What is Recovery?
The way that recovery is defined often depends on who is defining it.
For example, a carer or service user may think of it very differently to a professional.
This can make someone's recovery journey much more difficult, as it means those involved aren't working towards the same goal.
Clinical Recovery
Clinical Recovery is an idea that comes from mental health professionals.
To recover in a clinical sense means that you are free of the symptoms of mental illness, you are able to adhere to social norms and are generally ‘getting back to normal’.
Personal Recovery
Personal Recovery is different - it is an idea that comes from people with lived experience of mental illness and is central to Rethink's work.
A definition people often use 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 within the limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond catastrophic effects of mental illness.”
(WA Anthony 1993)
Most mental health services are organised to provide clinical recovery. However, many people would like to see them fit in more with how individuals see recovery.
Rethink believes that getting this person-centred approach more widely recognised and understood would improve the lives of many people affected by mental illness
We hope these pages will help you to understand personal recovery, whether you are someone with mental health problems, a carer or a professional in the field.
