The Recovery Institute

You have embraced the values and principles of recovery, but how do you and your staff put them into practice in the hectic day-to-day workplace? What is recovery and how should staff support it? How do recovery values and principles get applied when clients are making choices that seem to be self-defeating or that pose safety concerns? How do the principles of choice and self determination get applied in practical ways when clients are not using psychiatric medications as prescribed? How are staff to establish professional boundaries that support, rather than hinder recovery? These are the issues we address in the 2-day Recovery Institute. Participants leave with practical solutions and skills that can be shared with co-workers in your agency.

To bring the Recovery Institute to your area, please contact us.

Content

The Recovery Institute is based on Pat Deegan's Recovery Oriented Practice Curriculum. It translates some of the foundational values of recovery—choice, self-determination, relationships, hope—into a set of practices aimed at retraining the mental health workforce to support clients' recovery. Instructors who have been trained by Pat Deegan to use her materials, begin the Institute with an Introduction to Recovery.  Participants are then trained how to support client choice and the effective use of medications in the recovery process.  The Institute closes with a workshop on establishing respectful professional boundaries.

Day 1

Morning: Introduction to Recovery

The basic principles of recovery are defined with examples from others' recovery narratives.

Afternoon: Supporting Client Choice

Choice is the cornerstone of the recovery and empowerment process. But how should staff respond when a client is making a choice that appears to be self-defeating or dangerous? In this training participants will learn a range of practical interventions for engaging with the choices that clients make, particularly when those choices appear to be self-defeating, to diminish quality of life and/or to involve risk and safety issues. Participants will learn skills associated with supporting client choice in ways that are respectful and that maximize client autonomy and self-efficacy. The institute format includes lecture supported by PowerPoint presentations, as well as role-playing and intensive skill building work in dyads and small groups. Scenarios from real world clinical practice are the focus and participants are encouraged to share examples from their own work.

Learning Objectives for Day 1

  1. To understand the foundational principles of recovery and empowerment.
  2. To understand why supporting client choice is important.
  3. To learn how to assess an intervention for the presence of toxic help or help that works against recovery.
  4. To learn practical skills about how to engage with client choice to create win/win outcomes.
  5. To learn how to navigate through the Comfort Zone, the Conflicted Zone and the Non-Negotiable Zone and to learn the skill sets related to supporting client choice in each zone.
  6. To learn how to shift agency culture toward a recovery orientation through more creative engagement with clients in the Conflicted Zone.

Evening: Inside Outside (Optional)

Optional dinner and viewing of Pat's film about self-directed recovery titled Inside Outside: Building a Meaningful Life After the Hospital. We'll have time to discuss some of the themes of the film in relation to what we have been learning during the Institute.

Day 2

Morning:

Supporting Clients' Use of Psychiatric Medications As Part of the Recovery Process

In this training institute participants will have the opportunity to learn about a recovery-oriented approach to supporting clients' use of psychiatric medications. Based on the research of Dr. Deegan, participants learn:

  • The importance of Personal Medicine in the recovery process
  • Medication traps and how to help clients avoid them
  • The ethical, clinical and evidence-based rationale for shared decision-making vs. compliance
  • Assessing clients' decisional conflict regarding use of medications in the recovery process
  • Practical skills for supporting clients' journey through decisional conflict
  • The role of the worker in helping clients prepare for meetings with psychiatrists

The training includes lecture, PowerPoint slides, audio-taped excerpts from interviews with service users, role-plays and small group work. There is ample time for discussion and questions.

Afternoon: A Recovery Oriented Approach to Professional Boundaries

Relationships are a foundational component of the recovery process. Traditional office-based approaches to establishing professional boundaries are not always applicable in the modern world of non-office based work in the community. Staff are frequently challenged with novel situations i.e., should I give this client a ride when I see him walking home in the rain; should I accept the client's offer to buy me a cup of coffee; a client goes to the same AA meeting I go to – how should I handle that? How staff negotiate professional boundaries will either help or hinder recovery. Through lecture supported by PowerPoint slides, role-plays, and small group skill building, participants will learn a practical decision-making strategy for negotiating professional boundaries. The decision strategy is based on ethical, interpersonal, and role related factors that allow staff to be flexible and “human” but also disciplined and consistent. There is ample time for questions and discussion.

Learning Objectives for Day 2

  1. Participants will learn a method for establishing professional boundaries when working with clients.
  2. Participants will learn the importance of Personal Medicine in the recovery process, how to support clients in identifying Personal Medicine and how to effectively communicate it to psychiatrists.
  3. Participants will learn how to assess decisional conflict that clients may be experiencing with regard to use of medications in the recovery process.
  4. Participants will learn practical, person-centered strategies for supporting clients through decisional conflict with regards to using medications in recovery.
  5. Participants will learn common medication “traps” and how to avoid them.
  6. Participants will learn to help clients set goals and prepare for medication appointments with medical staff.
  7. Participants will learn how to support clients in the shared decision-making process.