Recovery
What is distinctive about putting recovery at the heart of mental healthcare? What does recovery add to our understanding of the nature of mental health and illness? Is there a recovery model in contrast with bio-medical or psycho-social models? What, if anything, is the connection between recovery and social justice? Is recovery an aim for medical- or healthcare or is it an essentially broader political notion?
Two related questions raised in the Davidson et al paper and especially in subtle differences between the papers by Hopper and Sen (and work by Nussbaum) are:
1) If freedom is a central notion for recovery, should we expect the goals of recovery to vary dramatically or are there core requirements for flourishing which stem from some unified notion of human nature?
2) Can mental illness - and the experience of mental healthcare - undermine the kind of choices or hopes that people might make? If so, can individuals be wrong about their own goals for recovery?
Essential reading
Davidson, L., Ridgway, P., Wieland, M., & O'Connell, M. (2009). A capabilities approach to mental health transformation: a conceptual framework for the recovery era. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health (Revue canadienne de santé mentale communautaire), 28(2), 35-46.
Shepherd, G., Boardman, J., & Slade, M. (2008). Making recovery a reality London: Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health
Thornton, T., & Lucas, P. (2011). On the very idea of a recovery model for mental health. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37(1), 24-28
Further reading
Hopper, K. 2007. Rethinking social recovery in schizophrenia: what a capabilities approach might offer. Social Science & Medicine. 65, (5) pp. 868-879
Sen, A. (1993) ‘Capability and Well-Being’ in Nussbaum, M. and Sen, A. (eds.) The Quality of Life, New York: Oxford Clarendon Press
Karen Newbigging's substantial recovery reading list is here.
Some slides on the the issue of whether recovery is a model are here.
A reading of the Hopper paper is here and the Sen paper is here.