Professional roles in transformation through sharing rituals: a critical ethnographic study of Norwegian Recovery Colleges

Recovery colleges (RCs) represent an innovation in mental health services. Facilitators with experiential knowledge or formal mental health training collaborate with students with lived experience or formal training to deliver courses in RCs. This paper examines the transformation of roles when co-creating new mental health services. We conducted a critical ethnographic study, collecting data from participatory observations in RCs at two locations and interviews with facilitators with formal mental health training and those with experiential knowledge. Drawing on "communitas" and "social ties," we analyse the social dynamics of co-creation practices in RCs. Our findings reveal that traditional service roles and normative structures in mental health services are dissolved or redefined through these co-creation practices. Facilitators initiate sharing rituals that foster equality and communitas and continuously assess their disclosures. We understand this dissolution of the normative social structure as a liminal state in which facilitators gradually transition into new positions. However, significant differences in social status and the daily lives of facilitators and students challenge communitas, indicating that the dissolution of roles can be temporary. While co-creation practices in RCs demonstrate significant potential in transforming roles and enhancing mental health interventions, sustaining these changes in broader mental health services remains challenging. Further research is needed to explore the sustainability of these transformed roles and their integration into broader mental health services.