Recovery and Homeless Services: New Directions for the Field

The recovery movement is reshaping approaches to treatment of mental illness, substance abuse, and traumatic stress disorders. Yet recovery principles have not been well integrated into the homeless assistance network, despite high prevalence of mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma histories among people who are chronically homeless in the United States. We review approaches to recovery and recovery-oriented care and propose recommendations for adopting recovery oriented care within the homeless assistance network. zing a recovery-oriented approach to homeless services and systems, drawing from lessons from mental health and addiction services. We identify the need for a shift in the service delivery model and the need for an increased role for consumers as "recovery ambassadors" (5) and for consumer integration at all levels. Lastly, we discuss lessons learned from implementation of recovery-oriented mental health and addiction treatment programs in the state of Connecticut, and the challenge of translating recovery principles into standards and objective practices that can be observed and measured. The paper concludes with a discussion of the adoption of recovery principles across the homelessness assistance network, and the implications for research, practice, and policy. DEFINING RECOVERY