Developing a recovery ethos for psychiatric services in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis is about developing a recovery ethos for psychiatric services in New Zealand. The argument of the thesis is that currently a procedural ethos is dominant in psychiatric services in New Zealand, based on eclectic ways of facilitating recovery. Recovery from mental illness, is based on the criteria of symptom reduction and functioning and can be further refined to have a client and professional perspective. Rather than using an eclectic approach to facilitating recovery the thesis argues for a pluralistic approach, where the virtues, the relationship with professionals, client narrative and the psychiatric community become central to decision making, rather than principle based procedures. The thesis is an argued, applied philosophical thesis in terms of methodology. The scope of the thesis is psychiatric services and the focus is broadly ethical decision making. There are three main divisions to the thesis. Part 1 is concerned with clarification of the main terms used in the thesis. This involves exploring the historical background to the concept of recovery, clarifying the concept of recovery itself and providing an argument for giving greater prominence to the term mental illness over the term mental disorder. Part 2 identifies the main problem of the thesis, namely the procedural ethos, and the problems it is causing clients suffering from mental illness in facilitating their recovery. Part 3 shows what is involved in developing a recovery ethos for psychiatric services in New Zealand.