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Narrative Research Project
In an effort to understand more about recovery from long-term mental health problems and to contribute to a new evidence that emphasised lived experience, SRN undertook a large scale narrative research project. This project has provided the foundation to all of our work and has influenced a number of initiatives.

In 2005, we travelled across Scotland and interviewed 64 people about the factors that helped and hindered recovery. In 2007, SRN published the findings from this project in a report entitled, ‘Recovering Mental Health in Scotland’. The research highlights several common elements which were found to be helpful for recovery. These included:
  • Developing a positive identity and view of yourself and having hope for the future.
  • Having meaningful activities and purpose in your life, and having your contributions and choices in life validated and valued.
  • Having supportive relationships.
  • Having the right mix of treatments and support.
One of the things that is clear is that this is no different from what most people want in life. The report also confirmed that people can and do recover from even the most serious and long-term mental health issues.

You can access the report, and its individual sections, along with two accompanying resources via the links below.

icon Recovering Mental Health in Scotland (1.33 MB) (Full report)

Recovering Mental Health in Scotland Sections:

In addition to the report, we have also produced a companion resource entitled ‘Routes to Recovery’ and a booklet of stories from the project entitled ‘Journey’s of Recovery’.

Routes to Recovery highlights some of the things that people said that they had been able to do to support their recovery.

icon Routes to Recovery (1.99 MB)

Journeys of Recovery offers a selection of stories from the project that highlight the key themes that emerged from the research.

icon Journeys of Recovery (10.39 MB)

To read the stories that did not feature in Journeys of Recovery or to view the individual stories from the booklet, visit the ‘Story’ section of the site.
 
There is more to me than my mental health.

- Narrative Research Participant
See our Submit Your Thoughts pages for details on how to submit a story to us or you can contact us.