Mental Health Recovery - Essay Example

Mental health recovery may take more time compared to a physical problem.

 Unlike other physical health recovery models, the mental health recovery model never offers complete recovery from the mental disorder. It offers the mental patients to have primary control over their basic requirements and decision-making.  “For many people, the concept of recovery is about staying in control of their life despite experiencing a mental health problem. Professionals in the mental health sector often refer to the ‘recovery model’ to describe this way of thinking” (Recovery, 2007) Recovery can occur even without the intervention of medical treatment for mental health patients. Recovery of a mental patient takes place through different steps. Medicines or Psychiatry can only help the mental patient in identifying the defects in his behavior. Recovery is accomplished with the help of the patient’s environment like his family and society as well.

“The mental health recovery process is based on the following principles;

• provides a holistic view of mental illness that focuses on the person, not just their symptoms
• believes recovery from severe mental illness is possible
• is a journey rather than a destination
• does not necessarily mean getting back to where you were before
• happens in ‘fits and starts and, like life, has many ups and downs
• calls for optimism and commitment from all concerned
• is profoundly influenced by people’s expectations and attitudes
• requires a well-organized system of support from family, friends, or professionals
• requires services to embrace new and innovative ways of working
• The recovery model aims to help people with mental health problems to move beyond mere survival and existence, encouraging them to move forward and carry out activities and develop relationships that give their lives meaning.” (Recovery, 2007)

Mental health recovery program focuses more on the person than the symptom. The philosophy behind this approach is that the person is constrained to so many factors social, economical, ideological religious, etc and hence the improvements in these parameters will definitely improve mental health as well. The environment in which the person spends his life is important in the recovery process. A healthy environment can assist the patient more than medications in recovering his mental health.

Importance of service users/survivors experiences and perspectives

The service user/survivor in the mental health recovery program means the current "consumers" (clients) of mental health services or those who earlier sought the advice of mental health services. The feedback provided by them is important in formulating the right strategy for the mental health recovery program. Only those who have once experienced or experienced mental problems can speak authentically about mental disorders more than anybody else. Even psychiatrists don’t have convincing scientific methods to assess the symptoms of mental disorders. Most of the physical diseases and their root causes can be identified using scientific methods like blood/urine testing, X-ray, Scanning, etc because of the physical presence of the causes of the diseases. On the other hand, mental problems are related to the mind and hence it is not possible to measure or observe them physically. Only those who experienced it can tell us with authority about these problems and hence their opinion and suggestions have more importance than anything else in a mental recovery program. 

Allowing a mental patient to take independent decisions can sometimes cause problems as well.  “Along with concerns about rejecting helpful medications, they might include not going to a program, not going to a doctor’s appointment, or not going to work.”(NASW Practice Snapshot: The Mental Health Recovery Model, 2006) Such habits can further complicate the situation in the recovery process. Even while allowing the patient to take independent decisions; constant monitoring is required to ensure that the patient is taking only the right decisions.

Daniel Fisher, MD, Ph.D., a former patient, now a psychiatrist who is one of the most vocal advocates of the recovery model, has noted that, even though the weight of personal testimony and epidemiological studies argues that most people are able to regain a productive role in society and recover from a mental disorder, the mental health field, in particular, persists in a belief that mental disorder is a permanent condition. Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from a mental disorder. (Spirituality and Recovery from Mental Disorders, n.d) Labeling mental disorders as a permanent one by medical science itself is a wrong concept. The optimism for recovery and the possibility for a normal life must be injected into the minds of the patient for an effective speedy recovery. In fact, the patient’s belief, attitudes, approaches, and behavior are important in a mental recovery program and hence those who treat him or assist him must cultivate only positive thoughts rather than negative ones as described above

In conclusion, mental health recovery programs must realize that mental patients are affected by problems related to their mind and hence the physical assessment of such things may not be possible like physical diseases. The person is important in mental health treatment than the symptom and hence he must be assisted with the utmost care by the family, society, and the health care professionals.