Who should come?
The target audience includes mental health practitioners (e.g., doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, social workers, peer support workers), researchers, service developers/managers, policy planners, and postgraduate research students. Simultaneous interpretation (English−Mandarin) for selective sessions will be available.
Recovery approach
Mental illness not only affects the individuals concerned, by increasing their risk of physical health problems and reducing their quality of life, but also affects family, caregivers, and friends. As deinstitutionalization has become a global trend, there is a need for effective recovery-oriented services for these individuals.
Although there is no single definition of the concept of recovery for mental health problems, the concept emphasizes hope, self-management strategies, empowerment, peer support, managing risk and responsibility, and it is possible for people with mental illness to regain a meaningful life despite persistent symptoms. “Recovery” is often referred to as a process, an outcome, a set of guiding principles, a vision, a conceptual framework (or a lens), and lately a collection of good evidence-based practices. In some cases, “practice-based evidence” is also examined.
Why RSP 4.0?
Broadly speaking, among international practitioners and research communities, the development of the recovery approach in mental health is viewed as going through three stages or “generations”, namely: I) focusing on understanding the narratives and lived experience of individuals with mental illness or mental health issues, II) development of instruments and their psychometric properties to measure the recovery of individuals and the critical elements embedded in healthcare services that facilitate or hinder a person’s recovery, and III) defining different kinds of recovery-oriented services and technologies (e.g., peer support services, recovery college, strengths model case management, supported employment, wellness recovery action plan) and examining the effectiveness of interventions. We argue that we are now entering Generation 4.0, which concerns not only establishing the evidence for recovery-oriented services but also scaling up interventions for the wider community and informing and shaping policy planning in the mental health sector.
Burden of Mental Illness
Critical issues for discussion