Recovery Guides and Tools

Guides

Language

APA General Principles for Reducing Bias
A guide to bias-free language from the American Psychiatric Association that provides general principles for writing about all people and their personal characteristics without bias.

Language and Stigma
From Australia’s Everymind Institute, a helpful chart that summarizes preferred language to use when communicating about mental illness.

Person-First Language Bibliography & Resource List (pdf)
Bibliography of resources put together by the Person-First Language Workgroup of the Recovery Council. Includes links to several of the resources. (Last updated October 2012)

Practices & Approaches

Advancing Trauma Informed Primary Care
The National Council for Behavioral Health shares Fostering Resilience and Recovery: A Change Package for Advancing Trauma-informed Primary Care, a field-informed guide developed by the nation’s most influential leaders shaping trauma-informed approaches.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Psychiatric Care and Other Services and Supports: Guidelines for Promoting Recovery Through Choice and Alternatives
The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, a national coalition of statewide consumer/survivor organizations and others, released these guidelines to educate people about the values-based needs of individuals with mental health challenges. The guidelines were developed by a diverse group of people with the lived experience of mental health recovery from across the United States.

Paving New Ground: Peers Working in Inpatient Settings
A guidebook by Gayle Bluebird, APNA member and National Consumer Survivor Consultant
Supported by the National Technical Assistance Center, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors

Guide to Person-Centered Excellence – Application for Services for People with Mental Illness and People with Substance Use Disorder
Put together by the Council on Quality and Leadership, this guide promotes quality improvement in behavioral health services and supports through best practices and the resulting quality improvement initiatives which can be applied across the range of supports and services for people with mental illness and substance use disorder.

A Patient-Centered Guide to Implementing Language Access Services in Healthcare Organizations (pdf)
From the HHS Office on Minority Health, a guide that helps healthcare organizations implement effective language access services to meet the needs of their patients with limited English proficiency and increase their access to health care.

Tools

Alaskan Core Competencies – from the Annapolis Coalition
Funded by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, these competencies are cross-disability in nature, relevant to jobs in multiple health and human service sectors. This set of six Assessment Tools is designed specifically for use with these competencies. The tools promote a Collaborative Competency Building approach in which an employee and supervisor work cooperatively to identify the worker’s strengths, the skills in need of improvement, and the plans to improve those skills.

Inspirational Stories of the Journey on the Road to Recovery
A video series featuring individual stories on recovery.

Research

Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association
Explore research on recovery published in APNA’s journal. APNA Members: Log in for free access to full articles.