Facilitating Recovery from Mental Illness: An Examination of the Relationship between the ACT of Kalamazoo and its Consumers
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Authors
Toronto, Aaron
Issue Date
1994
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study was performed over a three month period as part of a larger
research project focusing on Kalamazoo County's Community Mental Health System
and the services it provides for mentally ill adults. This research was done by myself
and two other Kalamazoo College seniors under the supervision of Dr .Kiran
Cunningham and Michael Geiszer. Our part of the project was to talk with
consumers of the Mental Health System here in Kalamazoo, both formally and
informally, in order to bring to light the knowledge that the mentally ill population
has in regards to coping with illness. My specific interest was in looking at what the
clients of the ACT of Kalamazoo report as the factors that have contributed to their
process of recovery and, more specifically, how the ACT helps to facilitate this
effort. In doing this I hope to strengthen the new attitudes toward the possibility of
recovery for mentally ill people which has slowly been changing the face of mental
health care systems.
The intention of this paper is to both support research suggesting that recovery
from mental illness is indeed possible when it is defined as a continuing process and
further it by showing that this recovery process best takes place within the context of
a facilitative and supportive relationship. In order to place the new attitudes toward
recovery in perspective I will first review briefly earlier approaches which viewed
mental illness as a chronic and stagnant condition. I will then review more recent
approaches which emphasize recovery as an ongoing process.
Assuming that a key factor in the recovery process is a supportive relationship
I will examine the relationship that exists between people with mental illness and the
community based service agency with which they have gotten involved, that being the
ACT of Kalamazoo. In order to clarify the nature of this relationship I will use a
"good parent" model as a point of comparison. I will draw an analogy between the
growth process from childhood to adulthood as facilitated by a "good parent," and the
process of recovery from mental illness as facilitated by the ACT. In doing so I hope
to contribute further to the new visions and attitudes being cultivated in regards to
mental illness.
Description
46 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College.
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.