Recovery from a mental health condition

Recovery from a mental health condition

The concept of recovery, also called the recovery approach, recovery model, or psychological recovery, is about controlling life for individuals with mental health issues, consumers. Recovery is a change process in which consumers improve their wellness and health as well as live a life that is self -directed. It aims at supporting the consumer’s recovery potential and is a self-transformation, renewal, and discovery journey for the consumer in question. In the past decade, the model has gained momentum, and the consumer movement looks at it as a medical model substitute. The model operates on a two simple premise basis-possibility of recovery from a mental health condition and the fact that for an improvement to be effective, it should be patient-oriented. For a long time[p1] in the seventies, practitioners clang on to the belief that mental health patients, especially those with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizo-affective disorder, could not contribute to the society.

The SAMHSA (The substance abuse and mental health services administration) has put across four characteristics of this model that one should consider when they are in the process to support someone in recovery. The first dimension is health, which requires people to make decisions that boost their mental as well as physical well-being for them to recover from the mental illness. Purpose is another characteristic which proposes that one should participate in daily routines like participating in community, work, family, and school in the process of recovery so that they can maintain wellness. Home is also an essential tenet of the model to consider. For the recovery process to yield, the patients in the process need to be subjected to a supportive and safe environment where people are offering a hand for the betterment of the patient in question. The community is equally essential since it should provide respect, emotional availability, and love to individuals undergoing recovery. These are paramount in helping these victims thrive and survive in their journey.

The model targets to assist patients of distress and mental illness to focus on issues beyond existing and surviving. It motivates the patients to set goals and work towards achieving them. It aims at ridding these people the idea that they cannot be resourceful to society. Instead, it shows them that they can forge relationships and act in ways that will be beneficial to them cite. As a result, they feel a part of society and begin fitting in and becoming restored.

The model’s argument is against the traditional mental illness’ concepts of social attitudes and mental ill-health, which limit the patients in some things. It emphasizes helping people look beyond the limitations that society has imposed on them and achieve their targets, dreams, and realize their aspirations. It is a process that offers chances for one to change, discover themselves, and reflect their new interests, skill, and values.

It also strengthens the bond between the recovering patients and the community at large. It instances where there was no bond at all, it creates one. Many asylums have been closed, and many people staying for long in psychiatric facilities increase their numbers. Such involving the community in the recovery journey of these people help them regain their position in the community and work alongside the community for personal and holistic growth. When the community supports individuals with severe mental diseases, they can point out their strengths and weaknesses, which enables facilitation of good practice that plays a role in keeping them well. The model also allows one to shift from being identified with an illness to being appreciated as a person who can handle their responsibilities and role and who can contribute positively not only to their life but also to the community at largecite.

The model has some disadvantages. The model is an ancient concept and applies to few people only, and it is an outcome of active treatment. For it to be fully implemented, resources are needed, which increases the burden to people who need to provide for the resources in question. The process also downgrades the role that professionals play in intervening during the process and increases the liability and risk of exposing providers.

The recovery model can also be subject to manipulation by officials who have an aim of serving various financial and political interests. This can include these officials pushing patients out before they are ready or even having some services that ought to be provided withdrawn. By doing so, they use the finances that have been set aside for the scrapped services for their selfish gain.

The model is also not a full guarantee that the patients under it will recover as they or their relatives would expect. In as much as it does not aim at complete recovering, it is not always that its aims will be achieved as the patients can sometimes be uncooperative. This can be disappointing since it is everyone’s wish that the model works out well for the sake of the individual in question. The approach can also involve uncertainties as well as cultural biases like was noted in the North American recovery model in practice.

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