Recovery Is An Individual Process: Mental Health Services From A Consumer Perspective - Podcast

Main Category: Mental Health
Article Date: 05 Dec 2008 - 2:00 PST

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Routine outcome measurements used to gauge the effectiveness of mental health service treatments have been developed from the perspective of the health professional, not from the perspective of the consumers who actually use the services.

Such perspectives potentially limit the scope of outcome measurements to a predefined view of symptom reduction, rather than taking into account the consumer's view of recovery.

Talking about the effectiveness of mental health services from the consumer's perspective, Michael Bouwman spoke to Prof Brenda Happell. Participants noted that personal improvement was not always the result of medical intervention: support and social connectedness was seen as most important, as well as medication, spirituality and in some cases, cigarettes.

The development of individually tailored crisis management plans, which incorporate a broad range of therapies that assist an individual through the recovery process, was noted as! beneficial.

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International Program of Psycho-Social Health Research, CQUniversity, Australia