Introduction

Weinstein has provided a timely overview of the state of mental health social work in Britain under conditions of neoliberalism and, in so doing, has identified the considerable challenges that lie ahead of us. Moreover, the article underlines one of the key strengths of the radical social work tradition, which is its ability to theorise at both micro and macro levels and locate social work practice within a broader political, economic and social context. This is incredibly important at the present time for both understanding the experiences of service users and social workers and analysing, and campaigning against, neoliberalism and the politics of austerity. Moreover, by making connections with other progressive social and psychological approaches, the radical social work tradition has the potential to provide social workers not only with a critical evaluation of mental health, but also with an analysis that can begin to challenge the hegemony of the medical model and its preoccupation with individual deficits, symptomology and pathology (for an overview of models of mental disorder, see Tew, 2005).

The dominance of the medical model, which rarely considers the influence of wider social forces, is somewhat paradoxical given the large body of evidence from research and studies that links mental (and physical) health problems to poverty, inequalities and various forms of social stratification (DHHS, 1980; Acheson, 1998; Wilkinson, 2005; Marmot et al, 2010; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2010). One of the most significant developments within the area of mental health in recent decades has been the emergence of social models, such as the recovery model and strengths-based approaches, which have questioned received wisdom and the orthodoxy of the medical model within mental health. The recovery model, in particular, has been well received by service users, mental health workers, policymakers, managers and politicians. However, before embracing this approach, it is important to consider whether the recovery model is indeed compatible with the radical social work tradition? This article will therefore attempt to explore some of the strengths and limitations of the recovery model from a radical social work perspective.