What will it take for recovery to flourish in Hong Kong?

The notion of mental health "recovery" is beginning to stimulate important changes in the mental health care provided to persons with serious mental illnesses in Hong Kong. However, the Chinese culture poses many challenges to implementing the types of recovery-oriented practices developed over the last 2 decades in the West. This article considers some of the challenges that policy makers, system leaders, practitioners, family members, and persons with mental illnesses themselves may face in attempting to transform care in Hong Kong. In addition to shifting from an individualistic to a more collectivist culture that emphasises the importance of family involvement, the primarily linear notion of mental stability that currently guides practice may need to be reconsidered in the face of evidence which suggests that recovery is a non-linear path that involves hard work both on the part of the individual as well as the family.