Recovery
Getting better (called recovery in mental health settings) is an important part of the mental ill health.
People can and do get better after a period of mental ill health.
When someone has a period of mental ill health the aim should always be recovery.
The focus should be on the person recovering from the period of mental ill health and those helping should be trying to help people to get better - not just cope.
Because there may be people supporting the individual (family, friends and staff) who has a learning disability and mental ill health they may be able to provide lots of helps with the recovery process.
People who have a learning disability and mental ill health should expect to recover just as well as everyone else.
The text below is taken from the Centre for Mental Health Recovery based at the Unversity of Hertfordshire.
- We see the term ‘recovery’ as explaining a complex process of adapting to and becoming able to actively participate in managing one’s mental illness and life. It recognises many of the following features to describe this process:
- Recovery is a process not an endpoint or destination
- Recovery is an attitude…a way of approaching the day and facing the challenges
- Recovery is not a linear process marked by successive achievements
- Professionals cannot manufacture the spirit of recovery and give it to people
- Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process
- Recovery doesn’t mean cure or return to pre-morbid state. It is a re-adaptation to the illness that allows life to go forward in a meaningful way
- Having hope is crucial to recovery...none of us would strive if we believed it a futile effort
- Recovery is the ongoing…regaining of the capacity to take executive control of one’s life that is meaningful, satisfying and purposeful
To read more about the Centre follow the link below -
Centre for Mental Health Recovery
A poster regarding recovery can also be downloaded from CSIP's Knowledge Community (this is mainly for professionals and not easy read)