The Structural Architecture of Relational Recovery: An Empirical Blueprint for Non-Carceral, Community-Led Support Networks
Contemporary institutional psychiatry relies on carceral containment, individual pathologization, and continuous psychopharmacological receptor alteration to manage acute psychological and somatic distress. While this model achieves short-term behavioral modification, long-term longitudinal data demonstrates high rates of functional attrition, neurocognitive decline, and social alienation. This paper establishes an empirical, operational blueprint for an alternative paradigm: the non-carceral, community-led relational recovery network. Rooted in an open-system epistemology, we present the structural architecture of the "Hometree" model—a decentralized network of residential, research-oriented sanctuaries designed to facilitate genuine somatic stabilization and functional normalization. Synthesizing data from polyvagal neurobiology, heart rate variability (HRV) metrics, and the person-in-environment (PIE) social work paradigm, we demonstrate that stabilizing severe psychological distress requires the systematic cultivation of relational co-regulation and material safety rather than clinical surveillance. We outline the concrete mathematical, economic, and logistical coordinates necessary to operate these networks independently of commercial managed-care structures, providing a scalable map for community-financed collective preservation.
Authors
- Daphne Garrido
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-05-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20272415
- Primary Topic
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Type
- preprint