Promoting Principles of Recovery and Establishing a Self-Directed Recovery Relationship for Sophie

This guide provides insights on promoting principles of recovery and establishing a self-directed recovery relationship with Sophie, a mother of four children with borderline personality disorder. It covers techniques for good communication, motivational interviewing, and counseling, as well as creating a recovery plan for Sophie's seven days of support.

Project 1
 You are working as a support worker in your state or territory. Your client is a mother
of four children with a restraining order against her ex-husband for domestic violence.
The mother, Sophie, has recently overdosed on pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol and
has just been released from hospital after being in a coma. She has marks on her body
as she had been self-harming. Sophie has been diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder. Your company has accepted the referral and will be placing you to work with
Sophie for seven days of home-based care in which you may spend up to several hours
per day with her.
Tasks
1. Promote principles of recovery and recovery orientated practice. How
will you work in ways that inspire hope for Sophie? How will you demonstrate
consideration and respect for the important contribution of the person’s other
relationships, life events, culture and activities to the recovery process?
2. Establish the context for a self-directed recovery relationship. How
would you establish and maintain a safe, positive working relationship with Sophie?
What are the power dynamics that will impact upon the relationship? How will you
build rapport and interact with Sophie?
3. Invite information sharing. How would you get Sophie to tell her story?
What techniques would you use for good communication and motivational
interviewing and counselling? How could you use reflective practice in working with
Sophie and her children?
4. Define and confirm the collaborative relationship. Write a recovery plan
for Sophie, with a daily planner of what you will both be doing for the seven days of
support. Some ideas may include: assisting her tidy her home, assist her with getting
her children to school on time, linking her with community support services. Think
about what you can achieve together and write up the plan which will see Sophie in a
much better place after your week of support. What particular programs, services and
supports would be appropriate for Sophie? Find out which ones would be suitable in
your state or territory.
(3,000 words)

INTRODUCTION
Recovery is referred to a practice which assures that person who is mental ill can be
empowered and supported to lead a healthy lifestyle. Every human being undergoes through various
problems related to mental, financial, ethical, social which leads them into drastic depression, loss of
mental stability, behaving abnormal etc. So, when people experiences mental health difficulties they
may find themselves in a passive role within mental health system and or within their social lives.
Thus, in order to come out from this mental challenge they are provided with self-directed recovery
which assists them in leading a better life. The practices relating to self-directed recovery attempts
to restore hope and faith in the life of people along with fulfilment of self- identity resulting in
leading a healthy life (Croft and Parish, 2016). This report is based on case study of Sophie who have
been a victim of domestic abuse by husband. Due to that result, Sophie went to coma and it highly
affected her health and mental safety. She has recently overdosed with pharmaceutical drugs and
alcohol which arises a crucial need for mental health support. Furthermore, in this it includes
different types of principles related to recovery and importance collaborative relationship is also
discussed here.
TASK
1 Principles of recovery
The most important thing to understand is that people can recover from a mental health problem
and lead a productive and fulfilling life. However, recovery has two different meaning in mental
health, one is clinical recovery which means a person no longer has any symptoms in the way
somebody might regain from flu or a broken leg. The second is personal recovery which signifies as
process whereby an individual reclaims their right to better life by generating positive attitude or
perception within themselves. Considering the case study undertaken, Sophie has gone through
mental and emotional illness due to which she has been diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder which means it is a personality disorder that typically involves following symptoms like
inappropriate or extreme emotional reactions, highly impulsive behaviours, disturbed due to
unstable relationship. Thus, as a home based care for Sophie, there are some principles which help
her to come out of her anxiety or depression in order to live a happy and better life. As per the
Australia, they suggest collaborative recovery model which is regarded as one of the effective
recovery oriented service provision that involves explicit exploration and use of personal strength
and values. Some of the principle for recovery process are mentioned below:
Uniqueness of an individual: Under this, it involves recognising that recovery is not necessarily about
cure but is about having opportunity for choices and living a meaningful, satisfying or purposeful life
and being a valued member of community. The strategies and approaches undertaken are not
universal and vary as per the needs and requirements of an individual. Along with this, it empowers
Sophie’s motivation and make her realise that she is at the centre of care and emphasis over her
social inclusion or quality of life.
Real choices: In this, it supports and encourage Sophie to make her own choices about how she
wants to lead her life and along with her children and acknowledge those selections needs to be
meaningful and creatively explored.
Attitude and rights: Under this, it involves communication, listening, acting upon several situations in
order to analyse their behaviour as well as make them understand their emotions. However,
consideration of attitude and rights of service user, assist Sophie to maintain and develop social,
recreational, occupational and vocational activities which are meaningful to her for instils hope for
future betterment (Muller, Kirby and Yardley, 2015).

Dignity and respect: It consist of being courteous, respectful and honest in all interaction. Along with
this, Sophie get challenge to control over her sensitive emotions, respect for other individuals
particularly for their belief, values and culture.
Partnership and communication: In this, it acknowledges each individual is an expert on their life and
that recovery involves working in partnership with individual’s ad their career to provide support in a
way that make sense to them. Therefore, Sophie will be asked to share her values, thoughts,
problems in order to generate clear effective engagement.
Evaluating recovery: Under this principle, the strategies and approaches undertaken to deal with a
person are tracked and evaluated so that progress level of grieved personality in order to make
corrective course of action in a better manner. Along with this, mental health system reports on key
outcome that indicate recovery building including housing, employment, education, social and family
relationship as well as health and well-being of Sophie.
However, by following these principles which is described above, Sophie can soon recover from her
mental issues as well as can gain positive energy that help her to tackle over borderline personality
disorder and also can strengthen her cultural or social connectivity.
2 Self- directed recovery relationship
People with borderline personality disorder tend to have major difficulties with relationships,
especially with those who are closet with them. Their wild mood swings, angry outbursts, chronic
abandonment fears, and impulsive and irrational behaviours can leave loved ones feeling helpless,
abused, and off balance. In regard of Sophie, there are several ways to give her complete healing
from her anxiety so that she can lead a life filled with hope and joy. However, this kind of order is
mainly treated using psychotherapy, but medication must be added. Treatment can help them to
learn skills to manage and cope with their condition as well as they feel better about themselves and
live more stable and rewarding life. The some of the ways which is follows for Sophie’s betterment
are as follows:
Psychotherapy: It is nothing but it refers as talk therapy which is considered as fundamental
treatment approach. In case of Sophie, it assists the support worker into identifying how she is
feeling and ultimately helping her focus over current ability to function, learn to manage emotions
that make her feel uncomfortable (Page and Townsend, 2018). There are several types of
psychotherapy that have been found to be effective which includes:
Dialectical behaviour therapy: In this, it gives an initiative to Sophie tolerate distress and improve
relationship, to acquire skill based approach in order to treat how to manage their emotions. This
can be considered as an approach which can be given to Sophie in an individual session or phone
coaching.
Schema focused therapy: It provide a platform for Sophie to identify or determine her unmet needs
which led her to negative life patterns, which sometime made her to go to very severe stage her life
even to coma. The main focus of this therapy is to help Sophie to get her needs fulfilled in healthy
manner to promote positive life patterns.
System training for emotional predictability and problem solving: In case of Sophie, as a care taker,
they take an effort to follows this model i.e. it is 20 weeks’ treatment which includes working in
group that incorporate family members, caregivers, friends that assist Sophie to become more

socialize and attentive. Sophie being with her children will definitely reflect on her mental health in a
positive manner.
Transference focused therapy: Under this, they mainly aim to help to understand their emotions as
well as interpersonal difficulties so that Sophie can easily identify boost her morale and stand against
all hindrances which made her depression or depression. This approach when performed in a
controlled environment can help in retaining a good relationship with Sophie.
Encourage responsibilities: Under this, caretaker resisting the urge to rescue Sophie from
consequences of their action allowing them to experience natural consequences which help them to
analyse who are in need of support. Moreover, it also assists them to be more effectively cope by
stepping back and not taking responsibility for things that are not their fault, due to this, both the
parties can strengthen their perception and positive attitude.
However, along with therapy medication is also necessary to help with symptoms or co-occurring
problems such as depression, impulsiveness, aggression or anxiety. Moreover, some medication
which is included for Sophie are antidepressants, antipsychotics or mood stabilizing drugs which
gives her much relaxation and enhance her life standard. However, its recovery takes time as
learning to manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviours are challenging and important element in
an individual. Thus, it is fully depending over Sophie ability to acquire available environment and
learn to manage of handle over emotions in a better way (Cook, J. A., Morrow and Battersby, 2017).
3. Invite information Sharing
Information sharing stands crucial as it helps a support worker in providing utmost care to service
user and assist them in leading a stable life. In the case of Sophie and her children, it is necessary to
discuss her issue and make solution of it. Because without listening story of respective women it is
difficult to take decisions and make solution of it. As she is in Coma so it is difficult to ask her reason
behind this condition. Coma is the issue in which human being brain work but physically he/she will
not able to move or walk. A person in coma is deeply withdrawn and extreme state as well as there
are several reasons behind Coma such as structural or mechanical damage, metabolic changes that
occur near death or from insulin imbalances and psychological or psychogenic factors. The focus
here is on coma near death. There is proper process through which health caretaker can connect
with Sophia as well as communicate issues with her. So that, issue will be discuss and solution come
out explanation of overall process mention below: -
• Connecting – In this step caretaker have to sit near Sophia and speak to her gently and
slowly when she exhales in the rhythm of his breathings while taking mouth should be near to
patient ear. For example: caretaker firstly have to introduce herself and make Sophia comfortable
and softy take her hand in arms. When respective patient press arm of caretaker this means she is
also involving in overall conversation. While connecting a care giver can make use of his own
personal experiences so that Sophie feel connected and may share his own struggles and challenges.
This will be the best time when caretaker can discuss as well as ask issue facing by her and reason
behind body marks.
• Finding the way – This is second step of communicating with patient who are in Coma. Thus,
Caretaker of Sophia have to prepare statement related to the issues so she can ask to her about
reason behind all those body marks and Coma. Caretaker have to start conversation after following
the rate of breathing. This gives the idea to the patient that what is happening is important; that
there is a way to be followed; that he is not alone and that you will provide help on the path. Finally,
this message encourages the patient to become aware of himself.

• Pick up Minimal cues – Now in this step it is time to take response of Sophia which require
time and caretaker can make suggestion about what she had seen, feeling and hearing as well as
have to watch for the minimal cues such as auditory, movements or eyes changes. It may take a
while (even as much as twenty minutes) for the Sophia to respond or for caretaker to notice some of
these minimal cues. While caretaker continue to follow Sophie’s body motions and breathing, do not
just be passive but participate by observing what is happening inside and outside. Caretaker may
become aware of changes in their own breathing, changes in body temperature, or even the
appearance of spontaneous fantasies or plays of imagination.
Thus, with the assistance of respective process there is chances of communication and Caretaker can
understand reason behind her such situation and take major steps to overcome with it. Although,
nonverbal communication will be more suitable because touch and feel will only answer about the
issue of Sophie (DiClemente and et,2016).
4. Define and Confirm the collaborative relationship
Recovery plan is that in which overall activity of patient is mention along with days so that major
steps will take and individual get recover soon. As caretaker is for seven days a within that she has to
take major steps so that Sophie will get recover soon. Below mention is seven days’ recovery plan of
Sophie explanation are as follows: -
Day 1 – On daily basis morning activity will be outing in garden for one hour so that fresh air will be
taken by Sophie which is very necessary for remaining healthy. Then after that on daily basis one of
the major work of house wife to tidy her house in that caretaker involve her as well as take help of
Sophie. So that, they will get involve in overall activity and remain active as much as can. Ob first day
this much involvement in other activity of house will be fine. As day will pass daily basis activity will
get more and more. So that, she will get recover soon.
Day 2 – On second day to recovery plan one more activity will get involve in daily routine of Sophie
along with getting house tidy and morning outing. That she will help in her children in getting school
on time because every mother is attached with their children as well it will be the way through
which individual will get recovery more effectively than some other activities.
Day 3 – Then on third day caretaker take Sophie for some social activity which help her in interacting
with several people as well se will get more comfortable when see several people with her. Because
in social gathering individual start reacting in more effective manner as compare to sitting at home.
Along with this caretaker can link Sophie with some community which help her in supporting
services and provide better support in getting recover. As more people will get involve she will not
feel alone and start reacting fast on things and recover fast.
Day 4 – On fourth day, several changes started taking place in Sophie as she started getting involved
in several activities planned for her as well as she enjoys a lot while dong such activities. Thus,
Caretaker involve respective patient in doing planning for remaining days. So that, plans will be
design in more effective manner according to her likes and dislikes. This practice will help caretaker
in identifying Sophie like and dislikes which will help in understanding her nature or behaviour
towards other things.
Day 5 – On fifth day she wishes to go out with her children in some garden or gaming zone which
shows her love for him. She not only went out but also get involve in every activity conducting by her
children and feel happy when Sophie’s children were enjoying (Tang, J., Abraham, Greaves and
Yates, 2014).

Day 6 – on sixth day, some physical exercises was conducted caretaker so that she will get physically
strong as well. Because physical fitness it will get difficult for her to with children anywhere as well
as in conducting daily basis activities also she will feel several difficulties. As physical fitness is much
important so for that Yoga session was conducted for Sophie and some meditation classes also
which make her feel more strong physically and get ready to face any situation.
Day 7 - This is last day of Caretaker and it will be analysed that how much Sophie has been get
recovered. In simple term overall examination of patient will take place. Thus, in last day without
help as well as recalling of caretaker Sophie done each and every activity from day first morning
outing to the last day physical exercise. This shows that everything was remembered by her as she
has sharp memory. Along with this, there is no such requirement of anyone’s support as she can all
alone conduct activities within effective manner as not in such excellent manner but will not face
many difficulties.
Thus, this seven days’ recovery plan will help Sophie is coming out of the situation of Coma as well
she will get physically and mentally stable with the assistance of planning. So, these seven days will
be more effective ad help in getting her fit and fine which is necessary for herself and children.
CONCLUSION
It can be identified from the above discussion that self-directed recovery practices are a crucial
approach which assists a person in leading a healthy life. This case study takes into consideration
Sophie, who is struggling with issues resulting out of domestic violence. A patient struggling with
mental disorder can be supported with use of medicine, collaborative treatment and right
communication. The consideration to the various principles of recovery such as uniqueness,
attitudes and partnership will definitely result in better mental state for Sophie. Communication has
been chosen as a prime approach which will be helpful in sharing of information by Sophie. Sharing
of personal experiences with Sophie will be a big motivation for her to share her own problems will
be helpful in giving right care to her.