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Background and Aims: Peer support workers are an emerging workforce within the mental health system in Hong Kong. The purposes of this paper were to describe the development of a peer support training programme and to evaluate its outcome from the perspectives of both trainees and the users of services that they provided. Method: The curriculum consisted of six weeks of coursework on the recovery approach and a 24-week paid internship at the Warmline telephone service. We gathered feedback from 22 Warmline users. Eighteen trainees were also assessed using the three recovery-related psychosocial measures and qualitative methods. Results: The Warmline service provided by peer support trainees lessened the isolation of service users and raised their hopes. Compared to the baseline, the peer support trainees scored marginally higher on the psychosocial measures at the end of the training. At post-training evaluation, peer support trainees said that they had gained in knowledge, were more hopeful about their own recovery, and had developed mutually supportive relationships among themselves and with their supervisors. Conclusion: The programme shows potential benefits for both Warmline service users and trainees. Future studies should compare different training methods and examine the implementation of peer support services in a non-western cultural context.

Background and Aims: More mental health services are adopting the recovery paradigm. This study adds to prior research by (a) using measures of stages of recovery and elements of recovery that were designed and validated in a non-Western, Chinese culture and (b) testing which demographic factors predict advanced recovery and whether placing importance on certain elements predicts advanced recovery. Method: We examined recovery and factors associated with recovery among 75 Hong Kong adults who were diagnosed with schizophrenia and assessed to be in clinical remission. Data were collected on socio-demographic factors, recovery stages and elements associated with recovery. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables that could best predict stages of recovery. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to detect the classification accuracy of the model (i.e. rates of correct classification of stages of recovery). Results: Logistic regression results indicated that stages of recovery could be distinguished with reasonable accuracy for Stage 3 ('living with disability', classification accuracy = 75.45%) and Stage 4 ('living beyond disability', classification accuracy = 75.50%). However, there was no sufficient information to predict Combined Stages 1 and 2 ('overwhelmed by disability' and 'struggling with disability'). It was found that having a meaningful role and age were the most important differentiators of recovery stage. Conclusion: Preliminary findings suggest that adopting salient life roles personally is important to recovery and that this component should be incorporated into mental health services.

Background: For the past 3 decades, mental health practitioners have increasingly adopted aspects and tools of strength-based approaches. Providing strength-based intervention and amplifying strengths relies heavily on effective interpersonal processes. Aim: This article is a critical review of research regarding the use of strength-based approaches in mental health service settings. The aim is to discuss strength-based interventions within broader research on recovery, focussing on effectiveness and advances in practice where applicable. Method: A systematic search for peer-reviewed intervention studies published between 2001 and December 2014 yielded 55 articles of potential relevance to the review. Results: Seven studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was used to appraise the quality of the studies. Our review found emerging evidence that the utilisation of a strength-based approach improves outcomes including hospitalisation rates, employment/educational attainment, and intrapersonal outcomes such as self-efficacy and sense of hope. Conclusion: Recent studies confirm the feasibility of implementing a high-fidelity strength-based approach in clinical settings and its relevance for practitioners in health care. More high-quality studies are needed to further examine the effectiveness of strength-based approaches.