Recovery model

The recovery model, recovery approach or psychological recovery is an approach to mental disorders or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports a person's potential for recovery. Recovery is generally seen in this model as a personal journey rather than a set outcome, and one that may involve developing hope, a secure base and sense of self, supportive relationships, empowerment, social inclusion, coping skills, and meaning. Recovery sees symptoms as a continuum of the norm rather than an aberration and rejects sane-insane dichotomy.

William Anthony, director of the Boston Centre for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, developed a cornerstone definition of mental health recovery in 1993. "Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process of changing one's attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills and/or roles. It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with limitations caused by the illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one's life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness."

The concept of recovery in mental health emerged as deinstitutionalization led to more individuals living in the community. It gained momentum as a social movement in response to a perceived failure by services or wider society to adequately support social inclusion, coupled with studies demonstrating that many people do recover. A recovery-oriented approach has since been explicitly embraced as the guiding principle of mental health and substance dependency policies in numerous countries and states. Practical measures are being implemented in many cases to align services with a recovery model, although obstacles, concerns, and criticisms have been raised by both service providers and recipients of services. Several standardized measures have been developed to assess different aspects of recovery, although there is some divergence between professionalized models and those originating in the psychiatric survivors movement.