Evaluating Service User-Led Teaching of Mental Health Recovery Concepts in Clinical Psychology Training

Public Significance Statement Mental health provider stigma and discrimination, including from clinical psychologists, detrimentally impacts people who experience mental distress. Recovery-oriented and service user-led teaching is key to countering stigma and discrimination, evidencing attitude change in clinical psychology students. It is time for clinical psychology to recognize the importance of contact-based and recovery-focused education in training for clinical psychologists. Stigma and discrimination from mental health professionals, including clinical psychologists, detrimentally impacts people who experience mental distress. Including service user-led teaching with an emphasis on recovery as part of the education and training of health professionals is key to countering healthcare provider stigma and discrimination. However, to date, service user-led and recovery-oriented teaching in clinical psychology is minimal, and robust methods such as control groups have not been used to evaluate this teaching. This study evaluated attitude change after service user-led teaching of mental health recovery in 142 postgraduate students in a prerequisite clinical psychology course at a university in New Zealand, compared with a control group of 126 students. Two-month follow-up data were available for 68 students who received the teaching and 62 in the control group. Compared with the control group, improved attitudes toward recovery and reductions in stigma were observed after the teaching to a moderate to large extent and were maintained after 2 months. Attitudes to recovery were improved in 79% of the tutorial group at posttest and 73% at follow-up, and 62% showed reductions in stigma after the teaching and 63% at follow-up. Statistically and practically important attitude change is possible in clinical psychology training, and it is critical that this sector of the mental health workforce enacts recovery-oriented training and practice as is mandated in policy around the world.