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| Does recovery entail the return to expected roles? |
Does recovery entail the return to expected roles?
There is a history in rehabilitation of pressuring mental health consumers into demeaning work (Curtis, 2001), as was the case for (Bjorklund, 1998), and many others:
Clearly these misguided goals were based on my label rather than on my past achievements or existing strengths. My every action and my future life goals were unnecessarily pathologized by myopic treatment plans . . .The empowerment model advocates a return to previous social and career roles without compromise (Ahern and Fisher, 2001), and this position should never be automatically dismissed. A number of articles were written by consumers who became, or continued to work as, professionals after the onset of serious illnesses such as schizophrenia (e.g. Deegan, 1994; Fisher, 1994; Frese, 1997 Ahern and Fisher, 2001). As Mead and Copeland assert:
We have learned that we are in charge of our own lives and can go forward and do whatever it is we want to do. People who have experienced even the most severe psychiatric symptoms are doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, advocates and social workers . . .. (Mead and Copeland, 2000, )
However, most consumers did not appear to take the return to expected roles as a criterion of recovery. For example:
Sometimes in the face of illness, our dreams blow up in our face. It is important to dream a new dream, and once you’ve done this to pick some aspect of it and begin working toward it in any increment. (Crowley, 2000, )
Although it is not necessary for everybody to aspire to highly socially-valued roles, it is important that the roles, goals or activities in which a person engages are valued highly by the individual. Evidently, the status of the social role in which a person is engaged is less important than the meaning, purpose and fulfilment that the role provides to the individual (Deegan, 1997). Deegan explains:
They may tell you that your goal should be to become normal and to achieve valued roles. But a role is empty and valueless unless you fill it with your meaning and your purpose. Our task is not to become normal. You have the wonderfully terrifying task of becoming who you are called to be.
There is a history in rehabilitation of pressuring mental health consumers into demeaning work (Curtis, 2001), as was the case for (Bjorklund, 1998), and many others:
Clearly these misguided goals were based on my label rather than on my past achievements or existing strengths. My every action and my future life goals were unnecessarily pathologized by myopic treatment plans . . .The empowerment model advocates a return to previous social and career roles without compromise (Ahern and Fisher, 2001), and this position should never be automatically dismissed. A number of articles were written by consumers who became, or continued to work as, professionals after the onset of serious illnesses such as schizophrenia (e.g. Deegan, 1994; Fisher, 1994; Frese, 1997 Ahern and Fisher, 2001). As Mead and Copeland assert:
We have learned that we are in charge of our own lives and can go forward and do whatever it is we want to do. People who have experienced even the most severe psychiatric symptoms are doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, advocates and social workers . . .. (Mead and Copeland, 2000, )
However, most consumers did not appear to take the return to expected roles as a criterion of recovery. For example:
Sometimes in the face of illness, our dreams blow up in our face. It is important to dream a new dream, and once you’ve done this to pick some aspect of it and begin working toward it in any increment. (Crowley, 2000, )
Although it is not necessary for everybody to aspire to highly socially-valued roles, it is important that the roles, goals or activities in which a person engages are valued highly by the individual. Evidently, the status of the social role in which a person is engaged is less important than the meaning, purpose and fulfilment that the role provides to the individual (Deegan, 1997). Deegan explains:
They may tell you that your goal should be to become normal and to achieve valued roles. But a role is empty and valueless unless you fill it with your meaning and your purpose. Our task is not to become normal. You have the wonderfully terrifying task of becoming who you are called to be.
In light of the differences discussed in this section, the concept of psychological recovery is consistent with consumers’ use of the term, allowing for recovery in the presence of ongoing management of illness. A definition of recovery needs to accommodate the diversity of opinions around these aspects of the recovery process. In order to formulate such a definition and conceptual model of psychological recovery compatible with the diverse perspectives of individuals, we conducted a thematic analysis, which stated simply, is analysis of narratives to find themes within the experiential and qualitative data to identify the key components of recovery.
