The Recovery Movement and Its Implications for Transforming Clinical and Rehabilitative Practice

We begin with a snapshot of the world we hope to leave behind. While it may not be necessary to reiterate the reasons why transformation is needed for most readers—who, as we noted in the Introduction, may be only too familiar with the challenges presented by our current systems of care—we think it useful nonetheless to establish a point of departure. We also strive throughout this volume to make our ideas concrete through the use of stories derived from our own experiences, putting a human face on what might frequently appear to be abstract or idealistic concepts. In our experience, and in our previous publications (e.g., Davidson, Stayner, et al., 2001), there has been very little about mental health concepts of recovery that are either abstract or idealistic. In fact, we have consistently stressed the everyday nature of recovery (Borg & Davidson, 2007), fi nding it embodied and exemplifi ed in such mundane activities as washing one’s own dishes, playing with a child, or walking a dog. We strive to continue this concrete focus in what follows, alternating our exposition of principles and practices with descriptions of real-life examples from our practice. This not only is our own preference in teaching and training but was strongly encouraged by the reviewers of an earlier draft of this book. We are happy to oblige. Passage of legislation such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 held great promise for individuals with disabilities, especially in relation to their opportunity to participate fully in all aspects of community life. Unfortunately, it is now widely recognized that the implementation of these acts for persons with serious mental illness lags far behind parallel efforts in the broader disability community, with expectations for expanded access and opportunity largely still to be realized (Chirikos, 1999; Fabian, 1999; Hernandez, 2000; Wylonis, 1999). In response to this national tragedy, several recent calls have been made for radical reforms to the mental health system. The Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, for example, called for mental health services to be “consumer oriented and focused on promoting recovery” (DHHS, 1999, p. 455).