sign saying '"recovery"Recovery is an idea that anyone can work on themselves, looking at some of the key concepts, structures such as the 5 way to wellbeing, and tools such as wellbeing plans. However there are also toolkits out there that staff can use to support recovery. 

The ideas behind recovery are also supported in England by various Department of Health policies which aim to promote self-management of long term conditions and ‘choice’. These include The Expert Patient (Department of Health, 2001); Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (Department of Health, 2006a); and the Commissioning framework for health and well-being (Department of Health, 2007a). 

In this section some of the tools are brought together to give the framework and models, as well as some of the practical approaches. This section may be useful for people who want to find out more about the recovery model and the theories and evidence base for this work or for people that want to further their learning about mental health services. You can read about local and national initiatives.

What is ImROC?

The Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change (ImROC) programme is an approach to helping people with mental health problems.  In mental health, ‘recovery’ means the process through which people find ways to live meaningful lives, with or without the on-going symptoms of their condition.  ImROC aims to change how the NHS and its partners operate so that they can focus more on helping those people with their recovery.

  • Click here to visit the ImROC website 
  • Click here to view the ImROC publications

Recovery provides a new rationale for mental health services.  Recovery ideas and recovery-orientated practice have the potential to radically transform mental health services.  Below is a range of publications which offer evidence and support for a recovery focussed approach in services. 

Patient Activation

The Kings Fund - Supporting people to manage their health This paper introduces a way of conceptualising and measuring engagement that is known as ‘patient activation’.

Patient Activation and PAMS (Patient Activation Measure) from NHS England - Patient activation describes the knowledge, skills and confidence a person has in managing their own health and care.

An Introduction to Patient Activation by Helen Gilburt

Self-management

Self-management helps people with mental health problems take more control over their lives.  Self-management is about the methods, skills, and strategies that can be used to effectively manage people's activities towards achieving certain objectives.  Self-management can have as positive an impact on mental health as medical treatment, enabling people to lead fuller, more active lives

Supporting self-management: A guide to enabling behaviour change for health and wellbeing using person- and community-centred approaches

Spreading change: A guide to enabling the spread of person- and community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing

What is good supported self-management? - National Voices, a coalition of charities that stands for people being in control of their health and care.

Read about Supporting Self-Management from National Voices.  This document summarises evidence from systematic reviews

PERSONAL STORIES COVERRecovery means different things to each person, and everyone has a story to share, everyone can choose their own steps towards recovery.  We have gathered a selection of stories and they are written in the persons own narrative, reflecting the things that are of value to them, and convey powerful messages of hope, self-determination, resilience, inclusion and choice.

"I have had time to start to recover even though at first I found it so hard to sort anything out, and CPN did not force anything on me." Service User

Read a collection of Personal Recovery Stories