Hope and recovery: a scoping review

Abstract

Purpose – Hope is regarded as central to recovery processes. The phenomenon along with its implications for research and practice has, however, gained limited attention within the fields of mental health and substance use. The purpose of this paper is to explore how hope, and what may inspire it, is described within the literature by persons experiencing co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. Design/methodology/approach – The method chosen when conducting this literature review was a scoping study. This allows for a broad approach, aiming to examine research activity and identifying potential gaps within existing literature. Searches were conducted in EMBASE Ovid, PsychINFO Ovid, MEDLINE Ovid, CINAHL Ebsco, SveMed+ and Brithish Nursing Index. Findings – The authors included five articles and one book. None of these presented first-hand experiences of hope and there appears to be a gap in the literature. All included material underlined the importance of the phenomenon to those experiencing co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. Originality/value – Hope seems as important to people experiencing co-occurring problems as to anyone else. There appears to be a need for further research on how persons experiencing co-occurring problems perceive hope and what may inspire it. Hope and what people hope for take many forms and can arise unexpectedly. Practitioners need to take in account the diversity of the phenomenon and find ways of inspiring hope in collaboration with those in need of support.