Beyond Stigma and Discrimination: Challenges for Social Work Practice in Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery

Abstract

The recovery process and social work education share theoretical and practice roots that facilitate a goodness-of-fit between the profession and the empowerment orientation of recovery. This article examines the linkages between the recovery process and social work education, including areas where curricular renewal will assure that master's in social work (MSW) students and graduates embrace the recovery-oriented values that facilitate consumer-driven services. Curricular innovation is also proposed that addresses the need for MSW programs to develop supported education programs that will enable more consumers to pursue and complete graduate social work education.

The Looking-Glass Self: Looking at Relationship as the Mechanism of Change in Case Management of Persons with Severe Mental Illness

“…For example, she explains that the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2000) holds among its primary values social justice and the dignity and worth of every human. Buckles et al (2008) provided an impassioned argument for including recovery ideas in MSW practice curricula, based on the recognition that recovery in mental health and social work both share an empowerment focus, and both are based on social justice (fighting stigma and discrimination).…”

Service providers' experiences and perspectives on recovery-oriented mental health system reform.

“…Recovery has been referred to as "esoteric nonsense," "hard to grasp" and "lacking an evidence base" (O'Hagan, 2004, p. 1). Providers may be continuing to support institutional practices that are inconsistent with recovery principles (Buckles et al, 2008). From a practical standpoint, some service providers are uncertain regarding what concrete changes are implied by recovery-oriented reform, if any to their day-to-day work, whereas others claim to already be implementing recovery-oriented practice (Davidson, O'Connell, Tondora, Styron, & Kangas, 2006;Dickerson, 2006).…”

“…Little attention to date has been placed on providers' perspectives regarding the early stages of recovery-oriented reform and the challenges they experience in implementing recovery principles into their day-to-day practice. Such knowledge could help with the planning of education, research, and administrative practices to facilitate the transformation towards recovery-oriented care (Buckles et al, 2008). This is particularly important in countries such as Canada, where recovery is a key organizing concept for a proposed national mental health strategy (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2009) and where organizational efforts towards implementing recovery-oriented practice are currently underway.…”

The Challenge of Disability and Access: Reconceptualizing the Role of the Medical Model

“…To avoid stigmatization, ''label avoidance'' might become the option of choice (Buckles et al, 2008). Smith (2004) noted that ''Some disabilities can be hidden, in ways that racial identities cannot be.…”

“…If the person assumes the stigma is not known, the person is discreditable. Having a stigma often results in downward mobility, becomes the dominant attribute, and is internalized by the person, who prefers to be viewed as ''normal'' (Buckles et al, 2008), such that disability becomes the major aspect of the person's identity. Thompson and Ezell (2005) suggested that any term that refers to lacks in intelligence, beauty, ability, wit, and so on has negative connotations, so that although labels provide access to services and legal protection, they also identify people through a devalued characteristic, which both limits and stigmatizes.…”