Course Description

Within the National Service Users Executive many of our members believe that mental health exists along a continuum. Everyone will experience mental ill health at some point in their lives, but not everyone will require professional help. We may need to make changes in our lives, or change some of our relationships, but we can do this. For some people however, this does not apply and specialist mental health treatment will be needed. The theory of recovery challenges some of the old myths and preconceptions about mental illness and focuses on people’s ability to build a meaningful life for themselves in spite of any symptoms or other manifestations of ill-health.

The concept of “recovery” is a relatively recent development in mental health services. Recovery within the mental health community offers both the possibility of improvement in a person’s condition and/or experience and the importance of the person assuming an active and responsible life within their cultural and familial context.

We hope that those who participate in this course will become familiar with both the theory and the ethos of recovery at the end of the course. The documents which are linked to the questions could fairly be said to be required reading for this topic.

Background Reading

A Recovery Approach within the Irish Mental Health services: a Framework for Development. (2008)

DoH – A Vision for Change

Making Recovery a Reality – Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

NIMHE Guiding Statement on Reovery – National Institue for Mental Health in England.