David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
A New Model of Recovery from Mental Illness
by John. Storied Mind Blog
September 11, 2010
My understanding of recovery from depression came from experience with the standard treatments: psychotherapy and medication. Until the 1990s, I worked exclusively with psychiatrists for both. In that setting, I can’t recall anyone talking to me about recovery or what I wanted to get out of treatment.
The assumption was that I would be in therapy for the long-term. Whenever I brought up the idea of ending treatment, that became another subject for digging into my past rather than discussing what I wanted for the future. After a while, I became very skeptical of treatment that looked only at illness without a positive model of health. Getting better was all about ending symptoms, and that was it. I had the passive role of a patient under a doctor’s care, not an active role in defining my own recovery.
In the last ten years, that idea of treatment has begun to change, and quite radically. Of course, it’s taken a political movement, aimed mostly at federal mental health agencies, to get things going – just as it did to get official recognition for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But it’s not limited to action in Washington, DC. Questions have also been raised within the mental health professions, and the major associations are all supporting the recovery initiative, including the American Psychiatric Association. Even though it’s still early days – mostly about formal definitions, policies and training – what they’ve come up is remarkable – at least on paper.
Look, for example, at the National Consensus Statement on Mental Health Recovery. The concept of recovery has been so little used in mental health circles that it took a conference organized by eight federal agencies with 110 participating experts just to define what it meant.
Here’s the definition.
Along with the definition, the conference group identified 10 guiding principles of recovery that sharply contrast with past approaches to mental health practice. While quoting directly, I’ve edited each one down to its core idea.
Whatever happens over the next few years, there is now an alternative model of recovery from mental illness to work with. It’s especially important for people like me who have tried to find their on way to wellness. Hopefully, the providers will adopt its values as well.
by John. Storied Mind Blog
September 11, 2010
My understanding of recovery from depression came from experience with the standard treatments: psychotherapy and medication. Until the 1990s, I worked exclusively with psychiatrists for both. In that setting, I can’t recall anyone talking to me about recovery or what I wanted to get out of treatment.
The assumption was that I would be in therapy for the long-term. Whenever I brought up the idea of ending treatment, that became another subject for digging into my past rather than discussing what I wanted for the future. After a while, I became very skeptical of treatment that looked only at illness without a positive model of health. Getting better was all about ending symptoms, and that was it. I had the passive role of a patient under a doctor’s care, not an active role in defining my own recovery.
In the last ten years, that idea of treatment has begun to change, and quite radically. Of course, it’s taken a political movement, aimed mostly at federal mental health agencies, to get things going – just as it did to get official recognition for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But it’s not limited to action in Washington, DC. Questions have also been raised within the mental health professions, and the major associations are all supporting the recovery initiative, including the American Psychiatric Association. Even though it’s still early days – mostly about formal definitions, policies and training – what they’ve come up is remarkable – at least on paper.
Look, for example, at the National Consensus Statement on Mental Health Recovery. The concept of recovery has been so little used in mental health circles that it took a conference organized by eight federal agencies with 110 participating experts just to define what it meant.
Here’s the definition.
Mental health recovery is a journey of healing and transformation enabling a person with a mental health problem to live a meaningful life in a community of his or her choice while striving to achieve his or her full potential.
I had to stare at that phrase, “journey of healing and transformation,” for a while before it sank in. As a veteran of conferences and consensus building around government policy, I can imagine the intense discussion and negotiation that went into each phrase in the definition. I was all the more amazed at “journey of healing and transformation.” In a setting like that, such words are usually greeted with groans of derision.
Along with the definition, the conference group identified 10 guiding principles of recovery that sharply contrast with past approaches to mental health practice. While quoting directly, I’ve edited each one down to its core idea.
- Self-Direction: … By definition, the recovery process must be self-directed by the individual, who defines his or her own life goals and designs a unique path towards those goals.
- Individualized and Person-Centered: There are multiple pathways to recovery based on an individual’s unique strengths and resiliencies … . Individuals also identify recovery as being an ongoing journey and an end result as well as an overall paradigm for achieving wellness and optimal mental health.
- Empowerment: Consumers have the authority to choose from a range of options and to participate in all decisions… . … Through empowerment, an individual gains control of his or her own destiny and influences the organizational and societal structures in his or her life.
- Holistic: Recovery encompasses an individual’s whole life, including mind, body, spirit, and community. …
- Non-Linear: Recovery is not a step-by-step process but one based on continual growth, occasional setbacks, and learning from experience. … Recovery begins with an initial stage of awareness in which a person recognizes that positive change is possible. This awareness enables the consumer to move on to fully engage in the work of recovery.
- Strengths-Based: Recovery focuses on valuing and building on the multiple capacities, resiliencies, talents, coping abilities, and inherent worth of individuals. … The process of recovery moves forward through interaction with others in supportive, trust-based relationships.
- Peer Support: Mutual support—including the sharing of experiential knowledge and skills and social learning—plays an invaluable role in recovery. Consumers encourage and engage other consumers in recovery and provide each other with a sense of belonging, supportive relationships, valued roles, and community.
- Respect: Community, systems, and societal acceptance and appreciation of consumers —including protecting their rights and eliminating discrimination and stigma—are crucial in achieving recovery. Self-acceptance and regaining belief in one’s self are particularly vital. …
- Responsibility: Consumers have a personal responsibility for their own self-care and journeys of recovery. Taking steps towards their goals may require great courage. Consumers must strive to understand and give meaning to their experiences and identify coping strategies and healing processes to promote their own wellness.
- Hope. Recovery provides the essential and motivating message of a better future— that people can and do overcome the barriers and obstacles that confront them. … Hope is the catalyst of the recovery process. …
Whatever happens over the next few years, there is now an alternative model of recovery from mental illness to work with. It’s especially important for people like me who have tried to find their on way to wellness. Hopefully, the providers will adopt its values as well.
