Does recovery in mental health need professionals?

The aim of this work is to explore the role of the occupational therapist within recovery-orientated mental health services and how it fits with the notion of giving the service user control. The concept of recovery is now stated within much health and social care policy, legislation and guidelines across the UK, and it is an approach that is widely implemented by occupational therapists in mental health services. However, the recovery paradigm poses complex and multifaceted challenges to mental health professionals and there is growing concern over the ability to overcome the inherent barriers present in today's health and social care structure and culture (Slade et al., 2014). This literature review explores these barriers in relation to the professional concept and power theory using a critical realist approach (Edgley et al., 2016). The findings reveal there is an issue of power that undermines recovery implementation by occupational therapists within mental health services. The review concludes that the recovery paradigm needs to shift its focus off service provision and onto influencing societal change by using the power already available to it in the form of community. This calls for action from occupational therapists to unite with service users and other professionals to come together in community to fight for their right to occupational recovery at a societal level rather than focusing on service level implementation.