IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v381y2025ics0277953625006331.html

Recovery in mental health: An international Delphi study from a recovery-oriented professional perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Guerrero, Estefania
  • Barrios, Maite
  • Sampietro, Hernán María
  • Aza, Alba
  • Guilera, Georgina
  • Gómez-Benito, Juana

Abstract

Current public policies emphasize the need for recovery-oriented services. However, a lack of consensus on the meaning of recovery poses challenges for implementing recovery-oriented interventions. This study aims to establish an international consensus on the key elements of recovery from the clinician perspective, specifically from recovery-oriented mental health professionals. A three-round Delphi study was conducted to gather expert opinions on the definition of recovery, progress indicators, and factors that facilitate and hinder recovery. Seventy-eight recovery-oriented professionals agreed to participate and completed a sociodemographic questionnaire after providing informed consent. In the first Delphi round, open-ended questions were used to gather initial opinions, which were analyzed and compiled into a list of statements. In the second and third rounds, participants rated the relevance of each statement using a Likert-type scale. Statements rated as “relevant” or “very relevant” by at least 80 % of participants were considered consensus statements. Recovery was defined as the development of a sense of agency, empowerment, autonomy, and self-determination. Key indicators emphasized agency, empowerment, user safety, and informed decision-making. Facilitators included the promotion of self-determination, a holistic approach within services, and the integration of peer support. Social exclusion emerged as the most significant obstacle to recovery. This study provides an international consensus on the key elements of recovery in mental health from the perspective of recovery-oriented professionals, offering insights for implementing interventions, developing recovery-oriented services, and refining measurement instruments.

Suggested Citation

  • Guerrero, Estefania & Barrios, Maite & Sampietro, Hernán María & Aza, Alba & Guilera, Georgina & Gómez-Benito, Juana, 2025. "Recovery in mental health: An international Delphi study from a recovery-oriented professional perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 381(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:381:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625006331
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625006331
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118302?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barrios, Maite & Guilera, Georgina & Nuño, Laura & Gómez-Benito, Juana, 2021. "Consensus in the delphi method: What makes a decision change?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Frieh, Ellis C., 2024. "Resistance to the biomedicalization of mental illness through peer support: The case of peer specialists and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    3. Fullagar, Simone & O'Brien, Wendy, 2014. "Social recovery and the move beyond deficit models of depression: A feminist analysis of mid-life women's self-care practices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 116-124.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christina-Ioanna Papadopoulou & Stavros Kalogiannidis & Efstratios Loizou & Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, 2025. "Navigating the Bioeconomy: Using Delphi-SWOT to Build Robust Strategies for Sustainable Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Purvis, Ben & Calzolari, Tommaso & Genovese, Andrea, 2025. "Consensus and contestation: Reflections on the development of an indicator framework for a just transition to a circular economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    3. Ali Saleh Alammary, 2024. "Blended Learning Delivery Methods for a Sustainable Learning Environment: A Delphi Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Dong, Chenchen & Yang, Yu, 2025. "Dynamic risk-informed verification prioritization for Complex Product Systems: A tri-metric approach using a Multi-State Hierarchical Bayesian Network," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    5. Brijnath, Bianca & Antoniades, Josefine, 2016. "“I'm running my depression:” Self-management of depression in neoliberal Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-8.
    6. Carol Nash, 2024. "Naturalistic Decision-Making in Intentional Communities: Insights from Youth, Disabled Persons, and Children on Achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for Equality, Peace, and Justice," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-26, September.
    7. Gricelda Herrera-Franco & F. Javier Montalván & Andrés Velastegui-Montoya & Jhon Caicedo-Potosí, 2022. "Vulnerability in a Populated Coastal Zone and Its Influence by Oil Wells in Santa Elena, Ecuador," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, July.
    8. Stone, Meredith & Kokanovic, Renata, 2016. "“Halfway towards recovery”: Rehabilitating the relational self in narratives of postnatal depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 98-106.
    9. Francisco Torres-Romero & Julio César Acosta-Prado, 2022. "Knowledge Management Practices and Ecological Restoration of the Tropical Dry Forest in Colombia," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, February.
    10. Fernanda Bethlem Tigre & Paulo Lopes Henriques & Carla Curado, 2025. "The digital leadership emerging construct: a multi-method approach," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 75(1), pages 789-836, February.
    11. Biljana Kulisic & Bruno Gagnon & Jörg Schweinle & Sam Van Holsbeeck & Mark Brown & Jurica Simurina & Ioannis Dimitriou & Heather McDonald, 2021. "The Contributions of Biomass Supply for Bioenergy in the Post-COVID-19 Recovery," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-31, December.
    12. El Hana, Nadr & Kondrateva, Galina & Martin, Silvia, 2024. "Emission-smart advertising: Balancing performance with CO2 emissions in digital advertising," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    13. Xu, Jinou & Pero, Margherita & Fabbri, Margherita, 2023. "Unfolding the link between big data analytics and supply chain planning," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    14. Beiderbeck, Daniel & Evans, Nicolas & Frevel, Nicolas & Schmidt, Sascha L., 2023. "The impact of technology on the future of football – A global Delphi study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    15. Trace Gale & Emilia Astorga & Andrés Adiego & Andrea Báez-Montenegro, 2025. "Expert Consensus on Buffer Zone Governance: Interface Concepts, Ecosystem Service Priorities, and Territorial Strategies Around Cerro Castillo National Park, Chile," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-32, August.
    16. Snell-Rood, Claire & Carpenter-Song, Elizabeth, 2018. "Depression in a depressed area: Deservingness, mental illness, and treatment in the contemporary rural U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 78-86.
    17. Keren A. Vivas & Ramon E. Vera & Sudipta Dasmohapatra & Ronald Marquez & Sophie Van Schoubroeck & Naycari Forfora & Antonio José Azuaje & Richard B. Phillips & Hasan Jameel & Jason A. Delborne & Danie, 2024. "A Multi-Criteria Approach for Quantifying the Impact of Global Megatrends on the Pulp and Paper Industry: Insights into Digitalization, Social Behavior Change, and Sustainability," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-32, April.
    18. Aalto, Eljas & Kuosa, Tuomo & Stucki, Max, 2025. "Generating sets of diverse and plausible scenarios through approximated multivariate normal distributions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 320(1), pages 160-174.
    19. Jon Landeta & Aitziber Lertxundi, 2024. "Quality indicators for Delphi studies," Futures & Foresight Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:381:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625006331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.