Recovery-Oriented Education: The Impact of Visiting a Clubhouse on Psychiatry Residents

Recovery‑oriented care emphasizes supporting individuals with serious mental illness in building meaningful, self-directed lives. This brief report describes a 4‑h, community‑based didactic held at a local clubhouse and evaluates its impact on psychiatry residents' perceptions of recovery‑oriented care.

Fifty-nine postgraduate year-2 psychiatry residents participated in a 4‑h didactic at a community clubhouse across two training years. Residents completed a 12-item survey assessing perceived importance of, training in, and comfort with recovery‑oriented care immediately before and after the session. An open-ended question gathered post-session feedback.

Residents' agreement with all survey items increased significantly from pre‑ to post-didactic. The largest increases were observed in comfort discussing recovery-oriented care with patients, colleagues, and community organizations, and in comfort applying recovery principles in clinical practice. Qualitative responses most commonly reflected gratitude for the experience and emphasized the value of peer-led, community-based learning.

A brief, clubhouse-based didactic was associated with increased recognition of the importance of recovery‑oriented care and greater comfort engaging with recovery principles. Community‑based, peer‑led educational experiences may be a valuable component of psychiatry residency training.