Principles of Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Practice

This paper focuses on recovery in mental health and outlines how nurses can put into action the recommended principles of recovery in mental conditions. The paper uses a successful case of Sandy Jeffs to demonstrate the principles of recovery model.

Running head: Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES
Principles of Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Practice
Student Name(s)
Institutional Affiliation(s)
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Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 1
Abstract
Recovery in mental problems has been the focus on all mental health systems for over the past
four decades. However, very few of these systems have managed to improve the outcomes of
their users effectively. Perhaps the society had a different meaning of what recovery is. Most
people think that recovery is where a patient regains his or her full recovery from whatever the
physical problem the person had. However, the general health conception of recovery is about
being able to manage or control the life despite the conditions that have impaired the normal
body functioning. Taking the process of recovery means that the person or the patient is focusing
on care models that are supporting him or her in building resilience. This paper will be focusing
on recovery in mental health. The paper would be using a successful case of Sandy Jeffs to
outline how nurses can put into action the recommended principles of recovery in mental
conditions.
Keywords: Recovery, Uniqueness of Individual, Principle, Choice, Dignity, Evaluation,
Rights, Collaboration

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The Importance of Relationship in Recovery-Oriented Practice
Sandy Jeff is an author whose poetry work can serve two main purposes. The first one is
encouraging the mentally impaired persons in their journey to recovery. The second one is to
provide a real picture of what mentally ill patients go through. In particular, the work of Sandy
Jeff can motivate or inspire nurses to implement the principles of recovery model and assist
many other patients to have a successful life like Sandy Jeff. The goal of this paper is to
demonstrate how nurses can use the real story of Sandy Jeff to implement the principles laid out
in the recovery mode.
The Concept of Lived Experience and Mental Recovery
According to (Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013), the notion of mental
health recovery looks at the value of people with lived experience in context of mental recovery
and empowers them to promote their lives. The concept of recovery recognizes that people with
lived experiences in mental health require equal opportunities as the rest of the members of
society to meet their needs and purpose in life. With that, it brings to the lived experience the
knowledge, expertise and skills to the mental health specialists enabling them to opportunities for
challenging the contemporary beliefs and traditions held about mentally ill persons. According to
(Mental Health Commission of NSW, 2018), individuals with lived experiences in mental health
problems together with carers have unique understandings into how health services can be
tailored to best respond to their mental health desires. This justification does not only apply to
health care but even in other domains.
Recovery in mental health involves gaining hope and maintaining it. It is an
acknowledgment of one's capabilities and the disabilities. Through hope, a person starts to ignore
the limits that can come from the disabilities, engages in active life, regains social identity, and

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 3
personal autonomy. The products of recovery are gaining the meaning, purpose, and an
optimistic view of life. Recovery has two requirements. The internal requirements are hope,
empowerment, healing, and connection with the society. External requirements are human rights,
a culture that promotes recovery, and recovery-focused services. According to (Australian Health
Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013), recovery-focused services exist in five main domains. The
first domain is the promotion of culture, hope and optimism. This practice focuses on services
that accept diversity and uses a language that communicates hope in the recovery process. The
second domain is holistic care. This requires that health services will pay attention to the whole
life of the serssist the service user in all the situations of his life. The third domain require a
focus on personally as an intergral part of health services instead of as an additional task. The
fourth domain requires organizational commitment and developmental workforce service that
provide a conducive environment for recovery. Lastly, the fifth domain requires practical actions
taken on the social inclusion and other social factors in patient health and wellbeing.
Principles of Mental Recovery
The report of (The Department of Health, 2010) emphasizes on the principle of the
uniqueness of the individual. This principle identifies that recovery in not just about the illness,
but it is also about giving people a meaning and a purpose in their lives. Recovery is more about
satisfying the patient and his or her carers purposeful life. Drawing from the lived experience of
Sandy Jeffs, she now has a different life than the one she had when she was fighting with
schizophrenia. Despite the boundaries of the illness, she has been able to defeat the limitations of
the disabilities and she is able to live as she wished. Sandy states that she had been in “psychotic
hell with nothing happening, no purpose in life, no reason to get out of bed, no hope, no
meaning.”

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 4
The role of nurses is to accept that recovery is possible, and the outcomes differ from one
individual to the other (Rapp & Goscha, 2011). Providing the best care that offers the patient a
chance to grow their strengths, overcome the illness, earn value in the community, and improve
their quality of life should be the ultimate goal of all practitioners in the mental services (Jacob,
Munro, Taylor, & Griffiths, 2015).
The second principle is the principle of real choices. This principle urges specialists to
empower the patients and their carers to make their independent choices (Australian Health
Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013). Professionals should understand that service users
understands their needs, and they are the one feel all the impacts of their illness. Sandy Jeffs says
that when she disclosed her feelings to the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist could not help as
he/she thought the consequences would be worse than the prevailing situation. This situation
demonstrates a practice that could not condemn an inhuman environment which is a threat to
recovery. According to (Aggarwal, 2016) nurses should cultivate for an empowering
environment is important because it makes consumers believe that their opinions are considered,
and the professionals are respecting their decisions and choices.
Thirdly, there is the principle of attitudes and rights. According to (Australian Health
Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013), this principle looks at the interaction between health
professionals and the consumers. The principle advises on professionals’ listening skills. In other
words, a good practice is the one that pays attention to the service user’s communications. After
listening to them, professionals should then act upon the communication coming from the
individuals. The ultimate goal of this interaction is to promote and respect the individuals’ legal
positions, human rights, and their citizenship (Kogstad, Ekeland, & Hummelvoll, 2011). Besides,
professionals are urged to provide support to the individuals. The support should be aimed at

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 5
maintaining and promoting developments of their social life, occupational, recreational and their
vocational endeavors that will drive or bring meaning to their life (Xie, 2013).
This principle condemns the humiliations meted by Sandy Jeff when she narrates that
even the second psychiatrist did not take the time to listen to the contents of her voices or even
try to understand what she said in her delusions. She talks of sexual assaults that the first
psychiatric had no courage to condemn. In the poem ‘medicated,’ Sandy Jeffs is asking people to
understand what she goes through,
“Join me on the medication trolley, I’ve been on it for years,I’ve been Largactiled with
bitter syrup, I’ve been Pimozided & Mellarilled & numbed, I was so Stelazined I was like
a cat on a hot tin roof, I’ve been Modectated into a shuffle…” (Jeffs , Medicated’ and
‘McMadness’ (Two Poems by Sandy Jeffs), 2012)
This poem is a call for the specialist to understand what mentally ill consumers go
through. In her campaign for the mentally people’s rights and positive attitude, Sandy Jeffs states
that people should start giving mentally impaired persons some jobs, opportunities, and guiding
them through the jobs.
The fourth principle is dignity and respect. The principle advises on courtesy, respect, and
honesty while offering mental services. Specialists should handle with care sensitive matters
such as patient’s values, their beliefs, faith, their status, culture, etc (Boutillier, et al., 2011). It
challenges discriminatory actions and calls for trust and fairness while dealing with clients. A
positive perspective of mentally ill persons should come naturally, and professionals should refer
to mentally ill patients as people not referring to them through other names in their absence. For
instance, the sandy Jeffs found numerous epithets all for madness with only one word for sanity.
Besides, all the ‘synonyms’ for madness were all derogatory. She says that,

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 6
“Being as I am, mad that is, I must be: bananas, crackers, a camel short of a caravan, a
ball short of an over, a pad short of a kit, not in my right mind, bereft of reason, deprived
of my wits, as mad as a cut snake, a tinnie short of a slab, diseased in the mind, as mad as
a hatter, wildered in my wits, not the full quid, a brick short of a load…” (Jeffs, 2009)
The fifth principle emphasizes on partnership and communication. This principle
acknowledges that mentally ill patients are the best experts for their own lives and their recovery
(Boutillier, et al., 2011). The principle urges care professionals to consider working together with
the patients and their carers by providing them with the support instead of treating them as just
recipients (Anderson, 2012). The support provided should be valuable to the consumers and have
relevant information that matches the care needed by the users. In addition, professionals should
make their communications clear, positive, realistic empowering, inspiring the consumers
towards their goals and hope (Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013).
This principle discourages sentiments that are diminishing hope like what Sandy reports
that a doctor told her that she would never recover. Patient participation remains at the core of
nursing professional practice. Care professionals should welcome collaboration and work
together with patients (Clarke, Oades, & Crowe, 2012). They should disintegrate themselves
from the old traditions that believed that professionals know better than their service users.
There are various rationales for patient partnership and collaboration. Firstly, patient
participation is an approach that many people has seen its impacts by improving the quality of
life, (Tambuyzer, Pieters, & Audenhove, 2011). Besides, it places the care in the ownership of the
patients and the careres, who are also the key beneficially of the care. With this, collaboration is
simply assisting patients to manage their care which has a major impact on their economic
benefits (Elstad & Eide, 2009).

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 7
The last principle is an evaluation. This principle requires continuous care evaluation.
Professionals should make it possible for the patients and their carers to track their progress.
According to (Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, 2013), services should
demonstrate that individual’s experiences in the care can inform quality enhancement activities.
The mental health professionals should provide reports through their system on the various
outcomes that have come out the care plan (Hayward & Ayres, 2011). They should also indicate
the various developments in the recovery process. Outcomes does not only include medical, but
they extend to other factors of such as housing, education, employment, family relationships and
the entire wellbeing.
While looking at Sandy Jeffs situation, the poem of “McMadness” states that the
medication killed libido, made someone dribble and constipated, made someone turn into a
zombie and sedated someone to exhaustion. Evaluation should be able to look at such side
effects that make the patient lose him or herself.
Conclusion
This essay achieved its ultimate goal which was to take a critical look at the principles
presented under the framework for mental recovery models. The model serves to provide
grounds for the improvement of mental health care services. This paper went through these
services by using the poetry work of Sandy Jeffs. This paper noted that the work of Sandy Jeff
provides a real picture of what mentally ill individuals go through. Through Sandy Jeffs stories,
this paper was able to provide elaboration on how nurses can implement the principles provided
on the framework.

Mental health Recovery PRINCIPLES 8
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