LAUSR

INTRODUCTION Within their emerging adult role, young people will embark on employment, form intimate relationships and live independently. This indicates that how recovery is experienced and actualised in young adulthood may be different from other age groups. AIM/QUESTION To explore young adult service user's perspectives of mental health recovery in Northern Ireland. METHOD Semi structured individual qualitative interviews were analysed using a Gadamerian-based hermeneutic method and interpreted using a novel theoretical framework. The sample comprised 25 participants with an average age of 28 years. FINDINGS Five key themes evolved: Services: A Losing Battle Straight Away; From your Foundations to a Step in the Dark; Let Go of the Pain not the Experience; Surviving Out of the Ashes Recovery; and Needs to be More than a Word. DISCUSSION The main findings were that recovery involved the reclaiming of their active and purposeful life force. It is suggested that young adults have developed an explanatory model of "use that stuff you wanna bury" to transform an illness narrative to a wellness strategy. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE This research has implications for mental health nursing so the process of mental health recovery is not presented as a clinical pathway, but a personalised strategy of individual wellness.