An Integral Approach to Mental Health Recovery: Implications for Social Work

Abstract

The term recovery has become increasingly popular in the area of mental health care. Recently, it has been described by policy makers as the guiding vision for transforming the mental health system. Problematic, however, is that a lack of clarity continues to exist regarding how recovery is to be defined. Definitional attempts often appear to have competing opinions about what the concept exactly stands for. This causes confusion for both professionals and consumers desiring to adopt a recovery approach. Ken Wilber's integral theory is presented as a framework for organizing and connecting various viewpoints related to the “recovery” concept. Implications for social work are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• recovery
• integral approach
• social work

Notes

The author would like to give special thanks to Dr. Ed Canda, School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, for his invaluable insights and support as this manuscript was being developed.