Evidence-Based Practices: Shaping Mental Health Services Toward Recovery

Implementation Resource Kit User's Guide

Project Philosophy and Values

The project rests on two philosophical tenets:

First, mental health services for people with severe mental illnesses should have the goal of helping people to develop high-quality, satisfying functional lives. That is, services should aim not just at helping consumers stay out of the hospital and reducing or stabilizing symptoms, but also at helping them to pursue their own personal recovery process. People want services that help them to manage their illnesses and to move ahead with their lives.

Second, consumers and their families have a right to information about effective treatments, and in areas where evidence-based practices exist, consumers and family members have a right to access effective services.

Evidence-based practices are not intended to be exclusive, mandatory, or rigid. Rather, they imply self-knowledge, self-determination, choice, individualization, and recovery.

Defining recovery
There have been many efforts to define the recovery philosophy. The Consumer Advisory Panel for the Implementing Evidence-Based Practices Project drafted the following brief statement. The principles of recovery that informed the development of the implementation resource kit materials are:

hope
personal responsibility
education
self-advocacy
support

The cessation of symptoms is not necessarily equal to recovery. Each person develops their own definition of recovery, which many view as a process rather than a destination.

It is important to know what is meant by “support.” While the support of others is a valuable element in recovery, it does not include solving problems for another person or giving advice.
Empowerment is another critical component to recovery. A person becomes dis-empowered when choices are made for them, even when well-meaning supporters do it. Dis-empowerment also occurs when assumptions or judgments are made concerning an individual and their choices.

Recovery is most easily achievable when a person and those around them recognize the individual as a whole and complete person regardless of symptoms. One of the most valuable things a person can do for someone with psychiatric symptoms is to listen.

For more information
Copeland, Mary Ellen. Wellness Recovery Action Plan. 1997. Peach Press.

Ralph, Ruth O. Review of Recovery Literature: A Synthesis of a Sample of Recovery Literature 2000. Report produced for NASMHPD/National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning.

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