Description

This book takes a lofty vision of "recovery" and of "a life in the community" for every adult with a serious mental illness promised by the U.S. President's 2003 New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and shows the reader what is entailed in making this vision a reality. Beginning with the historical context of the recovery movement and its recent emergence on the center stage of mental health policy around the world, the authors then clarify various definitions of mental health recovery and address the most common misconceptions of recovery held by skeptical practitioners and worried families. With this framework in place, the authors suggest fundamental principles for recovery-oriented care, a set of concrete practice guidelines developed in and for the field, a recovery guide model of practice as an alternative to clinical case management, and tools to self-assess the recovery orientation of practices and practitioners. In doing so, this volume represents the first book to go beyond the rhetoric of recovery to its implementation in everyday practice.

Much of this work was developed with the State of Connecticut's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, helping the state to win a #1 ranking in the recent NAMI report card on state mental health authorities. Since initial development of these principles, guidelines, and tools in Connecticut, the authors have become increasingly involved in refining and tailoring this approach for other systems of care around the globe as more and more governments, ministry leaders, system managers, practitioners, and people with serious mental illnesses and their families embrace the need to transform mental health services to promote recovery and community inclusion.

If you've wondered what all of the recent to-do has been about with the notion of "recovery" in mental health, this book explains it. In addition, it gives you an insider's view of the challenges and strategies involved in transforming to recovery and a road map to follow on the first few steps down this exciting, promising, and perhaps long overdue path.

Features

• First concrete illustration of what recovery-oriented care looks like in practice
• First effort to make 'recovery' real in clinical practice
• Inside look at the policies, structures, and guidelines which earned the state of Connecticut it's first number 1 ranking of state mental health authorities in the recent NAMI rating of states

Reviews

"[An] inspiring book, inspiring not through its loftiness (although it speaks of lofty goals) but in its practicality... Anyone who thinks about, talks about, and endeavors to promote recovery in relation to severe mental illness will find this book valuable, but it is perhaps most
useful for the architects of "the system," the administrators who can--and
must--do the most to speed the revolution on its way."--Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal

Product Details

272 pages; 5 halftones, 20 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-530477-0ISBN10: 0-19-530477-2

About the Author(s)