Abstract:

Recovery is perhaps the most recent and talked about paradigm in the mental health field. The early 1970s was the time of the community mental health movement and with this emerged the notion of mental health recovery and its related emphasis on hope, selfdetermination, quality of life and empowerment (Ochocka et al., 2005; Onken et al., 2002; Anthony, 2000). An individual in recovery is someone who learns to enhance self-management skills to be an agents of change in one’s own life, and can define his/her life by the meaningful activities that he/she engages in, rather than by the clinical symptoms which define the mental illness. Illness self-management programs for people with chronic mental conditions are an important part of patient- centered care, these programs produce positive changes in health outcomes, attitudes, and behaviors via acquisition of new information and skills to better manage troublesome symptoms, maintain higher levels of health and functioning, and enhance quality of life (QOL). Recently developed mental illness selfmanagement programs have extended this approach to behavioral health by imparting information, teaching wellness skills, and providing emotional support to enhance recovery. One example is the Wellness Recovery Action Plan.