Recovery and Cultural Values: On Our Own Terms (A Dialogue)

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter is about recovery in the sense of achieving a good quality of life as defined by what is important to (i.e. the values of) those concerned rather than by professional and service delivery priorities (Allott, P., What is mental health, illness and recovery, Ch 1. In: Ryan T, Pritchard J (eds) Good practice in adult mental health. Good practice series 10. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2004; Slade M., et al., World Psychiatry 13:12–20, 2014). The narrative is in the form of a dialogue between two people, both with extensive experience of severe long-term mental health issues. Unscripted and unedited the dialogue captures both the challenges and resources for recovery arising from the different cultures in which the authors have found themselves. Their experiences reinforce the well-established but too often unheeded conclusion that key drivers of recovery are factors such as companionship, having somewhere to live, and control over what happens to you (including what if any medication may be helpful).