When people believe they have a good working relationship with a mental health care provider, they are also more likely to feel that they are recovering than when they don’t feel they’re collaboratively engaged, empowered and respected by their provider, according to a study in Psychiatry Research.
Led by University of Haifa psychologist Galia Moran, the researchers found that “the more consumers perceived the provider as employing recovery strategies with them, the more they perceived having a working alliance. In turn, the more consumers perceived having a working alliance with providers, the more their sense of recovery was improved.”
In the study, seventy-two Israelis aged 20-60 diagnosed with a wide range of mental disorders, and nearly half of whom had “substantial reduced work capacity and difficulties in social adaptation,” completed surveys based on the Recovery Assessment Scale, Recovery Promoting Relationships Scale, and Working Alliance Inventory.
“[T]he findings highlight the potential positive contribution of recovery strategies to consumer-provider relationships and mental health recovery,” wrote the researchers. “This is in accord with a previous study identifying similar associations and acknowledging the value of empowerment, self-acceptance, and hope-giving strategies by mental health consumers’ perspectives… Clinically, the study brings attention to the role of recovery strategies and alliance building in promoting recovery processes in psychiatric rehabilitation.”
Investigating the anatomy of the helping relationship in the context of psychiatric rehabilitation: the relation between working alliance, providers’ recovery competencies and personal recovery (Moran, Galia et al. Psychiatry Research. Published online ahead of press August 13, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.08.004)