Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership

“[Recovery is] a deeply personal, unique process of changing one's attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills and roles. It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life, even with the limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one's life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness...”

Anthony 1993, from The Sainbury Centre 2008: Making Recovery a Reality

The initial meeting of the Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership was jointly chaired by Phil Morgan of NHS Dorset Community Health Services and Becky Aldridge of the Dorset Mental Health Forum. There were approximately 20 attendees from the NHS, the Dorset Mental Health Forum and Rethink. There was a lot of interest in the meeting and all the various partners expressed a commitment to the future development of recovery based services.

You may be wondering why we have called it the Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership and not just Recovery. We see the principles of wellbeing as essential to understanding recovery as a philosophy. Our understanding of wellbeing is that a person's overall health is influenced by them experiencing balance and meaning across a range of areas in their life (for example: spiritual; physical; social; emotional health) as well as feeling connected to their community.

• Recovery is about building a meaningful and satisfying life, as defined by the person themselves, whether or not there are ongoing or recurring symptoms or problems.
• Recovery represents a movement away from pathology, illness and symptoms to health, strengths and wellness.
• Hope is central to recovery and can be enhanced by each person seeing how they can have more active control over their lives ('agency') and by seeing how others have found a way forward.
• Self-management is encouraged and facilitated. The processes of self-management are similar, but what works may be very different for each individual. No 'one size fits all'.
• The helping relationship between clinicians and patients moves away from being expert / patient to being 'coaches' or 'partners' on a journey of discovery. Clinicians are there to be 'on tap, not on top'.
• People do not recover in isolation. Recovery is closely associated with social inclusion and being able to take on meaningful and satisfying social roles within local communities, rather than in segregated services.
• Recovery is about discovering – or rediscovering – a sense of personal identity, separate from illness or disability.
• The language used and the stories and meanings that are constructed have great significance as mediators of the recovery process. These shared meanings either support a sense of hope and possibility, or invite pessimism and chronicity.
• The development of recovery–based services emphasises the personal qualities of staff as much as their formal qualifications. It seeks to cultivate their capacity for hope, creativity, care, compassion, realism and resilience.
• Family and other supporters are often crucial to recovery and they should be included as partners wherever possible. However, peer support is central for many people in their recovery.

Adapted from Recovery - Concepts and Application by Laurie Davidson, The Devon Recovery Group

Here you will find an archive of the Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership newsletter.

If you would like to attend our working groups, be put on our mailing list or get involved in any other way please contact either:

Phil Morgan
Professional Head of Occupational Therapy in Mental Health
NHS Dorset Community Health Services
email: Philip.Morgan@dorset-pct.nhs.uk
Tel: 01305 361371

Becky Aldridge
Dorset Mental Health Forum
email: beckyaldridge@dorsetmentalhealthforum.org.uk
Tel: 01305 257172