Authors
- McKenna, Brian PhD, RN, BA, MHSc (Hons)
Article Content
Thank you for submitting your letter to the editor entitled "Further Reflections on Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Practice in a Community Care Unit." I welcome the opportunity to reply to Parker, Dark, Siskind, and Meurk's (2017) thoughtful critique to our recently published manuscript (McKenna, Oakes, Fourniotis, Toomey, & Furness, 2016).
The implementation of the recovery paradigm in mental health service delivery remains a challenge despite the significant gains made. This is understandable given that some commentators believe that the systems change required to transform custodial services to person-centred models of care might take a generation to achieve (Davidson, Tondora, Lawless, O'Connell, & Rowe, 2009). It has been a privilege to have been part of research teams that have explored the implementation of recovery-oriented services in acute mental health units (McKenna, Furness, Dhital, Ennis, et al., 2014), secure mental health units (McKenna, Furness, Dhital, Park, & Connolly, 2014a, 2014b), mental health services for older persons (McKenna, Furness, Dhital, & Ireland, 2014), and more recently, community care units (McKenna et al., 2016). It is exciting to be part of a growing body of knowledge, which will increasingly allow comparisons across subspecialty areas of mental health.
It is equally exciting that the quality of work undertaken by my colleagues (Parker, Dark, Newman, Korman, Meurk, et al., 2016; Parker, Dark, Newman, Korman, Rasmussen, et al., 2016; Parker, Dark, Vilic, et al., 2016) allows comparison within a unique configuration of services. The knowledge gained from research is incremental. It is a pity that our research team and their team were concurrently working on similar projects, unaware of the activities of the other. This aside, valuable comparison is viable through the divergent methodological approaches of the different research teams. Our own research, given the previous dearth of literature, has been unashamedly exploratory. My colleagues have taken more positioned qualitative stances, which I believe might go some way to explaining divergence of understanding.
I totally support Parker and colleagues' (2017) conclusion-that all of these studies in Australia "bode well for the development of a vibrant and innovative mixed methods research agenda" in community-based recovery services in the future.
References
Davidson L., Tondora J., Lawless M., O'Connell M., & Rowe M. (2009). A practical guide to recovery-oriented practice tools for transforming mental health care. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [Context Link]
McKenna B., Furness T., Dhital D., Ennis G., Houghton J., Lupson C., & Toomey N. (2014). Recovery-oriented care in acute inpatient mental health settings: An exploratory study. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 35(7), 526-532. [Context Link]
McKenna B., Furness T., Dhital D., & Ireland S. (2014). Recovery-oriented care in older-adult acute inpatient mental health settings in Australia: An exploratory study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(10), 1938-1942. [Context Link]
McKenna B., Furness T., Dhital D., Park M., & Connally F. (2014a). The transformation from custodial to recovery-oriented care: A paradigm shift that needed to happen. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(4), 226-233. [Context Link]
McKenna B., Furness T., Dhital D., Park M., & Connally F. (2014b). Recovery-oriented care in a secure mental health setting: "Striving for a good life". Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(2), 63-69. [Context Link]
McKenna B., Oakes J., Fourniotis N., Toomey N., & Furness T. (2016). Recovery-oriented mental health practice in a community care unit: An exploratory study. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 12(4), 167-175. doi:10.1097/JFN0000000000000127 [Context Link]
Parker S., Dark F., Newman E., Korman N., Meurk C., Siskind D., & Harris M. (2016). Longitudinal comparative evaluation of the equivalence of an integrated peer-support and clinical staffing model for residential mental health rehabilitation: A mixed methods protocol incorporating multiple stakeholder perspectives. BMC Psychiatry, 16, 179. doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0882-x
Parker S., Dark F., Newman E., Korman N., Rasmussen Z., & Meurk C. (2016). Reality of working in a community-based, recovery-oriented mental health rehabilitation unit: A pragmatic grounded theory analysis. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. doi:10.1111/inm.12251 [Context Link]
Parker S., Dark F., Siskind D., & Meurk C. (2017). Further reflections on recovery-oriented mental health practice in a community care unit. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 13, 88-89. [Context Link]
Parker S., Dark F., Vilic G., McCann K., O'Sullivan R., Doyle C., & Lendich B. (2016). Integrated staffing model for mental health rehabilitation (2016). Mental Health and Social Inclusion, 20(2), 92-100. [Context Link]