The Recovery Model
Origins of the Recovery Model
Recovery is a concept that arose from the consumer mental health movement, beginning sporadically in the 1940’s and nationally in the 1980’s. Ex-patients organized and talked about their frustration with a mental health system that taught them that, due to their mental health diagnoses, the best they could hope for is the stabilization of their symptoms and maintenance of their functioning; that is, if they were compliant with their treatment and medications. In this philosophy, the best patients could expect was a life filled with appointments, pills, and dependence on professionals. This traditional mental health system is based on a Medical Model approach which teaches its professionals to have an authoritarian approach, to focus on diagnosis and problems, and allows for such treatments as restraint, force, and over medication. It was their feelings of oppression and helplessness that motivated consumers to begin to speak, tell their stories, write books and share how they recovered from their mental illness despite the services provided to them. The first published use of the word “Recovery” as it relates to mental health was in “Recovery: Lived Experience of Rehabilitation” written in the late 1980’s by a woman who had embarked on her own journey of recovery from schizophrenia. That woman, Pat Deegan, was and continues to be a pioneer in the field of mental health, proving that people with mental illness, can, and do, recover. Pat Deegan, by the way, went on to become Pat Deegan, PhD. The second written use of the word recovery was done so by another pioneer, Dr. William Anthony, who utilized recovery to describe his vision of mental health system reform in “Recovery from Mental Illness: The Guiding Vision of the Mental Health System in the 1990’s.”
As consumers began talking, mental health professionals began listening and became convinced that Recovery was possible. Consumers began emerging as “experts,” becoming consultants, working with state, local and national governments to transform the mental health system, getting involved in policy making, program evaluations and service provisions. In further support of the notion of Recovery, some consumers, like Pat Deegan, pursued their education, became therapists as well as psychiatrists and gave a more “credentialed” professional and personal voice to Recovery. The term Recovery soon began to be nationally adopted as the description of the successful interventions that seemed to “work” for people with mental illness. Theoretical and practical models of Recovery were developed and research on Recovery began. With this, the Recovery Movement was launched!
Definition of Recovery
There exists no single definition of the term Recovery as it relates to mental health. The word Recovery is one that is debated among peers and professionals. Opponents of the word Recovery feel like it misleads people to believe that Recovery happens when a person is cured or able to function as if they never had a mental illness. Neither of these descriptions, however, is accurate. Some people think that more appropriate terms for the process of self-acceptance, self understanding, and strength that a person goes through in Recovery are transformation, survival, healing and overcoming.
In general, Recovery is a process. It is a process of re-establishing an identity other than patient, of gaining the knowledge, insight and wisdom to direct one’s own treatment, and of being empowered to make decisions and develop meaning and purpose in one’s life. One thing that is universally agreed upon is that Recovery is a journey that is very personal and self defined.
Components of the Recovery Model
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), with panelists from a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and disciplines, developed a consensus statement outlining principles necessary to achieve mental health recovery. The following 10 Fundamental Components of Recovery were identified:
- Self-Direction
- Individualized and Person-Centered
- Empowerment
- Holistic
- Non-Linear
- Strengths-Based
- Peer Support
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Hope
For a description of each component, please visit SAMHSA's Website