A Road to Nowhere (Part II).

Some time ago now I wrote a post called "A Road to Nowhere", in which I stated that although "recovery" from mental illness, particularly from psychotic disorders, is, of course, desirable, there were, to my mind, still significant issues to be addressed. Recovery is great, I suggested, but recovery to what end? Do we recover, as I seem to have done, only to be left poor, economically unproductive, and with little to actually do?
Perhaps I should begin by explaining what is meant by "recovery". In the mental health field, "recovery" seems to have become the new buzz word, and, as far as I understand it, the concept of recovery in mental health encapsulates three major tenets: 1.) the provision of hope that a person can get better, rather than the suggestion that, particularly in terms of more severe diagnoses, this can mean the end of a person's useful life. 2.) the promotion of the idea of "living with" an illness, rather than being wholly "cured". As some illnesses are chronic, that is to say treatable but not curable, a person may need to learn to "live with" some symptoms, and try to progress despite them. 3.) the provision of some form of meaningful activity. This could be work, although it need not be, and should give someone a sense of meaning and purpose in their life.
This all sounds splendid, and indeed, the introduction of the concept of recovery into mental health practice has probably resulted in some significant improvements. However, in terms of my own experience, I feel that there is some distance between the concept and the reality.
I have now been discharged from secondary mental health services after being under their care for around sixteen years. After so long, the return to, for want of a better phrase, "normal" life, can be quite jarring. One would think that there would be at least some support for people to help with this period of transition, but in my own experience, I have found that there seems to be precisely none. All the help I have enlisted since being discharged I have had to find myself. My visits to the job centre and Remploy in the hope of finding work were made entirely on my own initiative. Indeed, my first venture into voluntary work (which resulted in the creation of this blog) was again done under my own steam. My six months support from Remploy, though, is now at an end, and having had little success in finding paid work, I find myself once again searching for appropriate avenues of opportunity. Fortunately for me, the charity Brighter Futures does provide openings for people with experience of mental ill health, and I plan to make further enquiries to that end.
So, while I'm not saying that I need to have my hand held through all this, I just feel that it would be nice, and perhaps appropriate, that I have at least some form of support whilst negotiating my way in the wider world.
Further to this, there is always the possibility that I could relapse into ill health, but having been discharged, and with the recent closure of my local mental health resource unit and also the absence of staff from the Pathways Group which I attend, the support which was in place whilst I was under the care of secondary mental health services seems to have all but disappeared. I know that I am doing well at present, but this does not mean that this will always be so, and after reading the other day about relapse prevention plans and other support mechanisms which should be in place should my health deteriorate, I began to wonder just what support I did actually have. At a meeting at which the closure of my local mental health resource unit was discussed, I was told that a phone call to that unit or to our local psychiatric hospital, The Harplands, would be my only course of action should I find myself becoming unwell. I don't mind this so much, but again, it would have been nice to be able to deal with people who I have come to know and trust, rather than people who I perhaps don't know and who don't know me or my problems so well.
So, I would just reiterate the question I previously asked - recovery to what end? With the withdrawal of virtually any support from mental health services since my discharge, I am left alone to cope with many changes. This can be stressful, and stress can in its turn cause distress, and I would just say that it is difficult to remain positive and hopeful when all the efforts you make seem to come to nothing. Are we, for instance, going only to find ourselves in a situation of boredom and torpor which, far from aiding recovery, might exacerbate the chances of us becoming unwell once again? At the moment mental health services seem to deal with illness alone, but what about the aftermath of illness? What about the social and economic position we might find ourselves in after many years of being unwell?
As I've said, I don't want, nor do I expect, to have my hand held, but the provision of hope, the notion of "living with" one's illness, and the provision of meaningful activity are all, I believe, rendered problematic by simply being left alone to cope. I would not want to return to the care of mental health services, for at the moment I don't think I need that sort of intervention, but some constructive, practical support in actually achieving the aims of recovery mightn't go amiss. Otherwise, the road to recovery might just become another road to nowhere.