CooperRiis

We envision a future where the stigma against individuals with mental health conditions, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, personality disorders including borderline personality disorder, OCD has disappeared, where every individual will have the opportunity to recover from their mental illness, and where these individuals will be accepted into their communities as responsible and contributing citizens. We believe that recovery from serious mental health and substance abuse conditions is attainable. William Anthony, a leader in the Recovery Movement, writes: “Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process of changing one’s attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills, and/or roles. It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness.” (Anthony, National Mental Health Plan, 2003-2008). CooperRiis is a place of integration and recovery of wholeness, a place where isolation is replaced by relationship, and where the mind, body and spirit are nurtured within nature. We believe that dis-ease can be replaced by at-ease, and hope can emerge. Each staff member is a beacon of hope and a facilitator of recovery for the residents and community members of CooperRiis.