The Recovery Model
The Recovery Model, which is influencing service development in Britain, the US and elsewhere, refers both to the subjective experiences of optimism, empowerment and interpersonal support experienced by people with mental illness and their informal care providers, and to the creation of services that engender optimism about outcome from illness and a support for human rights. The roots of the movement may be found in both the consumer movement and in psychosocial rehabilitation. Consumers have reinforced the drive towards empowerment, collaboration, and recognition of human rights. Rehabilitation professionals, on the other hand, have emphasized the need for services that recognize the value of work and the sense of community in the lives of people with mental illness, and the importance of environmental factors in helping people with psychiatric disorders achieve their best functioning potential.
The model calls for the provision of education about psychiatric disorders as a way to empower consumers to collaborate with service-providers in managing their own illnesses. Collaborative models, such as the psychosocial clubhouse and educational programs that involve both professionals and consumers as teachers, are seen as important elements of recovery-oriented services. The model has generated renewed interest in fighting stigma and the creation of user-run services that offer advocacy, mentoring and peer support via such mechanisms as user-run “warm-lines” (peer-to-peer supportive chat-lines) and drop-in centers.
The scientific evidence supports such central components of the recovery model as optimism about outcome, and the value of empowerment and peer support. One of the most robust findings in schizophrenia research is that 20 percent of those with the illness will recover completely and another 20 percent or more will regain good social functioning. Much recent research suggests that working helps people recover from schizophrenia, and advances in vocational rehabilitation have made this more feasible. A growing body of research supports the concept that empowerment is an important component of the recovery process and that consumer-driven services are valuable in empowering the person with schizophrenia and improving outcome from illness.
The scientific evidence supports such central components of the recovery model as optimism about outcome, and the value of empowerment and peer support.
