~ Report by the Irish College of Psychiatrists
~
The Irish government’s new mental health
strategy, Vision for Change (Department of Health and
Children, 2006), incorporates the ‘recovery perspective’ into the
development and implementation of modern mental health services.
The Vision for Change strategy includes in its mandate the
development of specialist rehabilitation and recovery mental health
services; however, there is still a debate about what the role and
scope of these services should be, particularly in relation to the
interface with service users and carers, generic mental health
services and other key stakeholders.
This occasional paper is designed as a guide
on how to set up a rehabilitation and recovery service which is
evidence based, incorporates the recovery perspective in its
implementation, and is based on and adapted to the needs of the
local population.
Rehabilitation and recovery mental health
services are at varying stages of development in Ireland. This
occasional paper includes references to existing templates for
recommendations for service development and includes guidelines on
how to incorporate the recovery perspective into the service model.
Services need to move away from the historical focus on
resettlement programmes and instead incorporate a more holistic,
user-centred approach, with assessment of individuals’ needs and
their active participation in choice of life goals. These services
should incorporate a range of rehabilitation interventions, and
promote both social inclusion and movement towards independent
living in the community. The paper provides a template for
consultants in rehabilitation and recovery mental health services
for the setting up of such a service.
It is envisaged that the Faculty of
Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry will work on further projects,
with themes taken from this paper, in order to elaborate concepts
of rehabilitation and recovery service development.
Contents of this report:
- Members of the Subcommittee of the Faculty of
Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Developing a service model
- Service philosophy
- Defining the target groups of service users
based on the needs of the local population
- Interface between rehabilitation and recovery
services and general adult psychiatric services
- Interface between rehabilitation and recovery
services and forensic psychiatric services
- Guidelines on referral to rehabilitation and
recovery services
- Establishing the multidisciplinary team
- Assessment of the needs of individual service
users
- Therapeutic interventions
- Social exclusion and discrimination
- Training and education programmes
- Research
- Service evaluation and audit
- Conclusion
- References
- Appendix: Allied voluntary organisations