THE VALUE OF HOPE

Traditional therapy has almost only focused on what is wrong with individuals and what is wrong with their lives. Now, hope has become a powerful therapeutic tool. It is well on the way to becoming a powerful force in lives that until now have had no hope at all. This is achieved by focusing on positive elements of people’s lives, and looking for ways to guide events to a positive outcome, and convincing them that things are likely to improve. Their problems are not ignored, but are placed in a healthier context.

Hope is now at a premium in the lives of people suffering from mental illness. More effective medications and a shift in the priorities of mental health practitioners have been very effective in creating stable, normal lives for the mentally ill. The healthier these people become, the more hope they will feel.

Hope is an essential element in the “recovery” model of mental health. This model is an aspect of therapy that can supplement, but not replace, the “medical” model, whose focus is on diagnostics and medications. The recovery model addresses aspects of people’s lives that can be improved and providing them with the skills to do so. It is said that medication can only take us half the way there. Acquiring the necessary strategies and skills can take us the rest of the way.

I recently spoke to a group of chronic patients at a local psychiatric hospital about the changes that have occurred in my life in hopes of instilling a sense of hope. They came away with the knowledge that it isn’t too late to become healthy.