Recovery capital: what enables a sustainable recovery from mental health difficulties?

There is increasing international interest in recovery approaches in mental health—and this connects with an emerging focus within European social work around promoting capability and sustainability. Research at a population level would suggest that social factors rather than medical interventions are the main determinants of recovery from mental health difficulties—but this is not yet reflected in social work practice, which can still be dominated by biomedical perspectives and a focus on risk management. Drawing upon and extending analyses of social and other forms of capital, this paper outlines the basis for a new paradigm for mental health social work that is specifically oriented towards enabling the development of personal efficacy and social capability—an approach that is explicitly focused on achieving longer-term sustainability rather than shorter-term problem solving.