Immersing practitioners in the recovery model: an educational program evaluation.

The ascendance of the recovery movement in mental health care has led to the development and implementation of educational curricula for mental health providers to assist in mental health care system transformation efforts. The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) partnered with the Georgia State Department of Human Resources (DHR) to develop, implement, and evaluate such an educational curriculum for providers within an academic medical institution. This effort, entitled Project GREAT, led to the creation of a curriculum based on the SAMHSA-defined (2006) critical components of recovery. As an initial evaluation of educational curriculum effectiveness, the authors examined effects of the training program on recovery-based knowledge and recovery-consistent attitudes. We also compared MCG provider knowledge and attitudes to those of a similar group of providers at a neighboring medical institution who did not receive the intervention and training. Findings generally supported the effectiveness of the intervention in increasing providers' knowledge of recovery and a shift in recovery-supporting attitudes.

Recovery and systems transformation for schizophrenia.

The Recovery Movement, initiated in the 1990s by mental health consumer groups and leaders, has emerged as a major force in the mental health field. This movement has been gaining strength and promises to impact mental health service delivery through innovations in care that other models of care have not offered. Recent efforts to conceptualize and study recovery empirically have bolstered the movement from a scientific standpoint. This article reviews the growing literature regarding recovery, offers a conceptual framework for understanding recovery, and discusses a specific manner in which systems transformation has begun to occur.