Solution Focused Recovery

 

Second of the six groups from Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust at the close of the Solution Focused Working towards Recovery course

NEXT PUBLIC COURSE IN 2012: Our next public course will be on 25th September 2012  - please see our Training & Events page

"Finding and identifying the "exceptions" will make all the difference to people written off by the system. Inspirational - loved it!"   Joan Marsh, Therapeutic Co-ordinator, Royal Oldham Hospital. Oldham  

Our tailored programme enables "conversations for change"; are patient-centred and help the patient move towards their own preferred future in small achievable steps that are self-identified and collaboratively produced between professional and patient.  This collaboration enables the patient to tap into inner resources, strengths, self-knowledge and survivor experiences that both professional and patient can harness in the work towards recovery. 

Just as with Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT), this model connects with the individual -however we consider that Solution Focused conversations can be more spontaneous, more accessible and can happen at ad hoc times during a patient's experience. The Solution Focused Approachcan be instigated by non-clinical staff, therefore providing a fast-track resource for mental health teams by:   
      
a) encouraging staff to hear who the patient is as well as listening to what the illness presents
b) equipping staff with "tools for curiosity" as well as diagnostic and caring skills 
c) enabling patients to be curious about, and connect with, their  inner resources and  strengths and self-expertise
d) work collaboratively with patients on their own personal recovery map

Details of the course and evaluations from participants can be seen below and on the main Evaluations Map.

I feel like I have a whole new enthusiasm towards my work. I love how positive the approach is and how it highlights the patients strengths and empowers to goal set achievable goals
Navenka Love, Mental Health Nurse, NHS, Oldham

I believe the clients I meet will feel more empowered and recovery may accelerate. This in turn may have an effect on the practitioner who may feel more confident and progressive in their practice.
Rebecca O’Reilly, RMN Practitioner, NHS, Oldham

Highly Applicable to my work, have started to put into practice during 1-1 time with clients.
Ruth Elizabeth Dawber, Staff Nurse, RMN, NHS, Oldham

The training identified a different way to work with our patients and I am hopeful that I will be able to utilise the techniques with a positive effect. Worthwhile, Interesting, informative and thought provoking.
Barbara Walsh, Ward Sister, NHS, Oldham

Overview of the 2-7 day Staff Training Course:

All of us depend on good mental health to thrive but probably few of us ever consider what good mental health means in reality.

Sometimes a "good enough recovery" is hoped for by the client and the client will have good expertise to bring to the discussion about when that point is in sight. . There are many instances of people who have suffered anxiety, trauma or depression being able to make small steps of recovery following a small change in their environment or following an interaction with someone who connected with the "person" rather than with the "problem".

Often a small change in the built environment can change moods and allow for a new viewing and new thinking. Similarly, a staff member "connecting" with the person and displaying a curiosity about past strengths and current successful strategies can ignite a renewal of those resources and indeed infect the patient to harness those resources to make small steps forward in their recovery or self-management.

We are fortunate to have access to, and time given by, patients and ex-patients. The insight that they offer us about a patient's experience reinforces that the "one-size fits all" ethos is not conduce to facilitating individual recovery.  This, we would imagine, is not a groundbreaking discovery, but what is encouraging for us is that patients agree that sometimes they have "felt able to progress because a nurse or doctor spoke to me not the illness in me". It is this ethos that all of our training programmes are founded on.

We have developed various Pilot Projects for the NHS and related organisations on working with patients and clients who are presenting with depression, bipolar and anxiety and our Returning to Mainstream programme was recently commissioned as a  training tool for the staff of The Mayor's Employment Project, in London as part of the team's Helping Clients Return to Work remit.

Our Pilot Project for the NHS includes Martin Hospital, Canterbury - training a group of volunteers from the local community including, ex-patients of the Mental Health Unit, to mentor patients in their own recovery and return to independent living.

Because the models we utilize, Solution Focused Brief Therapy and
Examine, Repair & Move On Approach and  Optima Communication Skills are collaborative, strengths based, forward looking approaches that take a non-pathological stance - this allows participants to access a respectful approach that is well evaluated and provides for a fast track resource. The course is available as an inhouse course across the UK as either a 2 day "extra tools in the toolbox" course or a 7 day restructuring and reorganising framework for Acute Wards and Residential Recovery Units. 

For details of training courses - please contact us at info@brief-therapy-uk.com or Telephone us on 0208 947 8093 or on the office mobile 07779 242 289.