Week 2

Context

Recovery

Recovery is not managing illness
It’s discovering wellness
Recovery is not fixing what’s broken
It’s finding wholeness, meaning, and purpose
A love for life
Recovery is a journey A reconnection to self, others, nature, and Spirit
A willingness to forgive,
An openness toward reconciliation
A search for peace
Recovery requires discipline – listening, learning, and growth
An appreciation for the lessons of passion, and suffering
A love for humor
It takes faith – perseverance, and strengh
Without guarantee, without certainty
Recovery is not for the faint of heart
It’s reserved for the fighter
The one who refuses to say “die” – Until the spirit has truly lived
May you experience recovery – With all its challenge, in all its beauty

- Duane Sherry (2012)

Content

Duane Sherry is a Rehabilitation Counsellor in the United States. He contributes to a wide range of resources for mental health. there are a number of organisations, and service users who regularly blog about Metal Health and their own personal journeys to recovery. "Any attempt to judge the quality of health services would be incomplete without considering the experiences of people who use them. By finding out what service users think, valuable information can be obtained about problems with the way that services are delivered and used to assess the impact of efforts to improve the quality of healthcare provided" (NICE, 2012).

References and Further Reading

National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2012) Service user experience in Adult Mental Health: improving the experience of care for people using adult NHS Mental Health services. London: The British Psychological Society and The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Sherry,D. (2012) Recovery [www] http://www.madinamerica.com/2012/10/what-are-we-recovering-from-making-a-case-for-recovery/

Blogs

Mad in America The site is designed to serve as a resource and a community for those interested in rethinking psychiatric care in the United States and abroad. They want to provide readers with news, personal stories, access to source documents, and the informed writings of bloggers that will further this enterprise.

Discovery and Recovery Resources for Mental and Overall Wellness

Purplepersuasion This service user has been battling with mental distress on and off for over 25 years and has been a mental health service user since 1994. The blog began as a means of dealing with the most recent relapse and re-diagnosis with bipolar disorder in 2011.