An Evidence-Based Psychiatric Rehabilitation Implementation: Illness Management and Recovery

Abstract

Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) is a curriculum based psychiatric rehabilitation intervention which is designed as a program on the basis of a recovery-oriented approach. In recent years, the definitions suggested on the term, recovery, has been seen to be discussed in two ways; clinical recovery and personal recovery. The committee constituted with the aim of developing the mental health service provision in the USA in 2002, issued a call for the necessity for the mental health system’s comprehensive transformation. As a part of this transformation, the committee suggested a move towards mental health specialists’ making decisions related to patient’s mental health treatment in a collaboration with the mental health professionals rather than making conventional, hierarchical decisions. The significance of providing access to evidence-based applications for the treatment of mental illnesses was also stressed. Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) was developed and standardized as a treatment program which comprises empirically supported methods in order to train individuals how to manage their psychiatric disorders. IMR was developed on the basis of an extensive investigation of the researches upon teaching illness management to individuals with chronical mental illnesses. Having reviewed 40 controlled studies, in order to develop illness management, five empirically supported methods/strategies were determined. These are psychoeducation on psychiatric disorders and their treatments, cognitive behavioral approaches on drug compliance, training of preventing relapses, coping skills, and social skills training for developing social support. In this review, the birth of illness management and recovery-oriented program, the process of the program, and research related to illness management and recovery will be depicted. It is expected that the review will instructively contribute to practice and execution of Illness Management and Recovery Program within the scope of mental health services in Turkey.

Keywords

• evidence-based
• psychiatric rehabilitation
• illness management and recovery