Authors: Jennie Fairclough, Katharine Davies, Tessa Reimers, Ingrid Amann, Jeremy Le Roux, Melissa Petrakis
Year: 2017
Event: 2017 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Lived Experience, Recovery, Research & Evaluation Informing Practice, Change, Innovation, Reform
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: This symposium is a presentation bringing together the findings of an adult clinical mental health service, a not-for-profit mental health and disability support organisation and consumers involved in planning, service delivery and evaluation. This is a demonstration service in terms of working collaboratively to support recovery and social inclusion. The partnership, collaboration and the presence of the participant as active in their own recovery will be central to the presentation. The recovery journey is a tremendously personal one and those travelling alongside, whether clinicians, peers, support workers, carers or others, have a sensitive role to play. In addition to the ethical factors and benefits of a recovery and strengths focus these principles are integral to the person's growth and enrichment of life. We strive to hold the person in the centre of the process during their stay and in their recovery as a whole.
Paper 1
How a Mental Health Community Support and Clinical Partnership is Supporting Social Inclusion and Recovery in the community.
Wellways and St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne) are committed to nurturing an environment where the blend of staff input provides rich information, and where excellence and collaboration can flourish. The partnership fosters service integration and strives for continuous quality improvement.
The Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC) service provides an opportunity for the consumer to be involved in their care as equal partner in the relationship with St Vincent’s and Wellways.
Consumers making decisions about their own health care is considered to be essential to their recovery. PARC’s approach to recovery values participant’s rights to self-determination, autonomy, dignity of risk and promotes community inclusion. This is practiced through providing individual key work, various psycho- social groups, formal and informal peer support and addressing social barriers. As part of the continuum of care participants identify psycho social concerns and social barriers they want to address for their transition to home and the community.
Aims: To share findings from the first two years of operation of PARC collaboration between Wellways and St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne).
Method: To highlight consumer perspectives of the PARC program through a participant’s voice and case studies.
Results: This paper will report on the quantitative and qualitative data collected during the first two years of operation. Additionally, on exit from the PARC program all participants are encouraged to complete a reflection form which captures feedback regarding the participant’s experience.
Conclusion: Providing a step up/step down bed-based service delivered in partnership maximises recovery and social inclusion outcomes for participants and can lead to reduced acute in-patient hospital admissions.
Paper 2
Life in Community program: The consumers’ experience of engaging in community programs in a Prevention and Recovery Care Service.
The person's sense of self-agency and motivation is often crucial in how it may help or hinder the recovery journey. This paper will outline some of the theories around agency, motivation and autonomy, from the neurosciences to psychodynamic theories. We find that when good recovery outcomes occur it usually depends on the integrity of the person's sense of self and worth and their ability to act on their own behalf or at times their ability to allow facilitation of the development of self-agency.
This paper explores each individual’s motivation for recovery. What will be reported on is what influences agency, autonomy, active participation and personal ownership for one’s own recovery. How the Life in Community program honour the lived experience, and in doing so supports change.
Aims: The Life in Community Volunteer (LinC) program through Wellways offers support for people with mental health issues, and their carers, to get involved in social inclusion activities by encouraging community linkage. The program builds on natural supports and develops social connections.
Method: A LINC program structure has been devised by a volunteer co-ordinator. Quantitative data from volunteers and participants has been collected over the first year of operation.
Results: A consumer perspective will be provided through personal experience of the PARC program. Jeremy will share his insights as to what assisted him with his recovery while staying at PARC, in particular the groups offered and the person-centred approach.
Conclusions: Findings highlighted that consumers who were active participants in their own recovery through programs such as LINC had improved recovery and social inclusion outcomes. PARC recognises “community inclusion is a critical enabler of recovery” (Salzer & Baron, 2016). This is further supported by volunteers to support participants for up to three months post a PARC stay. To promote community inclusion volunteers aim to facilitate sustainable community links and build natural supports that continue beyond the three months of the volunteer link.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: The audience will learn about key features and recovery values of the step up/step down program and how these are practiced in collaboration with consumers.
Learning Objective 2: An understanding will be gained of motivational theory and the consumer perspective of active participation in their own recovery.
References
Lee, S. J., Collister, L., Stafrace, S., Crowther, E., Kroschel, J., & Kulkarni, J. (2014). Promoting recovery via an integrated model of care to deliver a bed-based, mental health prevention and recovery centre. Australasian Psychiatry, 22(5), 481-488.
Salzer, M.S.& Baron, R.C. (2016). Well Together- A blueprint for community inclusion: fundamental concepts, theoretical frameworks and evidence. Published by Wellways Australia Limited, Melbourne, Australia.
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