Facilitators and barriers in dual recovery: a literature review of first-person perspectives

Purpose – The co-occurrence of mental health and substance use problems is prevalent, and has been problematic both in terms of its complexity for the person and of the challenges it poses to health care practitioners. Recovery in co-occurring mental health and substance use problems is viewed as with multiple challenges embedded in it. As most of the existing literature on recovery tends to treat recovery in mental health and substance use problems separately, it is critical to assess the nature of our current understanding of what has been described as “complex” or “dual” recovery. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss what persons with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems describe as facilitators and barriers in their recovery process as revealed in the literature. Design/methodology/approach – The method used for this study was a small-scale review of the literature gleaned from a wider general view. Searches were conducted in CINAHL, Psych info, Medline, Embase, SweMed...