Bowness Bryher, Bicknell Sarah, Samuels Lana, Osman Yasma, Kellermann Vanessa, Henderson Claire, Lawrence Vanessa
Department of Health Service & Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
BJPsych Open. 2025 Mar 11;11(2):e43. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2024.852.
Family and friends (family carers) provide substantial support to those with mental ill health, often affecting their own well-being. Subsequently, family carers have their own recovery journeys. Research highlights numerous benefits of attending Recovery Colleges, but whether these apply for family carers remains unexplored.
We aimed to explore family carers' experiences of attending Recovery Colleges across England, to understand current provision and how this might better include and support family carers.
Together with lived experience researchers, this qualitative focus group study used collaborative thematic analysis of online focus groups and interviews with family carers and Recovery College staff from across England.
We generated six superordinate themes: 'The "carer" identity is not clearcut', 'Recovery ethos applies to family carers too', 'Power of lived experience', 'Educational focus is appealing', 'Family carers deserve recognition and provision' and 'Reaching out and fitting around family carers'. Attending Recovery Colleges developed family carers understandings and gave them skills to navigate services and support themselves and others, which furthered their own recovery journeys. Shared learning spaces were helpful, but participants felt these were not always oriented to include family carers. Our findings revealed ways Recovery Colleges could increase their relevance and accessibility to family carers.
The unique characteristics of Recovery Colleges suited the recovery needs of family carers. However, more resources are needed to develop this potential and reach more family carers. Family carer co-researchers enriched our findings, and discussions with the Recovery College community furthered our recommendations for practice.
家人和朋友（家庭照顾者）为患有精神疾病的人提供了大量支持，这往往会影响他们自身的幸福感。随后，家庭照顾者也有自己的康复历程。研究强调了参加康复学院的诸多益处，但这些益处是否适用于家庭照顾者仍未得到探讨。
我们旨在探究全英格兰家庭照顾者参加康复学院的经历，以了解当前的服务提供情况以及如何能更好地纳入并支持家庭照顾者。
本定性焦点小组研究与有实际经验的研究人员合作，对来自全英格兰的家庭照顾者和康复学院工作人员进行了在线焦点小组访谈，并采用协作主题分析法。
我们得出了六个上位主题：“‘照顾者’身份并不明确”、“康复理念也适用于家庭照顾者”、“实际经验的力量”、“教育重点具有吸引力”、“家庭照顾者应得到认可和服务提供”以及“主动联系并配合家庭照顾者”。参加康复学院增进了家庭照顾者的理解，并赋予他们应对服务以及自我支持和支持他人的技能，这推动了他们自身的康复进程。共享学习空间很有帮助，但参与者觉得这些空间并不总是以纳入家庭照顾者为导向。我们的研究结果揭示了康复学院可以提高与家庭照顾者的相关性和可及性的方法。
康复学院的独特特点适合家庭照顾者的康复需求。然而，需要更多资源来开发这一潜力并惠及更多家庭照顾者。家庭照顾者共同研究者丰富了我们的研究结果，与康复学院社区的讨论进一步完善了我们的实践建议。
