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…
facility social worker was instrumental in helping empower Dad when it came time to move. His move was back home with his wife who he struggled with. Not the ideal situation but the only solution for him to be successful. After returning home, Dad gain a new friend, Monty.
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
him. When Dad would come visit while still living at the home, he would struggle to leave the family and peer support. There was definitely a difference in his demeanor after moving home and living a normal life with supports in place. Dad was assigned a social worker who would advocate for services and also included him in groupwork. Through that groupwork she was able to use curiosity to help gain participation of the other members. I believe that all of the concepts referenced in this article can be applied to my professional development and already has. Coordinating services with Dad’s social worker provided me knowledge that has stayed with me. Her desire to help Dad live a life of normalcy was amazing. She challenged the medical professionals to allow new techniques, provide new services and empower Dad by allowing him a voice in all of it. All of this allowed Dad to live basically a normal life. Through groupwork clients can be empowered and empower others to not allow a diagnosis to keep them from doing something they want to do. Finding peer support is paramount with a client. A client having positive peer support provides a key ingredient to their recovery. Peers can advocate for services and promote well-being while focusing on the client’s strengths. Although Dad’s peer support was not solely in a group setting, I believe Monty’s support and companionship provided what is necessary to be a productive member of society while dealing with a mental illness. References Loumpa, Vasiliki. “Promoting Recovery Through Peer Support: Possibilities for Social Work Practice.” Social Work in Health Care, vol. 51, no. 1, 2012, pp. 53–65., doi:10.1080/00981389.2011.622667.
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.
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.
The strengths-based and recovery models, used often by social workers, hope to prioritize individual 's strengths in order to best assist them on their road of recovery. The recovery model uses empowerment to help their clients make the best decisions for their lives. Allowing the clients to remain autonomous and have the agency to make their own decisions provides fruitful results as well as the maintenance of their recovery. Allowing clients to be in control, as much as possible, of their decisions and recovery paths helps the clients to understand what choices they should make for their life. When a client makes a decision that is not advisable, there are two paths of action. First, the practitioner could go over both the positive and negative implications that that choice would have immediately and in the future. Second, if harm could come to any individual, then the practitioner would have to force the individual to make a different decision or report the behavior. While forceful decisions are not the most productive, a practitioner can not allow harm to happen to any individual. Mental health professionals cannot allow their clients to do harm to themselves or others because of their code of ethics (“NASW snapshot…”,
Weick (1992) states “every person has an inherent power that may be characterized as life force, transformational capacity, life energy, spirituality, regenerative potential, and healing power, which is a potent form of knowledge that can guide personal and social transformation” (p. 24). No matter the crisis or oppression, it needs to be brought to client’s realization that they are strong, resilient and can overcome. They may not be aware of this inner power due to the constant stress and overwhelming sense of impending doom in their lives, but with the help of the strengths perspective, we can assist clients in realizing that they have strengths as well as weaknesses. Clients want to know that they can rely on social workers to provide adequate resources and respect their current situation, no matter how difficult it may be. Clients want to know that we can empathize with their situation and provide support, care and concern for the issues they are going through; they need to know that we will help them achieve their goals and not give up on them as many may have before in their lives. Saleeby (2013) states “your cli...
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
One in five Americans, approximately 60 million people, have a mental illnesses (Muhlbauer, 2002).The recovery model, also referred to as recovery oriented practice, is generally understood to be defined as an approach that supports and emphasizes an individual’s potential for recovery. When discussing recovery in this approach, it is generally seen as a journey that is personal as opposed to having a set outcome. This involves hope, meaning, coping skills, supportive relationships, sense of the self, a secure base, social inclusion and many other factors. There has been an ongoing debate in theory and in practice about what constitutes ‘recovery’ or a recovery model. The major difference that should be recognized between the recovery model and the medical model is as follows: the medical model locates the abnormal behavior within an individual claiming a factor that is assumed to cause the behavior problems whereas, the recovery model tends to place stress on peer support and empowerment (Conrad and Schneider, 2009). This essay will demonstrate that the recovery model has come a long way in theory and practice and therefore, psychological well-being is achievable through this model.
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.
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.
Social workers practice in a variety of fields but one thing that is consistent is the process in which we deal with clients. In the following scenario, I will explain the procedural steps that I would take as a social worker to help a client identify their concerns and to provide appropriate solutions. I have a client who is 30 years old who has a professional background in secondary education, and is very well educated. She reports to me that she has been hospitalized for depression and suicide attempts both recently and in the past. She is single, has no close relationships with anyone, is unemployed, and is introverted and withdrawn. The client reports that she has been seeing someone for help for a period of four months but is ...
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.
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.
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.
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.