The Importance of Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services
Question:
Discuss about the Principles of Recovery: The Case of Sandy Jeffs.
In order for mental health professionals to align their practice with the recovery oriented principles, there are certain practice domains and key capabilities that are required to be met so as to do so. Moreover, there is need for such professionals to get acquainted with certain key concepts that are deemed pivotal to the success of their practice in ensuring that their activities are well tailored to support full recovery of their patients. With special reference to the stories and poetry written in regards to Sandy Jeffs, this paper explains how the lived experiences of this individual can help mental health professionals align their practice with the recovery principles for recovery orientated medical health services. Notably, medical professionals need to be conversant with concepts of recovery, recovery focused on principles of practice, and recovery that is concerned with delivery of care. Additionally, there is need for these professionals to exhibit a culture of hope and optimism.
The lived experience is at the core of every mental health issue or rather illnesses that affect individuals. This concept attempts to explain the mental health issues that people have experienced either in their own lives or with people to whom they are closest to (Nugent, Hancock & Honey, 2017). Ideally, the lived experiences relate to the familiarities that people are accustomed to in their daily lives which affect them individually or has affected their close relatives. For individuals affected with mental conditions, their lived familiarities may entail the way that the community views them and the way that they have been allowed to live their lives (AHMAC, 2013). For instance, Sandy Jeffs admits that people like her and specifically those with mental health issues have been subjected to worse living conditions where they have been called all sorts of names and where they have been stigmatized because of their conditions (Jeffs, 2009).
Mental health service provision requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account the practice, service as well as culture of all the involved stakeholders, that is, the patients and the medical practitioners. It is also noteworthy that the concept of recovery was coined specifically for individuals suffering from mental health issues in a bid to provide an explanation of the struggles and challenges that such individuals face. Furthermore, this concept attempts to explain that these individuals have managed to retain their personal identify despite their medical diagnoses (AHMAC, 2013; Chaturvedi, 2016). Additionally, this concept deals away with the traditional ideologies of distinguished duties that are segregated between patients and the medical practitioners. In other words, it illustrates that regardless of the position held, each individual should be respected for their own expertise and experience since they are crucial for ensuring that the patient regains fully their well-being (Jacob et al, 2017). Hence, patients and mental health professionals are treated alike thereby ensuring that there are no demarcations of roles.
There are six main principles of recovery distinguished by Australia’s department of health. These principles are applicable to mental health service system and must therefore be adhered to by mental health professionals. They include; dignity and respect, evaluating recovery, real choices, partnership and communication , uniqueness of the individual, and attitudes and rights, (Australian Government Department of Health, 2010). The principles are monumental for the alignment of the medical practitioner’s practices with those of the resource oriented principles. Moreover, the national framework for recovery-oriented mental health services developed this framework so as to provide a platform that is based on these principles and which is specifically tailored to support the recovery of patients with mental health issues. In doing so, the framework enhances attitudinal as well as cultural change among practitioners involved in the provision of service for mental health patients in such a way that there is increased input as well as expertise (AHMAC, 2013). For instance, the principles of attitudes and rights, and partnerships and communication emphasizes on the need to be actively involved with patients and also focuses on the sharing of information in a bid to ensure positive health outcomes.
The Role of Lived Experiences in Mental Health Issues
Similarly, mental health professionals regardless of their ranks are supposed to adhere to the framework and its principles thereby ensuring that the consumers are given the best possible services that are required to facilitate their recovery (Jacob et al, 2017). Most importantly, under this framework, there are well stipulated concepts of recovery and practice domains that function in alignment with recovery oriented principles so as to satisfy the diverse needs or rather issues experienced by patients with mental health issues.
As aforementioned, mental health professionals are required to be conversant with the key concepts of recovery oriented service delivery, recovery oriented practice, and recovery itself. Recovery essentially implies being able to live a meaningful as well as a contributing life to the community in which one is located or accustomed. Recovery oriented practice further refers to being in a position in which one can utilize resources so as to support the capabilities of people in a way that ensures that these individuals take full responsibility of their recovery as well as their well-being (AHMAC, 2013). In this way, such individuals are placed in a position where they can achieve their ambitions or goals in life. Alternatively, recovery adapted to psychological health care provision focuses on the needs and aspirations of individuals with mental health issues. Precisely, this concept relates to the ability of mental health workforce to channel their resources towards supporting and sustaining the needs of those that they serve. Hence, this concept emphasizes on the need for workforce commitment and the sharing of a common vision.
In relation to the works of Sandy Jeffs, these concepts are applicable in similar proportions. For instance, the concept of recovery can be termed as being analogous to Sandy’s initiative to become an author as well as a poet. Sandy facilitated her recovery by living a life that contributed to the society through her writings of dozens of poems. Despite being diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Sandy chose not to wallow in despair but instead, she chose to live a meaningfull life that contributed not only to her well-being but also to that of the community (AHMAC, 2013; Jeffs, 2013). On the same note, mental health professionals are therefore tasked with providing such aid and this can be done through encouragement.
Jeffs work reiterates on the need to recognize the efforts individuals diagnosed with mental health issues and the contributions that they can make to the community. This comes after her plea to include individuals with mental health issues both socially and economically (Boutillier & Croucher, 2010). She further reiterates that people like her have ambitions and dreams and as such, they need to be given a chance where they can truly express their gifts (Jeffs, 2013). For example, such people should be included in income generating activities and be held responsible for their actions. These emphases reflect on the concepts of recovery concerned with mental health practice and recovery focused on mental health delivery of service (Slade, 2009). This is mainly so since Sandy’s examples showcases the need to use available resources to support the needs, ambitions and goals of individuals with mental health issues in a process that facilitates their recovery.
The Recovery Principles for Mental Health Professionals
From another perspective, Sandy’s lived experiences can be viewed in light of the recovery oriented practice domains. Practice that is focused on recovery areas ideally comprises traditions and semantics of optimism and hopefulness. It further involves supportive recovery actions for individual patients, commitment from the organization as well as developing the workforce, and acting upon matters to do with social inclusion. Promoting traditions and semantics of optimism and hopefulness involves making somebody to feel secure, welcome and, valued (AHMAC, 2013). Sandy’s work implies that people suffering from mental issues are looked down upon by the community. Mental health professionals should therefore help in bridging this gap in accordance with the first domain by ensuring that such individuals feel valued and important within the communities that they are found. Alternatively, mental health practitioners are tasked with fulfilling the facets of the second domain which essentially entails supporting personal recovery by making recovery to be at the heart of recovery (AHMAC, 2013; Xie, 2013). In this way, they can assist people like Sandy Jeffs to feel welcome within the practice settings as well as in their communities.
At the organizational level, Sandy’s stories indicate that minimal support has been offered to people like suffering from mental conditions. Most worryingly, different names have been used to describe their conditions instead of rightfully assisting them in gaining the assistance that they require (AHMAC, 2013). Contrarily the domain of organizational commitment and workforce development emphasizes on the need to alter the work environment so that it is conductively capacitated to handle the needs of patients with mental health issues (William et al, 2016; Jeffs, 2010). More so, these environments need to have workers who are adequately experienced, armed, supportive and well-equipped so as to support the needs of those to whom that they are in service to. Thus by taking into consideration the pleas of people like Sandy Jeffs, medical practitioners have been given a pathway through which such in competencies can be rectified. Additionally, such an initiative would be pivotal in achieving recovery oriented practice and service delivery.
Conclusion
To conclude, Sandy Jeffs story reveals that mental health professionals have a significant role to play in the well-being of such individuals and this can be done by aligning their practice to the lived experiences that are shared by Sandy. Precisely, mental health professionals need to get accustomed to the concepts of recovery focused on practice, recovery itself, and recovery concerned with service delivery. Incorporating these concepts in their practice would be pivotal to achieving the principles of recovery. Alternatively, practice oriented recovery domains comprising of traditions and language of optimism and hopefulness, and enhancing individual recovery could prove to be crucial towards achieving this objective.
References
Australian Government Department of Health. (2010). Principles of Recovery Oriented Mental Health Practice. Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-i-nongov-toc~mental-pubs-i-nongov-pri
Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (AHMAC). (2013). A National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services: Guide for Practitioners and Providers. Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/67D17065514CF8E8CA257C1D00017A90/$File/recovgde.pdf
Chaturvedi, S. K. (2016). Mental Health Towards Social and Economic Inclusion: Nothing Else Matters. Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health, 3(1), 1-3. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40737-016-0056-7
Jacob, S., Munro, I., Taylor, B. J., & Griffiths, D. (2017). Mental Health Recovery: A Review of the Peer-Reviewed Published Literature. The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research, 24(1), 53-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2015.08.001
Jeffs, S. (2009, September 30). Sandy Jeffs [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG14Kqmry38&feature=youtu.be
Jeffs, S. (2010, September 29). Sandy Jeffs on Her Poetry, Madness + Rec [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKgAeHQ-IFQ&feature=youtu.be
Jeffs, S. (2013, June 6). Sandy Jeffs [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEszvWRsgZg&feature=youtu.be
Le Boutillier, C., & Croucher, A. (2010). Social Inclusion and Mental Health. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(3), 136-139. DOI: 10.4276/030802210X12682330090578
Nugent, A., Hancock, N., & Honey, A. (2017). Developing and Sustaining Recovery-Orientation in Mental Health Practice: Experiences of Occupational Therapists. Occupational Therapy Journal, 5. DOI: 10.1155/2017/5190901
Slade, M. (2009). The Contribution of Mental Health Services to Recovery. Journal of Mental Health, 18(5), 367-371. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09638230903191256
Williams, V. C., Deane, F. P., Oades, L. G., Crowe, T. P., Ciarrochi, J., & Andresen, R. (2016). Enhancing Recovery Orientation within Mental Health Services: Expanding the Utility of Values. The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, 11(1), 23-32. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JMHTEP-09-2015-0042
Xie, H. (2013). Strengths-Based Approach for Mental Health Recovery. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 7(2), 5-10. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3939995/
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