A recovery-oriented service system: Setting some system level standards

In the 1990s a number of state mental health systems, behavioral managed care entities, and county systems of care declared that their service delivery systems were based on the vision of recovery. A recovery vision of service is grounded in the idea that people can recover from mental illness, and that the service delivery system must be constructed based on this knowledge. In the past, mental health systems were based on the belief that people with severe mental illness did not recover and that the course of their illness was essentially a deteriorative course or at best a maintenance course. As systems strive to create new initiatives consistent with this new vision of recovery, new system standards are needed to guide the development of recovery oriented mental health systems, Based on research on previous system initiatives and current consensus around accepted recovery practices and principles, a set of system standards that are recovery focused are suggested to guide future system developments.