The story of the former patients and mental health care activists who created the recovery movement for people with a psychiatric diagnosis, from the 1970s to present day.
Conventional wisdom was once that people with a serious psychiatric diagnosis were doomed to a dreary future - a myth that has continued for decades, even in the face of contradictory medical evidence. Yet even as mental health discussions become more common in everyday life, the enormous numbers of people with psychiatric illness in jails, prisons, or experiencing homelessness suggest there is still a major disconnect between knowing what needs to be done for people with psychiatric challenges and doing it. Fighting for Recovery demands that we dismantle programs built on flawed and outdated assumptions, and provide services that broaden the focus of treatment beyond psychopharmacology, allowing for a recovery journey which acknowledges the importance of relationships, meaningful activities, and self-direction.
Fighting for Recovery tells the history of the former psychiatric patients, families, and courageous activists within government and psychiatry who rebelled against inhumane and outdated treatments and policies, and formed a mental patients liberation movement that would challenge medical authority, and align with anti-war, civil rights, and women’s movements. Research confirmed in time what the activists had long maintained: ex-patients helping one another to resume successful community living was the most successful model. Taken together, the accumulation of three thousand scientific studies led a surgeon general to conclude that recovery was possible. Despite these advances, there is still much crucial to be done in the mental healthcare reform space, and Fighting for Recovery examines the movement continuing to present day - an essential history that will prove to readers just how essential mental health activism is to every person in this country, whether you have a current psychiatric diagnosis or not.
