ABSTRACT
This chapter explores collaboration as an essential aspect of the work of the helping professions in supporting desistance and recovery. Practitioners are usually only one of a number of people supporting such processes. Moreover, a defining feature of recovery and desistance-oriented services is deep collaboration, rich in legitimacy and predicated on strong engagement and respect for the experience and expertise of each of those involved, especially the person at the centre of service provision. Key issues are identified that are seen to impede positive change. In contrast, the strengths and benefits of collaboration are identified with positive examples to illustrate the reservoir of goodwill and reciprocity that exists in both fields. An argument is outlined for 'coalitions of the willing', exploring the emergent literature on co-production and engagement with people in recovery and desistance processes to shape the scope and character of service provision.
