Advancing Recovery Collaborative (ARC)

In October 2013, CiBHS launched its third collaborative improvement project aimed at advancing the recovery of individuals with serious mental illness.  As with the previous initiatives (ICSC and ARP), the “Advancing Recovery Collaborative” (ARC) is built upon the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration definition of recovery: “A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential” (2011).  While California’s public behavioral health system is increasingly aware that the people they serve can and do recover, there is still much to be done in terms of system design to ensure recovery for all clients and to guarantee that the goals, aspirations and desires of clients are the primary drivers of every aspect of service delivery.  The mental health system’s current and future capacity to support recovery is challenged by numerous factors:

• Historic beliefs that clients do not recover from mental illness and cannot achieve an independent life with meaningful roles;
• Stigma and discrimination against individuals living with mental illness;
• Lack of person-centered plans created collaboratively with clients and evidence-based (or community defined) practices to meet clients’ needs as they progress through recovery;
• Limited array of interventions, services and supports for individual clients, as well as a poorly defined continuum of recovery services that includes naturally occurring community supports;
• Minimal measurement and use of data for recovery assessment and improvement;
• Lack of coordination with the primary care and substance use services;
• Number of individuals who will enter services through health care reform is projected to be nearly 200,000