The study focus on how clients with co-occurring problems describe the importance of treatment factors for the recovery process and how these descriptions relates to professional descriptions. 40 client interviews and 15 interviews with professionals were conducted. Three major themes emerge in the results: medication, methods and the professionals.

The amount of contact with psychiatry and social services that these clients often have through the years can lead to a ‘learned passivity’ towards their own recovery process. Thus, an important task for the professionals is to break through passivity and isolation. This can be done by treating the client like an ‘ordinary fellow human’. Besides the actual professional tasks, small things seem to be important; greeting the person, paying respect when entering some one’s home, etc.

When a social network is missing, the professional can sometime fill this gap, but if this is to promote recovery, it seem important that the professional social network is used as a bridge to other social networks.

The professionals as a group, including the environment, emerge as important. Accordingly, to be supportive as a group, and be able to act like ‘social role models’, the professionals need to have working alliances also between themselves. The environment can also offer tools that can be used for socialization that interfere with the ‘learned passivity’ and instead includes and respects the client. This, together with the results highlighting the importance of creating safe milieus, confident and secure professionals, puts focus on how the professional work is organized.