Recovery psychology/Psychosocial Rehabilitation

"I would say to anyone that recovery never just walks in the door. I worked hard at it for years."--Lori Holman from Next Year I'll Plant Tulips

Psychiatric Rehabilitation

The Health Dictionary defines psychosocial rehabilitation as therapeutic activities or interventions provided individually or in groups that may include:

development and maintenance of daily and community-living skills
self-care
skills training including grooming, bodily care, and feeding
social skills training, and
development of basic language skills

However, this definition misses the depth, diversity, and complexity of the philosophy and approach that is represented by PSR. Psychiatric Rehabilitation used to be known as Psychosocial Rehabilitation. The term "psychiatric rehabilitation" is often used interchangeably with PSR. However, psychiatric rehabilitation is more of a medical model, with a blending of the role of psychiatry and medications with more traditional psychosocial approaches. In psychiatric rehabilitation for example consider this case: The client is interested in becoming an astronaut, the practitioner would not scold the client or ridicule the client by telling the client that such a goal is unobtainable, instead the practitioner explores with the client what might be the motivation and interest in being an astronaut, and steps he would need to take to achieve this goal. The alternatives to this might be to refuse to discuss the issue with the client explaining that it was an impossible goal to accomplish or to discourage the person nicely, as you don’t want the client to become upset or to be set up for disappointment and failure. One of the core philosophical beliefs of psychiatric rehabilitation is it the client who decides what they want in their treatment, it is the client who sets their own goals. If a goal is going to be impossible or failure is going to occur it is not for the practitioner to decide. Clients with "high ambitions" do succeed. If not at one goal than with another that developed as a result of attempted one more idealistic.

The study of psychiatric rehabilitation in relation to recovery psychology would be no different than the relationship between abnormal psychology or clinical psychology to psychiatry (psychiatric treatment.) The best resources for researching psychiatric rehabilitation are these three U.S. universities, although such schools do exist abroad as well. Any textbook on recovery psychology would address rehabilitation in the way a textbook from psychology of developmental disabilities would address habilitation. Note: Many psychology of developmental disabilities textbooks fail to recognize the neurodiversity, much the same way clinical psychology fails to recognize the recovery movement.

Psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery fallacies of doctrine

In the study of psychiatric rehabilitation which facilitates this "recovery model" there is much discussion on the importance of Vocational Rehabilitation, that having a job improves the quality of life for a person with mental illness. The equation Strengths+Supports=Success is given in describing this need to assist persons with mental illness in getting jobs. Then in the same literature, there is the return to "overstated doctrine" which is called the recovery model, that recovery is not a destination.

Strengths (innate abilities of the person with mental illness) plus Supports (Services and things which make functioning posible)equals success (the destination)
Recovery does not mean a destination.
Therefore Rehabilitation can not be about recovery.

Precursors to PSR

"In fact, their complaints have made them the significant factor in changing the system, say experts--and also in pointing up the failure of psychology to play a leadership role."--Patrick A. McGuire, New hope for people with schizophrenia APA Monitor

Rehabilitation: The facilitating of recovery

1.Article on Wikipedia
2.The International Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal
3.Tom Craig PDF
4.Wikibook on Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery
5.Wellness Recovery Action Plan, Copeland Center, More on WRAP
Mary Ellen Copeland Videos
1M.E.Copeland part1
2M.E.Copeland part2
6. Peer Support on Wikipedia CPS, Peer Support on Wikipedia, Peer Support Training, Peer Article on PDF, National Empowerment Center on Peer Support
7.Self-help Self-help, Self-help books Self-help organizations
8.Evidence-Based Practices
9. Supported Employment
10. Employment services at the Village

Reasonable Accomodations

Reasonable Accomodations for persons with Psychiatric Disabilities

Historical context error

In most trainings since the 2001 President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health; there is a considerable ammount of discussion on "transforming the mental health care in to a recovery oriented mental health system" with no discussion of the "before" or "pre-recovery mental health system." Why is this recovery concept significant? What was the mental health system like prior to it being "recovery oriented?" Transforming from what?