Recovery heroes ‐ a profile of Matthew Ward Available to Purchase

While the concept of recovery is one of the main drivers in contemporary mental health services (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2009), it is not uncontentious (Mind, 2008). One of the earliest critics of recent developments was the psychiatrist Dr David Whitwell. He suggested that few service users could be said to have recovered and that survival might be a better term (Whitwell, 1999). Roberts and Wolfson (2004) asked if recovery is open to all. The concept of recovery hero will be equally contentious to some, and indeed the subject of this feature, Matt Ward, does not see himself as a recovery hero.