Share, Explore, Engage, Discover (SEED) Mini-course

Only incoming MSW students enroll in this mini course. Mini-course Description: In clinical settings, there is tension between the “medical model” and the “recovery model” of mental health treatment. The medical model frames mental illness as a biomedical disease that is addressed principally through pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions that decrease symptoms. Treatment success is achieved when symptoms are reduced or eliminated. The recovery model frames recovery as a process rather than a goal, and symptom reduction is secondary to improved psychosocial functioning within a community of choice. In this course, students will be exposed to cross-cutting perspectives on recovery, and will be better prepared to navigate healthcare settings that often contain contradictory and ethically challenging perspectives on what recovery truly means. We will cover the basics of the biomedical approaches – including symptoms, prognostic indicators, and neurophysiology – and then address topics at the heart of the recovery movement, such as community re-engagement; psychosocial rehabilitation; evidence-based practice; peer support; the consumer-survivor/ex- patient/“Mad Pride” voice; ethical issues (e.g. seclusion and restraint, institutionalization); and whole health wellness. Students will be challenged to consider the extent to which the medical and recovery models are contradictory, or could coexist. Because people with serious and persistent mental illnesses face some of the most profound health inequities in the nation, with life expectancy up to 25 years earlier than the general public, their needs and experiences will be the focus of this course’s “call to action.”