Recovery is the overarching theme that guides everything we do at DMHAS.  During the past several years the Department has striven to build a recovery-oriented system of care.  The Recovery Initiative is helping to build consensus among stakeholders and momentum for change while focusing our efforts on several key ideas: 

1)  Empowerment – The Initiative is based on empowering people in recovery at all levels within the system and offering hope that they can lead self-determined and fulfilling lives, directed toward achieving their highest potential.

2)  Individualized and Person-Centered – The Initiative focuses on providing culturally competent and individualized care and supports chosen by the person in recovery to meet his/her unique needs.

3)  Built on Cornerstones – It builds on work that has been occurring in the behavioral health community over the past several decades, but also expands that work into new and exciting areas (e.g., use of peer supports).

4)  Systematic Emphasis – Using recovery-oriented standards, practice guidelines, performance monitoring and contracting language, it systematizes how we conceptualize, implement and operate services and supports.

5)  Quality and Outcome-Oriented – It emphasizes outcomes and incorporates the best available practices from scientific literature and from the informative experiences of people in recovery.

  Policy Statements on Recovery                        

• Commissioner's Policy Statement: Promoting a Recovery-Oriented System of Care
• "Overarching Tenets of the DMHAS Recovery Initiative"
• Recovery Core Values  (developed by People in Recovery)

  Education & Training Opportunities                   

• Recovery Institute
• Addictions Trainings for People in Recovery (CCAR)  (pdf file)

Reports and Position Papers                            

• Concepts of Recovery in Behavioral Health (history, review of the evidence, and critique) 

• Aligning for Recovery: Towards a strategic systems blueprint to promote a recovery-oriented mental health system in Connecticut (Consultant Report by David Wertheimer, supported by the federal Center for Mental Health Services)

• Consultant’s Report on DMHAS Recovery Initiative (Supported by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment)

• DMHAS Recovery-Oriented Employment Services: Vision Statement & System Interventions

• Findings from the DMHAS Recovery Self-Assessment – Executive Summary

• DMHAS Mental Health Recovery Dimensions

• DMHAS Substance Abuse Recovery Dimensions

• Recovery Guides: An Emerging Model of Community-based Care for Adults with Psychiatric Disabilities

• Recovery in Serious Mental Illness: Paradigm Shift or Shibboleth?

• Connecticut Implementation of Person-Centered Care

• Implementing a Statewide Recovery-Oriented System of Care: From Concept to Reality

• Recovery Wellness Program- Innovative adult education model

• Life Skills Program - One Example of a Recovery-Oriented Service

• Recovery in Behavioral Health (CEO Retreat 3-29-04)

• Moving the Connecticut State System to a Recovery Model 

• Supporting the Recovery System of Care 

• Toward A Recovery System of Care 

• Supporting the Recovery System of Care 

• Resources for Recovery: Partnering With Families for Recovery 

• Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities and Improving Cultural Competence in a Statewide System of Care 

• What if We Really Treated Addictive Disorders as a Chronic Disease (by Bill White)

• Major Issues Moving Our System to be More Recovery Oriented  (presentation at Bridge House) 

  Resources for Recovery                                        

• Practice Guidelines for Recovery-Oriented Care for Mental Health & Substance Use Conditions(2nd edition)  - Appendices  

• Practice Guidelines for Recovery-Oriented Behavioral Health Care (1st edition) 

• The DMHAS Recovery Resource Guide   

• Recovery Self-Assessment Tool for Person in Recovery  

• Recovery Self-Assessment Tool for Family/Significant Other  

• Recovery Self-Assessment Tool for Providers

• Recovery Self-Assessment Tool for Administrators             

• Recovery TIPS: Key Principles and Practices of Person-Centered Care

  Related Links                                                       

• Preferred Practices Initiative

• Lessons Learned Initiative

• Advocacy Unlimited, Inc. (AU)

• Connecticut Communities for Addiction Recovery (CCAR)

• The Connecticut Clearinghouse

• Paths to Recovery

• Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation

• The Mental Illness Education Project, Inc.

• Evidence-Based Practices

• Behavioral Health Recovery Management

• Other Advocacy and Support

  Newsletter and Commissioner's Messages           

• Recovery Series:  Messages from the Office of the Commissioner

  Advisory Structure                                              

The Recovery Initiative involves the participation of many volunteers and stakeholders. Here are descriptions of these groups:

• Recovery Advisory Group

• Recovery Liaisons (State-Operated facilities only)

• Recovery Communications Group

  Suggest for Other Links                                  

If you have ideas about: 1) recovery-related links that we should add to our website, or 2) organizations that should add a DMHAS link to their website, please submit an e-mail to: Related Links@po.state.ct.us

NOTE:  Please indicate "Related Links" in the subject line of the e-mail.

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