The Recovery Star is a collaborative tool used by staff to support the recovery of adults who are using mental health services, including inpatient rehabilitation services. However, staff experiences of completing this tool with patients have seldom been reported. Therefore, a service evaluation was undertaken to explore staff perspectives about the useful elements and barriers associated with using the Recovery Star, to determine whether staff believe it is an appropriate tool to use in inpatient rehabilitation services, and to understand the reasons for the tool’s underuse.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine staff members who worked across four wards in an inpatient rehabilitation service in Leicester, England. Four main themes were identified through a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts: it is a helpful tool; it is patient-dependent; it is underused due to constraints such as lack of time; and wider issues affecting its use. Subthemes for each of these themes were also identified. Staff reported that the Recovery Star is an appropriate tool to use in mental health rehabilitation services, although they recognised some barriers to its use and amendments required to ensure the tool is used more often.