The concept of recovery lies at the core of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA's) mission, and fostering the development of recover-oriented systems of care and services is a Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) priority. In support of that commitment, in 2005, SAMHSA's CSAT convened a National Summit on Recovery. Participants at the Summit represented a broad group of stakeholders, policy-makers, advocates, consumers, clinicians, and administrators from diverse ethnic and professional backgrounds. Although the substance use problems and disorders treatment and recovery field has discussed and lived recovery for decades, the Summit represented the first broad-based national effort to reach a definition of recovery and a common understanding of the guiding principles of recovery and the elements of recovery-oriented systems of care. This book reviews the research related to the 12 guiding principles of recovery and the 17 elements of recovery-oriented systems of care developed through the National Summit on Recovery. It also offers an appraisal of scientific literature discussing the recovery-oriented systems of care conceptual framework and literature on recovery-oriented service and systems implementation.