Person-Centered Recovery Planning (PCRP)

In order to fully honor this commitment, we take an approach to PCRP that is grounded in both lived experience and effectiveness.

Central to PRCH’s PCRP work is the belief that authentic systems change must be shaped by those most directly affected by it. The leadership of people with lived experience, family members, and peer professionals helps ensure that PCRP implementation remains accountable, relevant, and grounded in people’s lived experience and self-defined goals.

We also take an explicit equity-focused approach to person-centered care. We recognize that even the most progressive behavioral health systems operate within broader social contexts where people of color and other historically marginalized groups often experience (both individually and collectively) additional layers of trauma and inequity that have profound effects on their health and well-being. As a result, PCRP cannot be truly person-centered unless it explicitly addresses these realities and is implemented in ways that are culturally responsive and equity-focused.

PCRP is now embedded in major federal and state expectations—including CMS Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) rules, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) criteria, SAMHSA guidance, and Department of Justice Olmstead enforcement—making it both a policy requirement and an essential dimension of quality in recovery-oriented behavioral health care.

When implemented in a way that is authentic and fully aligned with person-centered values, PCRP improves engagement and enhances a wide range of quality of life and recovery outcomes. It strengthens trust and shared decision-making—advancing dignity, autonomy, and community inclusion. Yet the voices of people with lived experience make clear that service planning is still too often driven by system requirements and bureaucracy rather than by people’s lived experience and self-defined goals. PCRP helps to close this gap between vision and reality - optimizing service planning to support recovery, self-determination, and whole health and wellness within the context of people’s everyday lives and social environments.

Person-Centered Recovery Planning cannot exist in isolation. It depends on a broader system of care that is fully aligned with person-centered values.

The Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) has been a national and international leader in PCRP for over 25 years, advancing this work through research, training, advocacy, and multi-level systems transformation. PRCH has provided training and consultation to over 25 states, including a long-standing partnership with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS).

PRCH’s contributions include:

• Creation of national PCRP practitioner competency frameworks to support workforce development
• Leadership of multi-state learning collaboratives
• Research supported by NIMH, CMS, SAMHSA and other partners demonstrating improved engagement, recovery, and quality of life outcomes
• Design of system implementation frameworks to support large-scale sustainable practice change
• Creation and dissemination of nationally recognized tools and resources, including the Recovery Roadmap Tips Series and technical guidance such as Strengthening Person-Centered Recovery Planning in State Behavioral Health Systems

Explore these and other tools on our Products and Resources page.