Define And Explain The Concept Of Recovery

We will now attempt to define and explain the concept of recovery briefly. "Recovery is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one's life as one goes beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness” ( Barker, 2009, p.682).

Whitley and Drake (2010) in their article Recovery: a dimensional approach opine that recovery has five dimensions which are; clinical recovery (experiencing improved symptoms); existential recovery (having a sense of hope, empowerment, agency and spiritual well-being); functional recovery (obtaining and maintaining valued roles and responsibilities in society and stable housing); physical recovery
Although the second article mentions the importance of including people who have both professional and personal experience, it is not as explicit as the first article. Recovery is person-centred care, so who better to provide the guidelines on how to improve it than the actual people for whom the model is meant? Staff and device users should learn together by turning experience into practice. The first article was a refreshing read, showing that people with schizophrenia could function at high levels despite living with the mental illness. This, in a way, validates the very core of the recovery approach which aims not to ‘cure’ but to support people living with mental illness on their own terms; to see the person beyond the diagnosis (Slade,
Many people struggle with their mental health but a high percentage of people are unwilling to seek help because of the stigma; the concern of being labelled. People who receive support for mental illness have rated stigma and discrimination at par with the mental illness itself. Patricia Deegan, one of the dual professionals in the first article, said she was subjected to discrimination, stigma, disrespect and dehumanisation. People living with mental illness feel disempowered, not only as a result of the diagnosis but by their own acceptance of the stereotype of someone experiencing mental illness. They may be driven to associate themselves with incapacity worthlessness and so they exclude themselves socially due to anticipatory stigma. Empowerment aids recovery and this is one of the tenets of recovery-oriented approach. One way to empower service users is involving them in decisions about their recovery. Another way is to encourage them to participate in peer support; being of assistance to others is likely to increase their confidence and promote enhanced outcome and recovery (Warner, 2010). Recovery and social inclusion are closely linked. Services need to do more to empower service users to live their lives as they normally would and regain their place in the community (Mental Health