Partners in recovery: social support and accountability in a consumer-run mental health center.

OBJECTIVE: Consumer-run mental health programs that include advocacy, peer counseling, and mentoring are somewhat commonplace in community mental health services, yet fully peer-operated mental health centers remain novel in the public mental health landscape. This ethnographic study of a consumer-run mental health center had two major aims: to learn what is distinctive about consumer-run services-for example, how they might strengthen personal capacity for social integration-and to explore how the development of these capacities might promote recovery.
METHODS: Data collection for this modified ethnographic study consisted of ten months of participant observation, coupled with semistructured interviews (N=25), a focus group (N=22), and dramatic skits (N=17), to identify and define the distinctive features of the program, both structurally and from the point of view of participants. Inquiry was framed theoretically by the capabilities approach.
RESULTS: Participants in this consumer-run mental health program experienced themselves as accountable for and to their peers in what amounts to a shared project of recovery.
CONCLUSIONS: As part of a capacity-building approach in consumer-run services, programs should aim to not only provide social support for participants but also foster a culture in which service users are accountable for their peers. Such reciprocity may help to strengthen socialization skills, which could better prepare consumers for participation in the community at large.