As implementation of recovery-oriented practices has proven difficult, this study investigates whether a participatory-inspired approach to implementing and adjusting a recovery-oriented model, RENEW-DK, might facilitate a more recovery-oriented practice among the professionals in public sector services. Ten narrative interviews with professionals was analyzed from a Science and Technology Studies perspective, and special attention was devoted to the concepts of distortion and stigmatization. Despite a one-year participatory process of model adjustment and implementation, professionals experienced RENEW-DK as a distortion and thus shaped their practice of RENEW-DK according to organizational requirements and professional beliefs instead of making their practice more recovery-oriented. The study calls attention to the need to acknowledge contradictions between intentions in general models and values in specific organizations with local norms and practices.
Keywords: Co-development; Education; Employment; Implementation; Mental health; Narrative interviews; Professionals; Psychiatry; Recovery-oriented practices; Young adults.