The personal recovery movement in Singapore – past, present and future

The personal recovery movement is beginning to gain traction within Singapore’s mental healthcare systems. We believe it is timely to give a broad overview of how it developed and provide suggestions on how it can evolve further. From the early custodial care in the 1800s to the community-centric programmes of the 1900s and early 2000s, we now find ourselves at the forefront of yet another paradigm shift towards a more consumer-centric model of care. The following decades will allow personal recovery practitioners and researchers to innovate and identify unique but culturally appropriate care frameworks. We also discuss how the movement can continue to complement existing mental healthcare systems and efforts. Keywords: Asia, legislation, lived experience, mental health services, personal recovery

Identity Under Construction: Workers’ Collective in an Argentine Metallurgical Factory

In the 1970s, Argentina lived moments of great effervescence and labour conflict. The Santa Rosa metallurgical factory, located in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, became a centre of workers' struggle and resistance not only against the management and the state but also against certain union practices. From this factory, a union recovery movement was promoted that, in constant dialogue with the neighborhood and other factories in the area, disputed not only the leadership of the regional union but also the meaning of the union organization and of being a worker and a Peronist. In this article, I propose to analyze the process of construction of this workers’ collective that emerged from the experience at the workplace. To understand the factory not just as a space but also as a process, as a social construction of a relational type allow us to see the determinations that this space exercises over the construction of the workers’ collective, reflecting forms of belonging and solidarity among the members of this collective that are more than just the sum of individualities. I will analyze this process of construction of the workers’ collective studying two specific conflicts that these workers carried out during the decade. We will observe how the factory space determined the constitution of an original working culture in constant dialogue with the trade union organization and with the other actors of the environment, focusing on the different responses that this collective of workers gave in different socio-political contexts.

Preliminary Study on Students’ Readiness to Learn Online due to Covid-19 Pandemic at a Pre-University in Malaysia

The outbreak of Covid-19 in the early year 2020 has changed the landscape of our educational system. The government of Malaysia announced the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), where no education institutions can practice face-to-face learning. Therefore, the management of the University of Malaya has decided that all students will learn online until 31 December 2020. Hence, this study is conducted to investigate the new students’ readiness on online learning before their classes start. The survey was conducted using Google Form focusing on four main aspects of readiness, that is the students’ background, hardware readiness, software readiness and behaviour. The behaviour aspect includes experiences, opinions, and expectation on online learning. 1126 students consisting of 546 (48.5%) males and 580 (51.5%) females participated in this survey. From the survey, we found that 1013 (90%) students are ready with online learning. However, action must be taken to assist the remaining 113 (10%) students. Alarmingly, 563 (50%) students have not experienced online learning before. 900 (80%) students claimed that they are ready to learn online. Hopefully, this research will provide some insights on the current situation and problems regarding online learning and its remedy can be prepared to overcome it. Keywords: Online Learning, E-Learning, Readiness Assessment, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Movement Control Order, Pre-University Students

Discovering Myself, a Journey of Rediscovery

In this chapter, the author describes his own journey of recovery from a potentially lethal combination of mental health issues and drug misuse. Now working as a peer support expert in the Recovery College movement, he draws out the many factors involved in his own recovery and how these inform his current role. Key to these are the values of ‘hope, control and opportunity’ by which the culture of the recovery movement is characterized. It is through these that as Waldo concludes, they ‘challenge stigma and genuinely recognize the strengths and contribution that everyone can make’.

Moving beyond psychiatric diagnosis and the medical framework towards social recovery: an interview with Jim van Os

There is a growing realization in the field of psychiatry that we are unable to free ourselves of the constraints imposed by our concepts, as well as to move beyond them. Thus, the field demands not only more robust empirical evidence but also a more sophisticated conceptual framework, which would allow for critical and innovative thinking to conceive and to build better models of mental health care. In this spirit, we present a very thought-provoking interview with Dutch psychiatrist Jim van Os, encompassing biographical issues from his academic background as well as his ideas on recovery and the Dutch experience of the recovery colleges as a “shadow mental health system” in the Netherlands. Adopting a critical stance on psychiatric diagnosis and the validity of group-level comparisons in evidence-based psychiatry, and in line with the ideals of the recovery movement, van Os points out that the process of healing should surpass symptom reduction. For him, it should take into account the long-term process of developing resilience, learning to deal with suffering through interactions with other people, building up new perspectives, goals, and existential purposes. In other words, he emphasizes the idea of social recovery and favors the thought that mental health professionals should try to “help people to relate better to their mental variation and offer them ways of doing that differently.”

Women with Serious Mental Illness, Resilience, and the Recovery Movement

This chapter reviews the recovery movement and the importance of its role in the mental health care of women who experience serious mental illness. This chapter explores the foundations of recovery and how this perspective seeks to decrease the impact of stigma and increase self-determination, while still recognizing the role that stigma and marginalization have played in women’s experience of serious mental illness. Literature is presented regarding the basic components of recovery in serious mental illness. Ways that recovery programs for people with serious mental illness can become more sensitive to woman’s issues are discussed. The biological and developmental concerns uniquely faced by women with serious mental health issues are addressed, as well as the value of a multidisciplinary, recovery-oriented treatment team. Case narratives, a clinical strategies list, discussion questions, activities, and a clinical worksheet (“My Recovery Journey”) are included.

Our lives in three parts: an autoethnographic account of two undergraduates and their respective psychiatric careers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an autoethnographic account of the stories of a mental health professional and a mental health survivor. Design/methodology/approach Using the autoethnographic approach, the authors provide summaries of their respective psychiatric careers in three parts. Findings The authors studied at the same University, Reading. Voyce failed his Politics finals and embarked on a trajectory as a mental patient. Carson graduated in Psychology and trained as a clinical psychologist. The recovery movement brought them together, and they have now established an educational and personal bond. Research limitations/implications These are of course only two accounts, yet both authors have played a role in developing the recovery model in Britain. The accounts and story show the benefits of adopting a partnership approach between professional and service user. Practical implications Both accounts are recovery journeys in their own way. Both highlight the value of education for recovery. Social implications There is no doubt that clinical psychologists are both highly valued and well paid for their expertise. However, the expertise gained through Andrew’s life experience is equally invaluable for today’s mental health professionals to learn from, but perhaps not as well remunerated. Originality/value Both accounts stretch back over 45 years and have covered the move from institutional to community care. This paper presents two contrasting perspectives on these changes and the lives of the two people involved.