The Recovery Movement: Defining Evidence-Based Processes

Abstract

Recently, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched its plan to transform the mental health care delivery system. The transformation document proposes major initiatives to build a coordinated care delivery system that is consumer/family oriented and evidence based (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2005). At the center of the transformation is the idea of recovery. There exists no universal definition of recovery, but it is most often depicted as a process where persons with serious mental illness reengage with life and, via new positive coping, experience a restoration of a sense of self and purpose in life (Anthony, Cohen, Farkas, & Cagne, 2002). A core message of recovery is that mental illnesses are treatable and persons with mental illness can lead meaningful lives in their environment of choice (Anthony et al., 2002). How has recovery emerged as such a pivotal process in the transformed system? The notion of recovery has intuitive appeal, consumer endorsement, and considerable support in longitudinal studies of the process. When SAMHSA framed the issue of reforming the mental health system, the agency stressed that transformation must be broad, involving not only practice innovation but also attitudes and belief change. There was recognition