The Theory of Recovery Psychology/The Recovery Model/The Recovery Movement

The Recovery Movement

The recovery movement as it is refered to in this textbook means a multitude of social co-existing movements that occurred simultaneously. Often referred to as the C/S/X movement, meaning consumer/survivor/Ex-patient movement. The term consumer has a connotation of descriptive of a person with pro-psychiatric views, where as the term survivor short psychiatric survivor, has a connotation of anti-psychiatric views. The term consumer is meant in the term it is used in economics and politics, with the essence of the term stakeholder which implies empowerment. Many generalize psychiatric survivors and consumers as being the same, however the distinction is notable for accuracy. To say that a psychiatric survivor has consumed mental health services, is not the same as saying that services were willing sought.

The Anti-psychiatry movement

Many anti-psychiatry philosophies have contributed to what is now known as the recovery movement. The anti-psychiatry movement started in the 1960s as a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D.Laing and Thomas Szasz.

The deinstitutionalization movement

The deinstitutionalization movement was a social push toward replacing long-stay mental institutions with less isolated and smaller community-based alternatives for those diagnosed with mental disorder or developmental disability.

The independent living movement

Howard Gelding or Howie The Harp was one of the original pioneers in mental health recovery. While his concepts and ideas spear-headed the concepts of peer-support and the drop-in center etc. There is still no mention of Mr. Gelding in psychology.

The psychiatric survivor movement

The beginning of a formal movement is often attributed to Howie the Harp, and the formation of the Insane Liberation Front in Portland, Oregon in 1969. The psychiatric survivor movement is a loose coalition of people feeling betrayed by psychiatry have come together to promote legal and treatment alternatives as members of the psychiatric survivors movement. Psychiatric survivors greatly reject the psychiatric doctrine. Anti-psychiatry groups such as MindFreedom International and the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry have also played important roles in the psychiatric survivors movement. According to members of the psychiatric survivors movement, some people considered mentally ill, and subsequently mistreated by certain psychiatrists or by psychiatric doctrine in general, do not benefit from the services offered or forced upon them. According to the movement, many respond with outrage to a system which judges them to be mentally ill, because they consider there to be a value bias within psychiatry that over-rates the judgment of psychiatrists, pharmaceutical companies, and the legal oversight of the mental health system. According to the movement, many also view interventions made in the name of help to be coercive and inherently violent in nature. Sally Clay...

The family advocacy movement

the family advocacy movement begins with NAMI or The National Alliance on Mental Illness was founded in 1979 as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is a nation-wide American advocacy group, representing families and people affected by serious Mental disorders as a non-profit grass roots organization. NAMI's mission is to provide support, education, advocacy, and research for people and their families living with mental illness through various public education and awareness activities.

The self-help movement

The modern self-help and advocacy movement in the field of mental health services developed in the 1970s. However, there are records of former psychiatric patients in the 19th Century working to change laws and public policies. For example, beginning in 1868, Elizabeth Packard, founder of the Anti-Insane Asylum Society, published a series of books and pamphlets describing her experiences in the Illinois insane asylum to which her husband had had her committed. A few decades later, another former psychiatric patient, Clifford W. Beers, founded the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, which eventually became the National Mental Health Association. Beers sought to improve the plight of individuals receiving public psychiatric care, particularly those committed to state institutions. His book, A Mind that Found Itself (1908), described his experience with mental illness and the treatment he encountered in mental hospitals. Beers' work, including his book A Mind That Found Itself (1908) stimulated public interest in the care and treatment of people with mental illness. In the 1940s, a group of former psychiatric patients founded We Are Not Alone (WANA). Their goal was to help others make the difficult transition from hospital to community. Their efforts led to the establishment of Fountain House, a psychosocial rehabilitation service for people leaving state mental institutions. The 1950s saw the advent and widespread use of lobotomy and shock therapy. These were associated with grave concerns and much opposition on grounds of basic morality, harmful effects, or misuse. Towards the 1960s, psychiatric medications came in to widespread use and also caused controversy relating to adverse effects and misuse. There were also associated moves away from large psychiatric institutions to community-based services, which sometimes empowered service users. Coming to the fore in the 1960s, an anti-psychiatry movement vocally challenged the fundamental claims and practices of mainstream psychiatry.

By the 1970s, the women's movement, gay rights movement, and disabilities rights movement had emerged. It was in this context that former mental patients began to organize groups with the common goals of fighting for patients' rights and against forced treatment, stigma and discrimination, and often to promote peer-run services as an alternative to the traditional mental health system. Unlike professional mental health services, which were usually based on the medical model, peer-run services were based on the principle that individuals who have shared similar experiences can help themselves and each other through self-help and mutual support. Many of the individuals who organized these early groups identified themselves as psychiatric survivors. Their groups had names such as Insane Liberation Front and the Network Against Psychiatric Assault. They saw the mental health system as destructive and disempowering. By the 1980s, individuals who considered themselves consumers of mental health services had begun to organize self-help/advocacy groups and peer-run services. While sharing some of the goals of the earlier movement, consumer groups did not seek to abolish the traditional mental health system, which they believed was necessary. Instead, they wanted to reform it. Consumer groups encouraged their members to learn as much as possible about the mental health system so that they could gain access to the best services and treatments available. Recipients of mental health services demanded control over their own treatment and began to have an influence on the public mental health system. They often promoted a recovery model. Whether they considered themselves consumers or survivors, activists demanded a voice and a choice. The movement today In the United States, the number of mental health mutual support groups (MSG), self-help organizations (SHO) (run by and for mental health consumers and/or family members) and consumer-operated services (COS) was recently estimated to be 7467. The movement may express a preference for the "survivor" label over the "consumer" label, with more than 60 percent of ex-patient groups reported to support anti-psychiatry beliefs and considering themselves to be "psychiatric survivors." Attempts are being made to apply consumer concepts to rural as well as urban areas. There is some variation between the perspective on the consumer/survivor movement coming from psychiatry, anti-psychiatry or consumers/survivors themselves

The consumer movement

The Consumer/Survivor/Ex-Patient Movement, also known as the User/Survivor Movement, refers to a diverse association of individuals (and organizations representing them) who are currently "consumers" (clients) of mental health services, or who consider themselves "survivors" of mental health services, or who simply identify as "ex-patients". The movement is associated with campaigning for improved mental health services, and particularly for greater empowerment and choice. Common themes are "talking back to the power of psychiatry", rights protection and advocacy, and self-determination. While activists in this movement may share a collective identity, they can be seen as enacting their concerns along a continuum from conservative to radical, according to their position in relation to psychiatric treatment and their relative levels of resistance and patienthood. In identity politics term consumer has a socio-political and economic implication behind it, this implies choice.