Recovery-concepts have travelled from margin movements into mainstream mental health policy rapidly in recent years.

Implications of a Recovery model in comparison to a medical model or chronic disease model will be presented and discussed.

The course of common mental disorders is variable. Remissions are possible as are recurrences and long-term disabilities. Research struggles with problems of definitions of types of courses and methodological problems of long-term studies. The clinical use of prognostic indicators and determinants of remission and recurrence and long-term courses for individual patients is limited. Many patients hesitate to understand their mental health problems within a model of medical care for chronic conditions. As a result a considerable proportion of their efforts towards coping and finding meaning in their struggle for recovery occur outside the patient-clinician relationship. A collaborative approach allowing for individualized interventions and accommodating hopes, fears, and subjective evidence in a personalized context might be better suited to bundle the resources of patients, their families and friends and professional helpers of different professional background.

The Recovery model with its emphasize on mental health promotion, subjective quality of life, patient-self-determination and choice has a lot to offer in terms of collaborative management of disorders with highly variable courses and little prognostic certainties.