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Mental health professionals in Australia have a responsibility to provide recovery oriented care. The Australian Department of Health's (2013) National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services: Guide for Practitioners and Providers states this involves the maximisation of opportunities for self-determination.
Self-determination is an individual's disposition toward acting in a "self-directed, self-regulated, autonomous" manner (Field et al. 1998 p2). People with a mental illness (consumers) who report high levels of self-determination also report greater wellbeing (Chang 2011).
In last year's mental health edition of ANMJ, Taylor et al. (2017) underscored the importance of exploring the relationship between self-determination and personal recovery from mental illness.
While mental health policies and practices purport a relationship between the two concepts, little empirical evidence exists to support these claims. To address this gap in the literature, the relationship between self-determination and personal recovery was explored in the context of a therapeutic recreation (TR) initiative. Participants were offered various opportunities to maximise self-determined behaviours, and a three-phase sequential mixed methods approach, including surveys, interviews, and a...