Voices of Transformation - National Empowerment Center

Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations
What is the role of consumer/survivors in transforming the service system to be
more recovery-oriented?
It is up to us, those with the lived wisdom, to keep the spirit and meaning of
recovery alive and to be a true force for positive, productive transformation of the
mental health service system. In the past, the focus and goal of mental health
services was on managing symptoms and reaching a level of maintenance.
Through the advocacy, direct action, and education by the consumer/ survivor
movement, those who receive mental health services
are coming to have higher expectations of the system
and can foresee recovery as an outcome for themselves.
Those having a higher personal expectation continue to
push the system to this higher vision. This shift has
been the result of persistently forcing the system to
recognize the lived wisdom and the right of consumers
to shape the services they are receiving.
The New Freedom Commission’s mandate for recovery-focused, consumer-driven
services is an opportunity to create a new paradigm in mental health care. It is time
to move beyond the clash of “them” versus “us”, to come together, learn from one
another, and acknowledge that all of us share a common humanity. It is time to
recognize that it is not just the individuals receiving services who are moving
toward recovery. The system itself must also go through a process of recovery,
transforming from policies and practices that are focused on pathology, to a system
that is recovery-oriented and encourages and supports each individual to flourish.
As the concept of “recovery” gains traction, however, there is also risk that
recovery principles and practices will become watered down and meaningless. It
has happened before. Consider the terms “empowerment” and “peer support”.
Consumer/survivors use the word “empowerment” to mean that people who use
mental health services make choices, control their own lives, and accept
responsibility for their choices and decisions. True empowerment means a reversal
in the power structure of traditional
As the concept of “recovery” gains traction,
however, there is also risk that recovery
principles and practices will become
watered down and meaningless.
It is up to us, those
with the lived
wisdom, to keep
the spirit and
meaning of
recovery alive.
mental health service delivery, so that
people can no longer be forced to do
things against their will.
But the word “empowerment” is often
stripped of much of this meaning, as
mental health services claim to “empower” their clients while still retaining much
or all of the decision-making power. When service providers talk about providing
“empowerment services” or “empowering” their clients they reveal a lack of
understanding about the basic concept. Empowerment is something that comes from
within an individual. Empowerment is not something that can be given to someone
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