About The Drenk Center

Our Philosophy - The Recovery Model

The idea of recovery offers options and hope to those with mental illness and their families.

The Drenk Center embraces the following seven recovery model principles as developed by William A. Anthony, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University:

Professionals do not hold the key to recovery, consumers do. The task of professionals is to facilitate recovery, the task of the consumers is to recover, recovery may be facilitated by the consumer's natural support system.

Seemingly universal in the recovery concept is the notion that critical to one's recovery is a person or persons in whom one can trust "to be there" in times of need.

Recovery may occur whether one views the illness as biological or not. The key element is understanding that there is hope for the future, rather than understanding the cause in the past.

The episodic nature of severe mental illness does not prevent recovery. As one recovers, symptoms interfere with functioning less often and for briefer periods of time. More of one's life is lived symptom free.

There is no one path to recovery, nor one outcome. It is a highly personal process.

The notion that one has options from which to choose is often more important than the particular option one initially selects.

The consequences include discrimination, poverty, segregation and stigma.