PACE Offers a Hopeful Attitude

With a grant from the Center for Mental Health Services, Daniel Fisher, M.D., Patricia Deegan, Ph.D., and others conducted research into the factors most important to recovery from mental illness. Structured interviews of people who met the study criteria of “fully recovered” produced the following themes or concepts. Fisher and Laurie Ahern incorporated those ideas into Personal Assistance in Community Existence (PACE), an approach to the treatment of mental illness.

•  People do fully recover from even the most severe forms of mental illness.

•  Understanding that mental illness is a label for severe emotional distress, which interrupts a person’s role in society, helps in a person’s recovery.

•  People can and do yearn to connect emotionally with others, especially when they are experiencing severe emotional distress.

•  Trust is the cornerstone of recovery.

•  People who believe in you help you recover.

•  People have to be able to follow their own dreams to recover.

•  Mistrust leads to increased control and coercion, which interfere with recovery.

•  Self-determination is essential to recovery.

•  People recovering and those around them must believe they will recover.

•  Human dignity and respect are vital to recovery.

•  Everything we have learned about the importance of human connections applies equally to people labeled with mental illness.

•  Feeling emotionally safe in relationships is vital to expressing feelings, which aids in recovery.

•  There is always meaning in periods of severe emotional distress and understanding that meaning helps with recovery.