional caregiving were analyzed to derive categories and themes that described aspects of caregiving that clients believed contributed to their recovery. The proposed competencies derived from the interviews overlap with hypothesized competencies identified in the literature, but also suggest other areas of skill and attitude that relate to promoting recovery, including use of time, talk, and teamwork. The significance participants attach to time and talk suggests that services play an important role in recovery by creating the space for service users and service providers to engage in recovery-promoting practices.