The Recovery Orientation of a Farm Community for Severe Autism — Data from the DREEM-IT (Developing Recovery Enhancing Environment Measures — Italian Version)

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the concept of ‘recovery’ in the field of mental health and psychiatry. Anthony (1993) described personal recovery as occurring in the presence of ongoing symptoms but involving ‘a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness’ (Anthony, 1993). Recovery from mental illnesses has been conceptualized to involve not only remission of symptoms and achievement of psychosocial milestones but also subjective changes in how persons appraise their lives and the extent to which they experience themselves as meaningful agents in the world (Jacobson & Greenley, 2001). Diverse forms of recovery are possible. In people with optimal outcome, recovery may produce important remission and changes, including the exit from mental health services for a long time period or, sometimes, permanently (Emsley et al, 2011). For other patients, it may mean continuing to receive medical, personal or social support, enabling people to get on with their lives (Emsley et al, 2011). However, in all conditions, the role played by the service in promoting, maintaining and restoring an adequate level of recovery for each patients is pivotal.