Psychological Recovery

This book addresses an international challenge in relation to recovery: how to bring empirical investigation to the consumer-developed understanding of recovery. The authors rise to this challenge superbly. They rightly position recovery as arising from the lived experience of people who use mental health services, and then develop an empirically-based understanding of the stages and processes of recovery. This empirical work has been internationally infl uential and the detailed description will be of wide interest. The authors then contextualise their work within the fi eld of positive psychology and well-being research - areas which will directly inform the evolution of mental health services in the 21st century. I recommend this book, and hope it is widely read. Mike Slade, Researcher (researchintorecovery.com) and Author of 'Personal Recovery and Mental Illness' This book begins by examining the history of schizophrenia, and discerning the roots of pessimism in its outlook. The authors then introduce the concept of recovery, and their own model of its process, which is via a series of stages, which they show can be measured and used in treatment. One great value of a work such as this is that it injects factors that are often lacking in treatment environments, and sometimes in the minds of service providers, namely hope and optimism. As such, this book will be, or should be, of interest to all those who work with people with serious mental illnesses. Tom Trauer, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia This exciting and important book is sure to stimulate dialogue and debate within the rapidly growing international recovery movement. Based on many personal stories analysed by leading recovery researchers in Australia, this book offers the beginning of a road map for the recovery journey for people with serious mental illnesses, their loved ones and mental health practitioners alike. Larry Davidson, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University, USA Many countries have introduced policies that stipulate mental health services be 'recovery-oriented'. However, there is no widely accepted definition of recovery, understanding of the process and how services are to become recovery-oriented, or consensus on how recovery should be assessed. Where conceptual models have been proposed, they have tended to be complex and do not lend themselves readily to routine use and research purposes. This book presents a consumer-orientated, stage-based model of psychological recovery from serious mental illness, utilising stories of lived experience to provide a framework for clinical work and research in the fi eld of recovery. Each stage of the recovery process is illustrated with mental health consumers' experiences, which are then placed in the context of existing theory in fi elds such as trauma, hope, self-determination, identity and wellbeing. Three measures of recovery are also introduced, adding recovery-based options to the range of clinical outcome measures commonly used in mental health settings. Placing recovery within the growing fi eld of positive psychology, this book fi lls a need in the mental health professional community for a succinct, yet fl exible, model of recovery from mental illness. It offers a thorough grounding in the history of the concept of recovery, a deep appreciation of the mental health consumer's experience of psychological recovery, an understanding of the conceptual model and an awareness of the issues surrounding recovery measurement.