Promoting recovery in mental health (case study) Essay

Promoting recovery in mental health (case study) - Essay Example The concept of psychiatric rehabilitation was introduced in mid-1970s and the concept slowly evolved to absorb more fresh air and democracy through the next decades (Pratt, Gill and Barret, 2007, p.13 of the preface). A more recent development that happened to this concept has been the notion of psychiatric recovery, which evolved in late 1980s (Deegan, 1988). Pratt, Gill and Barret (2007, p.111) have expressed the essence of this concept by saying, â€Å"the idea of recovery represents optimism about the future.† Recovery model in psychiatric treatment has been the product of the brave research work undertaken by persons who had walked through the dark alleys of mental illness, and had come out of them with a new spirit of freedom and self-determination (for e.g., Anonymous, 1989; Ralph, 2004; Unzicker, 1989; Deegan, 1988). It was based on the models of â€Å"recovery from physically handicapping conditions, a number of researchers and scholars have helped to develop a conce pt of recovery for severe mental illness† (Pratt, Gill and Barret, 2007, p.111). ... he mentally ill person is assisted to take command of his/her own situation and he/she is no more totally at the mercy of others, whether they be psychiatric professionals, friends, relatives or institutions. This is the first step towards accepting a mentally ill person as a person having equal rights with a ‘normal’ person. And this is where the recovery concept of social inclusion comes in as the most important factor. Brown (1981), Chamberlin (1984), Jacobson and Curtis (2000), and Everett (1994) have been the major theoreticians who had developed the concept of recovery into a practical psychiatric practice. The basic tenet, to which this concept owes its emergence, is the idea that human interaction, love and mutual understanding are the core values of existence. In curing a mental illness of a person, his/her friends, family, neighborhood, community and the society have a responsibility to share (Ramon, Healy and Renouf, 2007). Deegan (1988) has drawn attention to the fact that the notion of recovery from mental illness is now a twofold intervention where, the patient has to take up one’s own responsibility and all the same, professional help is available for him/her to further the recovery. In particular, customer involvement has been the most important segment of the concept of recovery. This customer-first theory was an outcome of an era when mentally ill patients were victims of superstition and where they were deprived even of the basic human rights (Jacobson and Curtis, 2000). Out of this bleak situation, the mentally disabled persons gradually learned to raise their voice and to initiate a social movement (Jacobson and Curtis, 2000). The collaboration approach is also part of the recovery model. The scope of this concept includes, â€Å"education,