RecoveryTools.Org is a non-commercial recovery resource site with recovery concepts, strategies and tools to promote hope, health and recovery for people who experience psychiatric symptoms.

Individual Mental Health Rehabilitation Services include services to assist a client in improving, maintaining or restoring various community living skills such as functional skills, daily living skills, social skills, and leisure skills.

Spirituality, Meaning and Recovery from Serious Brain Disorder.

Recovery from schizophrenia is possible, but has not often been well supported.

Recovery from schizophrenia is not rare.

Factors helping recovery.

Web site focuses on special needs planning for loved ones.  Special Needs Planner - document template to use for care-givers.

Intentional Care Performance Standards help bridge the gap between the principles of recovery and empowerment and the real-world application of these principles in the everyday work of direct service staff and their supervisors.

Pat Deegan, Ph.D., speaks from the depths of her soul, revealing how the mental health system has so often impeded patients' road to recovery, and how we can do better.

New York Times article hints at just how promising the future can be for all kinds of brain disorders, if we have the right therapies and rehabilitation programs. (requires free registration)

John Nash's recovery was done without antipsychotic medications.  Robert Whitaker comments that drugs can even hinder recovery.

Welcome World - A psychiatric medication detox and rehab center.

Words that Can Help - Often encouragement is the best way of helping.

Personal experience and recommendations for reducing or getting off antipsychotic and/or antidepressant medications - Kimberly Denise.

Recovery is possible:  "We've Been Misled by the Drug Industry," by Daniel B. Fisher. Editors Note:  We believe that in many cases medications are the key to recovery, as do several individuals comments on Dan Fisher's article.

Dan Fisher and the National Empowerment Center state that recovery can often lead to a life without antipsychotic drugs.

GOLDBERG MANIA INVENTORY: Use this brief, time-saving questionnaire to help determine if you need to see a mental health professional, or for tracking your mania on a regular basis.

What hurts families of individuals with brain disorders, by Joyce Burland, Ph.D., Director NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program.

Safe Harbor E-zine: a project dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. 

A new online resource is now available, which opens the door to employment opportunities for individuals living with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Psychosocial Treatments in Psychotic Disorders by Nancy A. Huxley, Ph.D., and Ross J. Baldessarini, M.D. - The revolution in treatment of psychotic disorders as biological disorders has led to a trend to undervalue and under-utilize psychosocial interventions.

Information site on withdrawal from SSRIs (antidepressants).  

Recovery from Schizophrenia is possible - A very large group of consumers has achieved remarkable recovery. They are people who, in spite of ongoing symptoms, have carved out a life. - From Monitor on Psychology, Feb. 2000

Studies show that early intervention in schizophrenia may forestall the worst long-term outcomes for this devastating brain disorder.

Schizophrenia - A handbook for families - published by Health Canada, this approaches treatment with more than just medication.

Not long ago I was asked to speak and be available to answer questions at a meeting of our local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). The participants were either individuals being treated for a mental disorder or family members. I was struck by the first question, "How do we find a psychiatrist who will both prescribe medications and talk to us?" As I looked at the audience, they all nodded in affirmation that this was a significant problem.

Psychotherapy not only can lead to clinical improvement in patients with psychiatric disorders, but also can favorably influence their brains and physiology as well, increasing scientific evidence shows. - Psychiatric News July 6, 2001.

Treatment of psychosis without using psychiatric medications - letter from Dr. Loren Mosher.

Mental Health Recovery: What helps and what hinders - Project to develop a definition of Mental Health Recovery and determine performance indicators. 

Alternative Mental Health Ezine - For those who are suffering from mental ailments, many alternative remedies exist that soothe symptoms without the toxic effects of drugs.  Click here to visit the Alternative Mental Health site.

When trying to withdraw from many psychiatric drugs, patients can develop serious and even life-threatening emotional and physical reactions. In short, it is dangerous not only to start taking psychiatric drugs but also can be hazardous to stop taking them. Therefore, withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done under clinical supervision. Principles of drug withdrawal are discussed in Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications, by Peter R. Breggin, MD and David Cohen, PhD.

Writings by Thomas Moore on the Care of the Soul: How to How to Add Depth and Meaning to Your Everyday Life.

Recovery - "The Mentally Ill Refuse to Let Go of Their Dreams, for They Possess Nothing Else!" Submitted to NAMI-SCC by Tom Barresi.

Therapies can Jump Start Your Life - An overview of the various therapy options commonly used to help give people new tools to deal with ingrained, troublesome patterns of behavior and to help them manage symptoms of mental illness.

Nutrients play a critical role in mental health. They are the building blocks of the nervous system. Correct testing and understanding of deficiencies and overloads can pinpoint the causes of many severe mental symptoms, thus opening the door to hope and recovery. 

Nutritional Supplement Offering New Hope To The Mentally Ill - Encouraging Results Support Theory That Mental Disorders Are Linked to Nutrient Deficiencies.

Partners in Recovery - Panel:  Integrating Psychiatry into the Recovery Process, at the Adult System of Care Conference, April 26-28, 2000, in Santa Clara.  The key note speakers were Jay Mahler, an activist in the consumer survivor movement, and Patricia Deegan Ph. D., Director of Training at the National Empowerment Center.