Recovery Focused Practice - Mental Health Commission

Recovery Focused Practice Mike Watts

Who am I  Someone who has recovered from mental illness  Married to Fran who also has recovered from mental illness  Program Coordinator in GROW  PhD candidate having just submitted my thesis

Recovery as a Re-enchantment with Life

CARE a 4 letter word

The charity syndrome (Siebert in Glasser 2003:206)  ‘My psychiatrist appeared on television…. People like me have different brain structures. He was a cold fish.. an expert on brain structures’ (Peter)

Liberation, empowerment, re-enchantment

Conditions for re-enchantment  A warm and emotional welcome  ‘It was a warmth.. A smile a glance’  ‘It was as though it was your best friend’  ‘That fear I had sort of left me I felt at home’

A journey that started with hope  ‘I felt that night I had been lifted slightly. I felt I’d got hope and hope had never occurred to me before. I just feel you can’t go into a supermarket and buy hope’ (Mags)

Your existence gives me hope

Recovery as a journey of the heart ‘That’s the very first step hoping I can get well and stay well. That was the start’ ‘ someone can say something, it resonates… does some kind of transformation.. It can be physical and emotional’

Friendship the reciprocal key I would try to say little things, but I’d cry and somebody was always there And we were sort of very close because to me he’s the son I lost and I was the mother he lost

The power of reciprocal witness ‘I realised that there were a lot of others who had been through traumas’ ‘I felt a different person because I could now talk about issues’ ‘Telling my story was healing’

Healing witness  That I could go in and just be there and just talk a little was like lifting a great burden  I was loved back to health the time people gave me, the effort people made for me was wonderful

An extending family If I felt down and was maybe crying on my own I would ring M and B would come and take me out. He wouldn’t bring me back til maybe 10 and I’d come back laughing

GROW weekends  I was delighted with it  There was a sense of freedom  And I just sang because everyone was singing  I softened towards people and started going to other things

Challenge and support The first task was to go for a walk it was terrifying, M came with me and I thought I never thought I could do that

Risk taking And she said where have you ever dreamed of going and when I said America she said why don’t you… when I came back I knew I was recovered

Taking responsibility It started to dawn on me that neither the doctor nor the pills were going to effect a cure Whoever was most to blame only I can get me well Let go of all that anger

Leadership a reciprocal relationship Leading the meeting was a big one I remember being asked to accept being organiser it was like my heart got bigger inside my chest

Re-authoring a new story I had no sense of myself, I didn’t know who I was, I had learned a lot of lessons from people in society, neighbours, my family, my foster family children in school that I was different that I was less All the visits with my doctor did was confirm I was mentally ill

Reauthoring a new story I went to my first GROW meeting and a person gave her testimony…. I remember going home that night feeling lighter saying why in God’s name have I carried this

Maturing I suppose for me its learning maturity as an adult I developed the ability to deal with people even when they were very difficult Mountains became molehills and life bacame managable

Providence and the role of goodness Chance meetings that can turn your life around The job was almost like divine intervention I learned to do the ordinary good thing even if I was afraid

Society an opportunity to become Work was only the beginning At the time I wouldn’t have trusted myself to flush the toilet here I was in charge of a million dollars of machinery

Niches in leisure education work I realised there was a connection between getting angry and my perception of others I also could see the same in others

Contributing to social capital It made me that strong I thought ‘what can I do to prevent suicide’ It has humbled me I feel I owe a lot of people I would like to pay them back

A word from psychology Riessman 1990 we need to provide helping roles Christensen and Jacobson 1994, professionals should begin to design rather than try and deliver recovery plans Rappaport 1999 Professionals should work to find or create niches in society that have the power to help tranform identity

The last word Recovery is becoming more strongly wisely and more lovingly the same, unlearning the lessons that I had to learn. 60% of this came from my own feelings and the rest from the real actions of others.