Abstract
This study examines the relationship between objective and subjective measures of social support with recovery from serious mental illness; recovery has been described as both an outcome state and an ongoing process. One hundred and seventy six people with serious mental illness completed the Recovery Assessment Scale, a process measure of recovery that assessed, among other factors, personal confidence, goal orientation, and non-domination by symptoms. They also were administered the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, a semi-structured interview that assesses psychiatric symptom and represents recovery as an outcome. Finally, research participants completed the Social Network Scale, which assessed size of the overall network plus such important subnetworks as family, friends, and health professionals. The SNS also provided measures of the perceived satisfaction with, mutuality in, and obligation towards individuals in their support network. Results showed people with larger overall network size and more network satisfaction were likely to report higher factors on the Recovery Assessment Scale. For the most part, network size and satisfaction was not significantly associated with psychiatric symptoms. Implications of these findings for better understanding the association between social support and recovery are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Anthony, W. A. (1993). Recovery from mental illness: The guiding vision of the mental health service system in the 1990's. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 16(4), 11–23.
Barrera, M. (1986). Distinctions between social support concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community Psychology, 14(4), 413–445.
Bengtsson-Tops, A. & Hansson, L. (2001). Quantitative and qualitative aspects of the social net-work in schizophrenic patients living in the community. Relationship to sociodemographic characteristics and clinical factors and subjective quality of life. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 47(3), 67–77.
Calabrese, J. D., & Corrigan, P. (in press). Beyond Dementia Praecox: Findings from long-term follow-up studies. In R. Ralph & P. Corrigan (Eds.), Recovery and Mental Illness: Consumer Visions and Research Paradigms. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Campbell, J., Johnsen, M., Lichtenstein, C., Noel, J. G., Yates, B., McDorel Herr, B., et al. (2003). The consumer-operated services program multi-site research initiative: Overview, participant characteristics, and lessons learned from the collaborative study context. Manuscript submitted to Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research.
Campbell, J., & Schraiber, R. (1989). The Well-Being Project: Mental health clients speak for themselves: A report of a survey conducted for the California Department of Mental Health, Office of Prevention. Sacremento, CA: The California Network of Mental Health Clients.
Chamberlin, J. (1997, Fall/Winter). Confessions of a non-compliant patient. National Empowerment Center Newsletter.
Corrigan, P., & Ralph, R. (in press). Recovery as consumer vision and research paradigm. In R. Ralph & P. Corrigan (Eds.), Recovery and Mental Illness: Consumer Visions and Research Paradigms. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Corrigan, P. W., Giffort, D., Rashid, F., Leary, M. & Okeke, I. (1999). Recovery as a psychological construct. Community Mental Health Journal, 35(3), 231–239.
Deegan, P. E. (1988). Recovery: The lived experience of rehabilitation. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 11,11–19.
Denoff, M. S. & Pilkonis, P. A. (1987). The social network of the schizophrenic: Patient and residential determinants. Journal of Community Psychology, 15(2), 228-244.
Erickson, D. H., Beiser, M., & Iacono, W. G. (1998). Social support predict 5-year outcome in 1st-episode schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(4), 681–685.
Furukawa, T. A., Harai, H., Hirai, T., Kitamura, T., & Takahashi, K. (1999). Social support questionnaire among psychiatric patients with various diagnoses and normal controls. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34(4), 213–222.
Hansson, L., Middelboe, T., Sorgaard, K. W., Bengtsson-Tops, A., Bjarnason, O., Merinder, L., et al. (2002). Living situation, subjective quality of life and social network among individuals with schizophrenia living in community settings. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 106(5), 343–350.
Harding, C. M. (1988). Course types in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 14, 633–644.
Hogan, M. F. (2003). New Freedom Commission Report: The President's New Freedom Commission: Recommendations to transform mental health care in America. Psychiatric Services, 54, 1467–1474.
Leete, E. (1988). A consumer perspective on psychosocial treatment. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 12(2), 45–52.
Liberman, R. P., & Kopelowicz, A. (in press). Recovery from schizophrenia: A criterion-based definition. In R. Ralph & P. Corrigan (Eds.), Recovery and Mental Illness: Consumer Visions and Research Paradigms. Washinton, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Lipton, F. R., Cohen, C. I., Fischer, E., & Katz, S. E. (1981). Schizophrenia: A network crisis.Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7(1), 144–151.
Lukoff, D., Liberman, R. P., & Nuechterlein, K. H. (1986). Symptom monitoring in the rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 578–593.
Meeks, S. & Hammond, C. T. (2001). Social network characteristics among older outpatients with long-term mental illness. Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 7(4), 445–464.
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health: Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America. Final report. (No. DHHS pub no SMA-03-3832)(2003). Rockville, Md: Department of Health and Human Services.
Pattison, E. M., Llamas, R., & Hurd, G. (1979). Social network mediation of anxiety. Psychiatric Annals, 9(9), 56–67.
Ralph, R. (2000). Recovery. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills, 4(3), 480–517.
Randolph, E. T. & Escobar, J. I. (1985). Social support, ethnicity, and schizophrenia. Los Angeles, CA: Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture.
Rudnick, A. & Kravetz, S. (2001). The relation of social support-seeking to quality of life in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 189(4), 258–262.
Salokangas, R. K. R. (1997). Living situation, social network and outcome in schizophrenia: A five-year prospective follow-up study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 96(6), 459–468.
Sarason, B. R., Sarason, I. G., & Pierce, G. R. (1990). Social support: An interactional view. New York: Wiley.
Shrout, P. E. & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420–428.
Sokolovsky, J. Cohen, C., Berger, D., & Geiger, J. (1978). Personal networks of ex-mental patients in a Manhattan SRO hotel. Human Oganization, 37(1), 5–15.
Stein, C. H., Rappaport, J., & Seidman, E. (1995). Assessing the social networks of people with psychiatric disability from multiple perspectives. Community Mental Health Journal, 31(4), 351–367.
Tolsdorf, C. C. (1976). Social networks, support, and coping: An exploratory study. Family Process, 15(4), 407–417.
Ventura, J., Green, M. F., Shaner, A., & Liberman, R. P. (1993). Training and quality assurance with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: ''The drift busters.'' American Journal of Public Health, 3(4), 221–244.
Wojciechowska, A. Cechnicki, A., & Walczewski, K. (2002). Correlation between some features of social networks and treatment outcomes of schizophrenic patients three years after the first admission. A follow-up study. Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 4(3), 37–46.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Corrigan, P.W., Phelan, S.M. Social Support and Recovery in People with Serious Mental Illnesses. Community Ment Health J 40, 513–523 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-004-6125-5
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-004-6125-5