I’m wary, however, of some of the concepts associated with the “movement.” For example, connections to other movements by way of the term “recovery” make me uneasy. In my opinion, mental health and illness would not be well-served by an association with alcohol recovery programs, because the latter depend more on untestable features (e.g., faith) and have not demonstrated a strong record for benefits.

Second, and this may be consistent with tenets of the recovery movement, it’s important for parents and families of children and youths with Emotional and Behavior Disorders to recognize that individuals with EBD are likely to grow into adults who, even with the best of treatments, are going to be at least a little atypical. I suspect most all of us have some friends and acquaintances who have a few odd behaviors or quirks; odds are some of those folks would have been&or were&said to have EBD as children. It’s O.K. to be a person who’s not straight-down-the-middle “normal.” To be sure, we educators (and others) want to prevent destructive, anti-social behavior, but we shouldn’t harbor any expectations that individuals are going to be made perfect.

Anyway, as I wrote, I need to study more about the recovery movement. These are just some preliminary reactions; they could be misinformed or ill-thought. Thanks for the links, as they should help me learn more.

Some very interesting posts! I’ve been reading up on your last couple posts and couldn’t find the exact right place to post this response, so I just went with this one and hope you aren’t upset by the placement. Considering your articulation and expertise on the subject, I was curious as to whether you had any opinions on the recovery movement hitting the mental health field, especially in relation to treatment for emotional and behavioral disorders in children? It’s a bit off-subject, but I thought perhaps it might interest you enough to get a good conversation going.

Have you encountered a recovery-based treatment vs. a non-recovery-based treatment plan? I would very much like to hear what you feel the difference is, or if you haven’t had the chance to compare, perhaps just a comment as to what you feel about the movement in general.

If you are not overly familiar with the movement, there are a few pretty informative articles about it at:
1) What is Mental Health Recovery
2) Mental Health Recovery Model

If you wouldn’t mind, if you have the time to respond I would very much love to quote you in my blog about the recovery movement, the Mental Health Recovery Blog. I will of course reference back to you in the posting but if you are not comfortable with being quoted then I’d love to just hear your take here! I would very much value your opinion considering I am trying to get inputs from all sides of the mental healthcare field (practitioners, consumers, advocates, family members, etc.) in order to get a meaningful dialogue going as to what the mental health recovery movement really means.

I look forward to talking with you more in the future if this sparks your interest!

All the best,
Lex
MHCD Research and Evaluations