The lived experience of acute mental health inpatient care: What's social work research got to do with it?

This chapter is an example of how a social work practioner can contribute to social work research. It examines the meaning of recovery and recovery-focused practice within an acute mental health inpatient setting. By employing the hermeneutic phenomenology method interviews of consumers, workers and managers have been analysed. The analysis suggests that when two types of lived experience evident in an episode of acute mental health inpatient care are aligned, recovery is optimized. More importantly it highlights the significant contribution social work research can make to the transition to recovery-focused practice and consequently to mental health reform.