Promoting Recovery Through Peer Support: Possibilities for Social Work Practice Promoting recovery through peer support provided a new perspective to work with mental health clients. I enjoyed seeing the reference on how the medical model focuses on the diagnoses which “disempowers and debilitates the client” (Loumpa, 2012). I agree with this analogy. A diagnosis does not have to define a person. Often times when people are diagnosed they allow those words to rule their life. Some even use them as an excuse to not perform on a daily basis. Social workers have provided skills to the medical profession to think outside of the box when it comes to treating clients. For twenty plus years I watched my father-in-law struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. When we first met, he lived in a group home in Malad, Idaho. While living there he was exposed to various kinds of therapy. The most effective for him was groupwork. His medical team was another key factor. Providing the proper medications increased his success in group. Dad resided in this group home until Medicare would no longer pay. The …show more content…
Monty was a friend to Dad’s grandson but had a lot in common with Dad. The two spent many hours driving around the country looking at horses and spending time at the racetrack. Through this peer support we all learned a valuable lesson; Dad could live with a mental illness and live almost a normal life. In the article we read it states the definition of recovery as: “Living in the presence or absence of mental illness and the losses that can be associated with it” (Loumpa, 2012). This really resonated with me because this statement is right on. Dad had the delusions and heard voices yet taking his medications and getting the peer support of Monty and the family, Dad could live in the presence successfully. Dad did not let his diagnosis define him. People in our community did not look at Dad as a freak or weirdo, they embraced
Family Psychoeducation for Schizophrenia has previously been supported in treatment recommendations and guidelines for best practise in hospitals. In their review of 15 new studies in the area, Lisa Dixon M.D (University of Maryland), Curtis Adams M.D (University of Maryland) and Alicia Luckstead M.D (University of Maryland) reinforce support for family psychoeducation for schizophrenia.
Social Workers are very important to everyday life. They are the ones that help people in need when they have nobody else to turn too. Also, they provide resources and better understanding of predicaments that you could be experiencing. I will reflect on how the class has affected me, my own experiences and how some theories have connected to my life experiences, and lastly, if the class helped toward my major. This class is important for someone that wants to become a social worker and wants to learn about the different theories used. Also, learning about me during this process of completing this class is fun and a way to see if the social work profession is right for me. There was many theories explained throughout this class but many will not be said because it wasn’t the main points that I was trying to get across. There are two tools that are used that can help a social worker organize a client’s life: Bubble map and Briefcase exercise. There are so many different ways a social worker can help a client deal with their problems and come up with a solution. It is up to that social worker to identify the client’s problem and see what theory fits.
Recovery is a personal experience. It’s different for each consumer and therefore a range of services and services models must be considered when supporting a consumer’s recovery. When working with the consumer to create an individualised, accessible and comprehensive recovery service, all issues surrounding mental illness such as, impairment, dysfunction, disability and disadvantage need to be address. Essential services in the recovery-oriented system include: treatment, crisis intervention, case management, rehabilitation, enrichment, rights protection, basic support, self-help and wellness/prevention. Treatment looks at alleviating symptoms and distress and leads to symptom relief for the consumer. Crisis intervention involves controlling and resolving any problems, critical or dangerous, that may occur leading to assured personal safety for the consumer. Case management addressing the consumers needs and wants and obtains the services required to meet these, this enables the consumer to have their services assessed and
Aside from clinical management, this should also involve promoting acceptance and understanding of the experience in such a way that the illness is framed as part of the individual without defining them as a whole. The meaning attached by the individual to their experience can affect their progress and so, their life story, hopes, fears and unique social situation are central in the recovery process. While this serves to encourage acceptance of the individual’s distress, it also facilitates hope for resolution; therefore, professionals are required to enable the individual to unearth their own strengths and meaning. This means reclaiming a full and meaningful life either with or without psychotic symptoms so that the individual can maintain a life even if mental issues persist. Thus, services are required to facilitate a higher level of functioning for service users that enables the individual adapts their attitudes, values and experience; by taking personal responsibility through self-management to seek out help and support as required, rather than being clinically managed
Peer-to-peer treatment is also a promising possible intervention. It promotes active constructive involvement from people who have schizophrenia, provides role models for individuals whose functioning is less stable, and may be accessible in individual and group settings, in person as well as by telephone or through the Internet. However, further research is necessary to demonstrate its effectiveness in decreasing symptoms or otherwise clearly improving functioning for people with schizophrenia. There are many foundations dedicated to not only finding a possible cure, but finding new treatments and just improving the lives of schizophrenics in general.
In the context of mental health, the social workers are important because they take the role of linking the services available within mental health and other services provided by the Local Authority. Due to their varied practical knowledge, they can signpost and guide the service users on different matters pertaining to their entitlement to housing, care, and other benefits.
This paper highlights the unique contributions that social workers can bring to the field by using diagnosis in clinical social work. Though it has been debatable whether it is significant in the practice being that social workers are not doctors, but rather clinicians. Some people believe that social workers should practice diagnosis in clinical social work while others feel that it’s unjustified. This paper will explore the pros and cons to diagnosis in clinical social work practice through the history of social work, DSM, labeling, misdiagnosis. While applying strength perspective and empowerment in Clinical Social Work Practice. As a result, Social workers are competent to diagnosis patients, due to their level of education that has taught the ways of assessing, diagnosing and providing counseling to clients through the code of ethics.
When looking at the recovery model from a psychiatric rehabilitation perspective, there are a number of characteristics of the recovery process that have been suggested, which include: it is possible for recovery to occur without professional intervention, however this then requires people who believe in and stand by the person in recovery; it does not include dependence on believing specific theories about the cause of the circumstance; it can occur even if symptoms happen to re-occur, but this does not affect the frequency and duration of these symp...
Thus, the following principles should be acknowledged with the individual: self-directions, person-centered, empowerment, holistic, nonlinear, strengths-based, peer/social support, respect, responsibility, hope, and identity (Terrance, n.d.). Furthermore, the principles of the recovery model does not focus on managing peoples mental health symptoms and diminishing problems; instead, the model focuses beyond the mental illness issues, “recognizing and fostering their abilities, interests and dreams” (Jacob, 2015). My job as a social worker would entail providing guidance to my client in developing these personal principles. However, resiliency and diversity can also impact a person’s recovery perspective. Without resiliency, an individual diagnosed with a psychiatric illness may not be able to point out their desired goals and aspirations.
Parasocial relationships are one-sided friendships that are formed in which one person is acknowledged, but the other person is unaware of the other’s existence. Some people develop these relationships to compensate for the lack of activity in their social lives, and other form these bonds because of pure admiration or respect. Regardless of the reason, parasocial relationships can be formed by people of all ages- from infants to adults- and are motivated by the increasing use of technology.
Social facilitation, also known as the audience effect, is the tendency to act or perform differently when surrounded by others than when they are alone. Studies have shown that people tend to perform better when doing a simple or well-rehearsed task rather than complex or new ones. These two articles discuss the phenomena of social facilitation and how it affects different situations.
As our society becomes more challenging, social workers help bridge the gaps for people who face extraordinary challenges in their lives. The social worker’s scope of practice may include helping at-risk or overwhelmed individuals find resources, develop new coping strategies, resolve problems and conflicts, and secure opportunities to improve their quality of life. (Flynn, 2013) Although the scope of practice is basically the same, there are various types of social workers with various levels of education. It doesn’t matter if you are a medical, clinical, school, military, psychiatric, or community social worker, the goal is basically the same.
According to Corrigan et al, (2014) the treatment and care for patients who are affected by mental illnesses has as purpose to bring them back to their normal life when it is possible. It should improve the patient’s life quality or cure. The rehabilitation allows the patients to return to their communities and social life. Although treatment and care could rehabilitate patients with mental health issues, aspects such as stigma could put a stop on their rehabilitation process or even worse; it could bring them to a regress into their previous mental health
According to the Facts and Numbers page on the National Alliance of Mental Illness website, "One in four adults--approximately 61.5 million Americans-- experience mental illness in a given year. One in fo17-- about 13.6 million-- live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder." (Facts and Numbers). Throughout history people with mental illness have been perceived as lesser than those without mental illness, and thus these people have an innumerable amount of difficulties and challenges to overcome compared to their counterparts with the benefits of pristine mental health. In The Mad Among Us by Gerald N. Grob, he describes the change of the ways of caring for the mentally ill starting from the beginning of institutionalization in the early eighteenth century (Grob 17) to the idea that serious disorders cannot be cured, but alleviating the symptoms "should be able to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of natural self-healing processes." (Grob 311). The lies of people with mental illness are as diverse as the disorders they live with. Unimaginable obstacles are waiting around every corner for people with mental illness.
Collaborative learning is an educational approach that involves groups of learners working together to reach a consensus through negotiation to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Bruffee, 1993). Learning occurs through active engagement among peers, wherein the main characteristics of collaborative learning are: a common task or activity; small group learning, co-operative behaviour; interdependence; and individual responsibility and accountability (Lejeune, 2003).