John Gale on Recovery

I recently posted a comment asking about recovery on John Gale's blog, which can be reached at John's Blog, his comments were:

Thanks for your comments. I'm not aware of the connection between shock
treatment and dementia although this does sound interesting. As far as the
Recovery movement goes we get quite a bit of interest in it here at the Bethlem
Library and it is generally thought to be a good thing. The idea is - broadly
speaking - not to aim at a medically-defined cure but to enable people with
mental-health problems to feel properly part of society with fulfilling work,
personal relationships etc even if they still have some symptoms. One of the
most popular books we have on it is Social Inclusion and Recovery: a Model for
Mental Health Practice by Julie Repper and Rachel Perkins published by Bailliere
Tindall, 2003 ISBN 9780702026010

Best Wishes,

JOHN

Thanks for the input John! As you can see, many look at recovery in different lights. John and I definately see eye to eye in the fact that Recovery is about making someone feel like they are a productive member of society through empowerment; much of this comes from confidence in housing, employment status, and living arrangments.

I tend to believe that Recovery is focused upon medical symptomes however, and that it is more a systematic treatment/intervention at multiple levels of an individual's life. This is often referred to as a hierarchy approach in systems-thinking methods as related to healthcare.

The hierarchy that affects one's health is often, from the highest level to the micro-level, regarded as everything from society at large to molecules in the individual. Typically, medical professionals are very focused on the micro-level and leave the macro-level untreated. Psychology and psychiatry often try to bridge the gap for recognition of social conditions can represent themselves via medical conditions.

Thus Recovery is a full-hierarchy approach to mental healthcare. It attacks the molecular level through correcting chemical imbalances via medication, but also focuses on social factors as well. This allows for a multi-tiered recovery treatment plan, which I believe will be much more effective for mental healthcare consumers.

Thanks again for your response John! Your input was invaluable and we'd love to hear back from you for further discussion on this if your time allows!

For more information on recovery research, check out MHCD's Research and Evaluation Homepage.