Mental Health Recovery Movement & Family Therapy – Key Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards summarizing central terms, concepts, and practices related to the Mental Health Recovery Movement and its integration with family therapy PART ONE

Mental Health Recovery Movement

A grassroots, consumer-led effort beginning in the 1930s that advocates for recovery-oriented services for people with severe mental illness.

Consumer-led Movement

Initiatives directed and shaped by people who use mental-health services rather than by professionals.

New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003)

U.S. presidential commission that recommended nationwide adoption of a recovery orientation in public mental-health services.

Recovery Orientation

An approach that helps individuals build meaningful lives while managing or reducing psychiatric symptoms; emphasizes autonomy and hope.

Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI)

Long-term, serious psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder that significantly impair functioning.

Dual Diagnosis

The co-occurrence of a mental health disorder and a substance-use disorder in the same individual.

World Health Organization Cross-national Studies

WHO research showing 28 % full and 52 % social recovery rates for severe mental illness worldwide.

Full Recovery

Outcome in which no psychiatric symptoms remain.

Social Recovery

Outcome where symptoms may persist but the person maintains work, relationships, and a meaningful life.

Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63)

California law (2004) providing major funding to transform public mental-health care toward recovery principles.

Recovery Paradigm

A conceptual framework that replaces the medical model with a social model of disability focused on psychosocial functioning.

Medical Model

Traditional view of mental illness as disease requiring symptom management; contrasted with recovery paradigm.

Social Model of Disability

Perspective that disability results from interaction between individuals and societal barriers rather than solely from illness.

Person-Centered Elements (Recovery)

Core factors of hope, agency, self-determination, meaning, and awareness that drive personal recovery.

Hope (Recovery)

Belief that improvement and a fulfilling life are possible despite mental illness.

Sense of Agency

Inner conviction that one can influence and direct one’s own recovery journey.

Self-Determination

Consumer’s right to set goals, make choices, and direct services.

Meaning & Purpose

Having valued roles and activities that give life significance.

Awareness & Potentiality

Recognizing personal capabilities and future possibilities beyond illness.

Re-authoring

Therapeutic process of reshaping identity and illness narratives to emphasize coping, healing, wellness, and thriving.

Exchange-Centered Elements

Recovery focus on social functioning, power in society, and having meaningful choices.

Social Functioning

Ability to fulfill valued social roles such as worker, friend, or partner.

Power (Recovery Context)

Consumer’s influence and control within relationships and society.

Choice (Meaningful Options)

Availability of varied, personally relevant paths and supports for recovery.

Community-Centered Elements

Recovery components involving social connections, opportunities, and community integration.

Social Connections & Relationships

Supportive ties with family, peers, professionals, and others that foster recovery.

Social Circumstances & Opportunities

Access to housing, employment, education, and resources that enable participation in society.

Community Integration

Full inclusion of people with mental illness in ordinary community life.

Peer Advocate

Person in recovery who supports and mentors others beginning their recovery journey.

Case Management

Coordinated assistance linking consumers to services such as housing, benefits, and health care.

Evidence-Based Therapies

Treatment methods with empirical support for effectiveness; must be compatible with recovery values.

Stigma (Mental Health)

Negative stereotypes and discrimination directed toward people with psychiatric diagnoses.

Social Justice (Recovery)

Commitment to consumer rights, dignity, autonomy, and reduction of oppression in mental-health practice.

Open Dialogue Approach

Finnish family-based, collaborative method for psychosis achieving high recovery rates and few chronic cases.

Multifamily Psychoeducation Groups

Evidence-based CBT-oriented sessions educating multiple families to reduce relapse and promote recovery.

Ecological Systems Framework

View that individual functioning is shaped by interactions within nested environmental systems.

Systemic Family Therapy

Field focusing on relational and interactional patterns; historically aligned with recovery principles.

Postmodern / Social Constructionist Therapy

Approaches that deconstruct societal discourses, emphasize collaborative meaning-making, and support client agency.

Humanistic / Existential Principles

Therapy values centered on meaning, personal responsibility, and self-actualization—core to recovery.

Four-Phase Model of Adoption

Stages clinicians move through when embracing recovery: Horror/Outrage, Overconfidence, Integration, Creative Implementation.

Phase 1: Horror, Outrage, Righteous Indignation

Initial clinician reaction fearing recovery will replace familiar therapy models.

Phase 2: Overconfidence

Stage where therapists assume they already practice recovery principles.

Phase 3: Integration & Balance

Phase of genuinely blending recovery paradigm with existing therapeutic skills.

Phase 4: Creative Implementation

Advanced stage of innovating new recovery-oriented practices and programs.

Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC)

Coordinated networks offering comprehensive, consumer-driven supports across life domains.

Supported Employment

Work programs helping individuals with mental illness obtain and keep competitive jobs, enhancing recovery.

Meaningful Life (Recovery Goal)

Living with purpose, relationships, work, and community involvement regardless of symptoms.

Wellness (Recovery Context)

Holistic state of physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being beyond mere symptom relief.

Boundary Challenges

Ethical complexities arising when therapists act as advocates, mentors, or friends in varied community settings.

Ethics in Recovery-Oriented Care

Need for flexible, consumer-specific decision-making rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all rules.