Recovery in mental health and addiction is much more than the absence of illness or mental disorders. It is in fact a process of continuous change by which people with the lived experience of a behavioral health problem improve their overall health and well-being, lead an independent life and strive to achieve their full potential. Individually, recovery is something very personal for each person, but perhaps we can collectively bring together the necessary conditions to facilitate and encourage recovery as a trajectory of emancipation?
The experiential knowledge of users of mental health and addiction services as a primary source of knowledge of recovery is the basis of this course, which gives a central place to peer support workers as co-learning partners. A peer support worker is a person who is experiencing or has experienced a significant behavioral health problem and whose attitudes, personal skills and training make them a model of positive recovery for both those being cared for and for caregivers and providers. They represent a source of hope and a return to the power to act while providing psychosocial support to the people they support. In this way, peer support workers promote recognition, by the peers they are supporting and the professionals with whom they are in contact, of the value of lived experience and experiential knowledge.
