“Recovery is fearful to me...”: Conceptualizations, concerns and hopes about personal recovery in adults who are chronically homeless

ABSTRACT

This qualitative investigation explored how 18 chronically homeless adults with serious mental illness residing in emergency and temporary supportive housing facilities in Glasgow, Scotland, and New York City conceptualized personal recovery. Thirty-six interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The analysis produced four superordinate themes revealing how participants engaged with, envisioned, or disidentified with, the recovery idea, in the context of chronic life adversity, co-occurring conditions, a precarious present and an uncertain future. Health and social care providers should be responsive to clients’ diverse ideas about recovery and facilitate their exploration of authentic pathways to a “good life.”

KEYWORDS:

• Personal recovery
• homelessness
• qualitative
• serious mental illness
• mental health
• social work
• chronic illness

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Beth Weaver and Prof. Neil Quinn for their thoughtful supervision and mentorship. 

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Grant 690954.