A better understanding of 'psychosocial supports', and its role in a future mental health system, is needed. Psychosocial supports are critical for a person's recovery, on a number of levels:

- • a personal level, psychosocial supports are a necessary pre-condition to the effectiveness • a personal level, psychosocial supports are a necessary pre-condition to the effectiveness of clinical care. Psychosocial supports provided by a trained and experienced support worker contribute to the person's understanding of their individual strengt hs and resilience. Psychosocial supports build a person's hope and optimism, and empower people to have agency over their lives, to understand that they have choices, and to exercise control over their lives.
- • an interpersonal level, psychosocial supports build relationships with family and friends. • an interpersonal level, psychosocial supports build relationships with family and friends. These relationships are often fractured and people can become isolated. Without support from family and friends, clinical care often fails.
- • the emerging concept of relational recovery points to family or social • the emerging concept of relational recovery points to family or social relationships as central, decisive determinants and enablers for recovery. It places the locus of deficit, and therefore the focus of intervention, in the space between people and their social environment, rather than the space between their ears. It is primarily community focused, has family life at its heart and deals with the real world.
- • at a community level, psychosocial supports connect people to stable accommodation, • at a community level, psychosocial supports connect people to stable accommodation, income and vocational support, connect people into clubs, social activities, andother activities that lead to social inclusion, participation and contribution to family and community life.

So psychosocial supports are critically essential to recovery in their own right . They are not an add-on to clinical care and are not simply concerned with the domains of the social determinants of health. There is a strong message coming out of the available evidence and advocacy from the mental health sector that the most effective responses to people with severe mental illness and psychosocial disability are those that are flexible, holistic, integrated, supportive of recovery outcomes, and 21 delivered within a recovery-oriented framework. One of the most commonly cited definitions of recovery is the one articulated by William Anthony:

[Recovery is] a deeply personal, unique process of changing one's attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills and/or roles. It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with the limitations caused by the illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one's life as one grows beyond the 22 catastrophic effects of mental illness.

In Australia, the National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Practice articulates a number of components of mental health care that:

- • and embraces the possibilities for recovery and wellbeing created by the inherent • and embraces the possibilities for recovery and wellbeing created by the inherent strength and capacity of all people experiencing mental health issues;
- • self-determination and self-management of mental health and wellbeing; and • self-determination and self-management of mental health and wellbeing; and
- • families to understand the challenges and opportunities arising from their family • families to understand the challenges and opportunities arising from their family member's experiences.

There are five main domains of recovery-oriented practice, including: