On Our Way: Recovery News Vancouver Acute & Community Mental Health Services Volume 1, Issue 2
April / May 2009
Hope Goal-Directed Self-Determination Awareness & Potentiality Meaning & Purpose
The Client-Directed Outcome Informed Pilot Program By Andrew MacFarlane
From the editor: Putting Recovery into Practice Welcome to the second edition of our recovery newsletter. While our first edition focused on the Recovery Conference held in May, 2008, this edition examines some of the new steps that have been taken since then. We will look at the Client Directed Outcome Informed Pilot Program, the impact that recovery principles are having on policy, the Recovery Dialogues Groups, a research initiative and the expansion of the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) program in our system. As well, we are including “perspectives pages” where clients, family and staff are invited to explore the topic of recovery. We welcome your letters and ideas for this and other sections of the newsletter. Please send to renea.mohammed@vch.ca. And, of course, we will be honoring Caroline Penhale who won the “name the newsletter” contest! Thanks also to all who lent their creativity to this endeavor. We had 38 submissions to choose from. See pages 9 & 10 for details and a photo of Caroline receiving her prize. The Recovery Task Group was hard pressed to choose just one entry! Enjoy!
As part of the Recovery Committee for Vancouver Community Mental Health services, we, as a group of consumers, clinicians, and families, have been looking at various ways our system can incorporate the principles of recovery into our practice. Among a myriad of discussion topics at this Committee, one focused on the primary role of relationships between consumers and clinicians, how these relationships are measured, and how they contribute to successful outcomes (however each client may operationalize their own goals). Having attended a conference where I saw presentations on Recovery, Consumer Involvement, and client-directed, outcome informed (CDOI) practice, I shared with the group some of the salient ideas from the work of Drs. Scott Miller and Barry Duncan from the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change. The central tenet of their ideas is that the voice of the client should be "privileged and placed at the centre of the therapeutic process...and that the client's theory of what causes the problem and what needs to change should inform the therapeutic process". At the workshop, I had the opportunity to meet with Cynthia Maeschalck, currently an Acting Manager with VCH Addictions Services, and Rob Axsen, a counsellor also with VCH Addictions Services, both of whom are Certified CDOI trainers with the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change and who were presenting at the conference on
Recovery Newsletter
Client-Directed Outcome Informed Pilot – continued… their work in our system's Addictions Services. We discussed various opportunities for partnerships between Addictions and Mental Health in Vancouver and this has led to a Pilot Project implementing the Session Rating Scales (SRS) and the Outcomes Rating Scales (ORS) that have been pioneered by Drs. Miller and Duncan. Starting mid-February, three Community Mental Health Teams (Northeast, Westside, and Midtown) began training a number of interested volunteers (6 interdisciplinary team members from each team) and then subsequently trialing the tools for a 6-month period. Cynthia Maeschalck, in this creative partnership, did all the training of the volunteer clinical staff and Senior Mental Health workers and will be providing ongoing consultation during the length of the project. These user-friendly tools will be completed by consumers (and/or family members) interested in participating in the pilot. The ORS is rated at the beginning of the session to measure the client's distress in the areas of individual, relational and social functioning. In ongoing sessions, comparisons between the scores can be used to visually show progress. If positive changes occur in these three areas, it is widely considered to be a valid indicator of successful treatment outcomes (Lambert, 1996). The SRS tool is rated at the end of each session and provides realtime feedback about whether the service provided was a good fit for the client or not. This feedback allows the helper to make adjustments to their approach to ensure services are the best fit for each client and that clients are satisfied with the services provided. It is our hope that these simple-to-use tools will continue to influence clinical practice that establishes and reinforces relationships with clients, and their families, with the clinical team. It is the belief of the Recovery Committee that tools such as these translate research and philosophy into practice and, in this particular case, the ORS and SRS will contribute to enhancing consumer factors that contribute to successful outcomes and will give each clinician reliable and valid measures of the consumer's and/or families' perception of the fit and effectiveness of the services provided to them.
Page 2 We will keep you posted on this exciting pilot project.
Ask Dr. Bennington-Davis Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis is currently the Medical and Clinical Chief Organizer for Cascadia Behavioral Health Care in Oregon. She is involved in leading the organization to develop recovery-orientation and traumainformed services, as well as assisting an effort for optimally efficient service delivery. Dr. Bennington-Davis presented at the VCMHS Recovery Conference on trauma and trauma informed services. She has graciously offered to answer questions related to this topic via the newsletter. If you have something you would like answered, we’d love to hear from you. Please e-mail questions to renea.mohammed@vch.ca and she will forward them on to Dr. BenningtonDavis.
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Recovery Dialogues – Part 1 Sessions 1 & 2 By Shirley Rogers Congratulations to Bindy Kang, & Sri Pendakur for doing a wonderful job of introducing readers to the May 2008 ‘Celebrating Recovery Together’ Conference. It was a great day of presentations and sharing for attendees. It was also the culmination of a full week of visits for the invited guests, Steve Onken, Maggie Bennington-Davis & Amy Long. Over the course of 5 days, they visited and engaged in discussions with mental health teams and units, participated in an evening of dialogue with clients, family members & friends, and had many discussions with staff. After returning to their homes, they answered written questions from the conference participants. Their responses were e-mailed to us and became the impetus for creating a series of dialogues for clients, family members and service providers. How did we get started? After the Conference, many participants were energized by the realities that they do have a right to make choices in their own care, and that recovery is possible. For some, this was a refreshing departure from traditional approaches that often leave decision-making in the hands of mental health professionals, and often in cases where families are involved, without consultation with those persons caring for them. In the responses, guest Amy Long captured her own experience of recovery: “… I believe that the ‘healer lies within each of us’. That ultimately we know what hurts and what would heal us even when we can’t give word to it. For me it is a combination of learning to trust my own inner healer and learning when to accept healing from someone around me that is offering it to me …” A subsequent evening of dialogue was arranged for clients and family members to discuss the emailed responses of the guests. The discussion was lively and informative, and those attending expressed the desire to continue ‘dialoguing’. The Vancouver Community Family, Education, and Consumer Coordinators met with staff from
VCH Community Engagement to plan a series of lunchtime dialogues to explore the 5 critical elements of the ‘recovery culture’, the foundation of VCMHS’ new Philosophy of Recovery. These are the same 5 elements discussed in the January 2009 Recovery Newsletter. They are: Hope, Goal-Directed, Self-Determination, Awareness and Potentiality, Meaning and Purpose. What did we set out to do in the Dialogue sessions? Our goal was to provide a forum for clients, family members, and staff to get together and through dialogue attempt to find a common understanding of the recovery culture. This meant assuming that there is not always one right answer, and that there is the potential for new possibilities and opportunities to understand other points of view. We arranged for a facilitator from Community Engagement to ensure everyone was comfortable speaking and ‘listening to understand’. We decided that offering lunch would be a great way to get participants comfortable with each other and we were able to get the financial support of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to provide lunch for the sessions. What happened in the Dialogue sessions? At the time of writing, we have had 4 of the 5 sessions with approximately 35 attendees for each session. This article will cover the first 2 sessions. The remaining sessions will be discussed in part 2 in the next edition of the newsletter. st
At the 1 dialogue, ‘Hope’, the facilitator started the session by asking participants to explore their definitions of Hope. People then went from the large group into 2 small group discussions. Participants were encouraged to let the dialogue ‘free-flow’ with comments and responses from anyone wishing to speak. All comments were documented. Some of the themes that emerged from the Hope session were: • the importance of reflection on small successes • the importance of professional optimism • the need to challenge assumptions about mental health
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Recovery Dialogues Continued… • •
•
recognition that goals must be personal and autonomous how one’s own expectations and others’ expectations can impact on the ability of the individual to remain hopeful in recovery the need to trust in oneself and others in order to rebuild hope and feel validated
everyone in a convenient category that will then give us a way of ‘treating’ the individual. Guest speaker Maggie Bennington-Davis commented that: “… Clients should always have a voice in their treatment decision, no matter how psychotic or symptomatic. Clients should always be included in planning & designing services.”
nd
For the 2 Dialogue session the recovery element was ‘Goal-Directed’. Again, the discussion were very lively and insightful, with comments from attendees such as “I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with many different stakeholders”, and “being together with interested parties made the session successful”. Some of the themes that emerged from the Goal-Directed session were: • • •
• • •
The need to focus on the journey, not the goal Families want to know the best way to support goals Clients wanted to take more risks and be allowed more opportunities for growth Importance of encouragement from peers and family Would like to see peer-run goal groups The need for flexibility – no right/wrong
What have we learned so far? Learning from the Dialogues is very individual. Many have stated that they like the opportunity to get together and discuss topics that go beyond diagnosis. Others enjoy hearing the different perspectives, while some see it as an opportunity to see recovery through a different lens. Staff have commented that it is a rich opportunity to gain perspective that they would otherwise not have. Other staff want to take what they learned back to their workplace and discuss with colleagues. Families saw it as an opportunity to hear and sometimes identify with other families and clients. My own learning is continuous. I am fascinated by some of the comments and suggestions that come out of the Dialogues. I have tried to neatly compartmentalize the themes, and realize that every story is different and we cannot place
From these sessions, I am made aware of the strengths, talents, and understanding that clients have about their own health; the desire of the families to support in what ever way they can; and, the dedication of staff in attending and gaining a deeper understanding of the recovery culture. The Dialogues encourage us to think about personal empowerment in our own work, and the importance of having all the stakeholders at the table. Finally, it helps transcend the philosophy of recovery to an achievable goal for all of us who work in mental health.
Research on Recovery at VCMHS By Simon Davis VCMHS has a Recovery Task Group, chaired by Sri Pendakur. One of the resolutions in the early work of this committee was to survey stakeholder groups, in particular consumers and family members, to see whether the agency was delivering services that could be considered recovery-oriented, and where there could be room for improvement. One of the committee members, Simon Davis, also teaches a research course at the UBC School of Social Work, and has received approval to conduct two parallel surveys with the students as co-researchers: one with consumers, and one with family members. Last year a similar survey was conducted with staff, which means responses can be compared across the three groups. The surveys have gone out and a report will be completed and made available for consumers and staff of VCMHS by the end of April. For more information on this please contact Simon Davis at the Grandview-Woodlands Mental Health Team, 604-251-2264.
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Putting Recovery into Policy By Robena Sirett, Chair Policy & Procedures Committee The Vancouver Community Mental Health Clinical Policy and Procedures Committee meets monthly to write and review clinical policies and procedures. We have representation from Consumer and Family Supports, Teams, Units and Management at the table. Draft policies are sent out to Teams and Units, the consumer Special Advisory Committee and the Family Advisory Committee for input and feedback. As a group we have decided to incorporate the following principles of Recovery into all written Clinical Policies and Procedures: Hope, Goal Directed, Self-Determination, Awareness and Potentiality, Meaning and Purpose. You will notice when new policies come out that these guiding principles will even be listed on the document. The decision to incorporate these principles into policy came about as we examined a new policy on Requests for a Change of Therapist. Initially the subject of much controversy, one committee member asked the group to step back and ask how Recovery Principles would apply to this policy. The result was a new draft of the policy that makes it easier for clients to change therapists or, in other words, to have more self-determination and choice. Ever since then, the Recovery Principles have been added to policy as guiding principles. They will continue to guide our work as we embrace the Recovery Philosophy. As the Chair of the Committee I would like to thank all past and current members of this group for their hard work. You can find current policies on the Intranet or on the web at http://www.vch.ca/repository/mental_health/Tab OfContents.html.
Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) at VCMHS By Renea Mohammed WRAP stands for Wellness Recovery Action Plan. It’s a program aimed at helping people to take charge of their recovery journey by developing an action plan for wellness and recovery. It’s not about illness. It’s about creating the life one wants to live. The main components include: • • • • • • •
The Wellness Toolkit; The Daily Maintenance Plan, including what I am like when well; Triggers and an Action Plan for dealing with them; Warning Signs and Action Plan; When Things are Breaking Down and a simple, directive Action Plan; Crisis Plan and Post-Crisis Plan. This includes both a time-table for resuming responsibilities and questions aimed at taking away the positive learning one can gain from crisis.
The WRAP program has been piloted twice at VCMHS by Debbie Sesula and Renea Mohammed and evaluated via a pre-test, posttest and 90 day follow up survey. Highlights include: 75% of participants who completed surveys from pilot 1 and 100% from pilot 2 reported recovery tools learned in WRAP would have a lasting effect on their wellness. All participants from both pilots reported having hope that they can and will feel better. All survey responses from pilot 1 and 87.5 % from pilot 2 reported participants felt better since taking the WRAP program. Sixty percent of participants from pilot 1 and 100% of participants from pilot 2 reported they had changed the way they take responsibility for their own wellness. All participants who returned the 90 day follow up survey reported they had improved how they dealt with triggers. However, most participants had not completed their WRAP in it’s entirety at the time of the 90 day follow up survey and most reported not having a crisis plan that was up to date. This likely reflects the high volume of work that goes
Above: Robena Sirett at the Recovery Conference
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WRAP Continued‌ into making a WRAP and may also reflect the living nature of a WRAP document. Rather than being something one completes and files away for posterity, a WRAP is a living document that changes as the journey of our life changes. We are looking at ways to increase support for folks working on their WRAPs. The possibility of an ongoing support group is being explored as is the training of staff to provide one-to-one support for folks working on their WRAPs. In the meantime, WRAP sessions are being funded by many of the mental health teams and facilitated by trained consumers who have gone through the WRAP process themselves. In May and June, Debbie Sesula & Renea Mohammed will be training more consumers who have gone through the WRAP process to become WRAP facilitators. The focus of WRAP in engaging clients as active agents in their own recovery process makes it a powerful tool in a system that is embracing recovery philosophy.
these stages I can readjust by recognizing concerns I have identified or thought about. The process of building my WRAP had me write out the resources (places, people and personalized plans) in case I need to access them in the future. I feel writing out a personalized WRAP helped me explore how I got to my current reality. WRAP has also helped me ask how I want to live both now and in the future.
Above: Jude Swanson at the Recovery Conference sporting the beads gifted by Speaker Steven Onken
PERSPECTIVES Recovery is a Verb By Aaron Zacharius
Participant Perspective on the WRAP Program By Jude Swanson The Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) was helpful for me in a variety of ways. Exploring what has happened (past), is happening (present) and may happen (future) related to my recovery is how I'd sum up WRAP. By examining what I need and want, WRAP helped me develop a personalized compass to proceed where I want to go in my recovery. I was introduced to WRAP via a classroom setting where the Facilitators and all Participants were PEERS. A Peer-based setting was a valuable starting point for building my WRAP. Once the classroom exercises were complete, I went on to independently develop a WRAP. Prior to developing a WRAP, I frequently did not recognize the types of ideas/activities that existed when I felt well. I also did not recognize the types of ideas/activities that existed when I felt mired in ‘tough times'. I feel this process helped me become more self aware. WRAP really helped me examine some stages of mental health concerns. By examining
I only really knew that I was fully recovered from mental illness as soon as I learned to stop referring to myself as a "consumer". My four years of psychotherapy ended more than four years ago and I don't seem to have required any follow-up. I am otherwise not connected to the mental health system except professionally as a peer-support worker. Honestly, the word "consumer" makes me cringe. It isn't that I feel any sort of shame or embarrassment about having had mental health difficulties, and to this day I am very open about this with people. What I do want is simply to get on with my life and live it as though I have never been ill to begin with. This of course poses a challenge or two. For one thing, once you have been diagnosed with a mental illness there will always be that uphill battle against stigma, self-imposed as well as by the rest of society. And no matter how recovered you are, and no matter how much stronger your mental and emotional well-being might be compared to that of most of the "undiagnosed", your experience will have given you what I call a "horrible experience of life." What I mean by this is that anyone who has
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Recovery as a Verb Continued… experienced social stigma for any reason often has an ingrained experience of how simply awful and evil other people can be. Carrying this experience with us is like having a kind of companion shadow. But we can tame and train this shadow to work to our benefit. I see this as an excellent opportunity for cultivating empathy towards all those who suffer in society, for example for the homeless, or for prisoners or for survivors of torture and other kinds of mistreatment, as well as for other survivors of mental illness. For those of us who have recovered from a mental health diagnosis it can empower us to work well and very effectively with others who suffer. I know that this has also enabled me to work well and effectively as an advocate for the homeless as well as for people who suffer in other ways. I think that I really knew that I had totally recovered when I took a recent trip to Costa Rica. I was alone there for four weeks, in a foreign country with no visible supports. I did fine. The only thing I've had to recover from has been a sprained ankle, thanks to the uneven pavements of San Jose. I also said nothing to anyone I met there about my own mental health experiences, simply that I work in the mental health field and little else. Not only did I feel treated and recognized by the different people I met as someone who presents as being normal and healthy, but I actually came to believe it myself. And you know what? I still believe it. Otherwise, I prefer to think of myself and refer to myself in positives: i.e: working artist, writer, someone with a sense of humor, peer support worker, Christian, advocate for the homeless and social activist as well as someone who simply enjoys life and enjoys others.
A Staff Perspective By Stephan Bunton It is eight months since the Recovery Conference Week across the VCMHS. We are in the process of integrating the principles and philosophy of Recovery. Clinicians are striving to work within the meaning that each individual attributes to their unique experience with mental illness. We are trying to promote people’s strengths and interests as a foundation of our collaborative treatment to build capacity and resilience. We are finding ways to acknowledge and celebrate successes - to sustain and fortify hope, both in the lives of the people we serve and in our own practice.
Although we have made considerable progress we are early on in our transition. There are still many systemic, resource and stigma-based barriers. The important principles of selfdetermination, the right to take risks and personal responsibility are constantly being weighed against issues of safety, assertive outreach, family concerns and extended leave. Fortunately there are lots of opportunities to discuss what recovery principles mean in practice. I have found the Recovery Dialogue Series really helpful. It’s an opportunity to listen to perspectives from consumers, consumer service providers, families and staff. Hope to see you there!
YOU AND ME By Debbie Sesula If you’re overly excited You’re happy If I’m overly excited I’m manic. If you imagine the phone ringing You’re stressed out If I imagine the phone ringing I’m psychotic. If you’re crying and sleeping all day You’re sad and need time out If I’m crying and sleeping all day I’m depressed and need to get up. If you’re afraid to leave your house at night You’re cautious If I’m afraid to leave my house at night I’m paranoid. If you speak your mind and express your opinions You’re assertive If I speak my mind and express my opinions I’m aggressive. If you don’t like something and mention it You’re being honest If I don’t like something and mention it I’m being difficult. If you get angry You’re considered upset If I get angry I’m considered dangerous. If you over-react to something You’re sensitive If I over-react to something I’m out of control. If you don’t want to be around others You’re taking care of yourself and relaxing If I don’t want to be around others I’m isolating myself and avoiding. If you talk to strangers You’re being friendly If I talk to strangers I’m being inappropriate. For all of the above you’re not told to take a pill or are hospitalized, but I am!
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Recovery for Families By Susan Inman I wince at the phrase 'recovery for families.' It evokes images of the ignorant, incompetent, and dangerous mental health professionals of the past trying to fix the families who, they were sure, had created their ill family member's bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Families are going to feel a lot better once the history of this dark era has been fully acknowledged and its lessons more fully incorporated into contemporary mental health practice. Given that there seems to be a widening acceptance of the fact that the families of people with psychotic disorders haven't caused these disorders and often provide the necessary conditions for accessing the best treatments to overcome them, the phrase 'recovery of families' deserves fresh consideration. What do families need to recover from? I've learned a lot about the journeys of families during the 8 years and I've been closely involved in the experiences of my family responding to my younger daughter's schizoaffective disorder. I've also learned about the situations of many other families whom I have come to know well. There are many traumatic experiences that injure families when they have to confront serious mental illnesses. Here are some common ones: The Shattered Belief System Our generation of parents were raised to assume that 'nurture not nature' determined the course of our children's lives. Therefore, all of our dedicated efforts to provide the most loving, supportive, stimulating and growth producing environments possible were clearly going to be important, if not the most important, factors influencing our children's lives. The chaos of mental illnesses, about which most of us have been abysmally ignorant, throws our understanding of the world into upheaval. Our sense that our efforts matter are shattered when we first look into the fractured face of our psychotic child. The Visit of the Stranger Parents suffer when we see our children suffer. In the grips of a psychotic episode, our child is not only suffering, but often exhibits strange behavior completely out of the range of whom we have known them to be. Families grieve the absence of the person they have known and are often wounded by the unknowingly abusive
Page 8 behavior that can accompany the arrival of the new person. The person we love and miss can take a painfully long time to re-emerge. The More Insecure Future Most parents work to help their children construct a life which allows them to confidently cope with the challenges of getting an education, building a career, forging healthy, long-lasting relationships of their own, and creating a life with a reasonably secure future. All of these developmental tasks become extraordinarily difficult when our children first have to battle their own minds that have betrayed them. Our ongoing responsibilities to our children to help them establish manageable lives become much more difficult to fulfill. The Daily Losses Families who are actively involved in care giving for an ill relative lose many of the rewards their efforts have previously provided. They often incur significant financial losses, the disappearance of free time or vacations, and the loss of extended families and communities of friends who don't understand these illnesses. Families often lose the peaceful and restorative home lives that they'd struggled to create. When my daughter emerged from the two year psychotic episode that had devastated her life and drained the joy from ours, we all experienced a kind of rebirth. Regardless of the limitations she still had to endure, she was restored to herself and to those of us who love her. No longer was our wound continuing to bleed. Helping her rebuild her life allowed us to rebuild ours. We could once again begin to believe that our efforts matter, that regardless of the greater difficulties we confront, we can find our way into the future. We value our hard won skills in navigating a complex and underfunded mental health system. We've recovered our belief that crises can have successful outcomes and that small steps forward can gradually restore old levels of functioning and develop new skills for living. I'm coming to terms with the phrase 'recovery for families' especially when I envision it being claimed, explored and explained by families themselves. I know that terrible parenting can do devastating damage to children. I imagine that the people who have abused their children are the parents who quickly drop out of the challenge of responding to the often overwhelming experiences of parenting someone with a catastrophic illness. I know lots of the other kinds of parents and I know them
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and their constantly changing situations very well. These parents constantly show me the kinds of resourcefulness and resiliency that lead them on in recovering their belief that their actions do, in fact, make a crucial difference. Their recovery involves them accepting the unfairness of life and living through the inevitable grief about the many losses all the members of their family endure. Their recovery leads them to educate themselves about all the complex elements that are needed to provide the best circumstances for their child's recovery, and to assume their rightful place, 'out of the shadows at last,' in transforming the broader community's response to serious mental illnesses.
Name the Newsletter Contest We had many creative submissions for our Name the Newsletter Contest and choosing just one was a tough task for the VCMHS Recovery Task Group. We thought you might enjoy reading the submissions, so here they are: •
Road to Recovery: Paved with More than Good Intentions
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Steps along the Path of Recovery: A Newsletter
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From Cover to Recovery
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We Can
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Mental Wealth
• • • • •
•
Awakenings
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Through and Beyond
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Convolution Solutions
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Head Strong
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Are We There Yet? A Lighthearted Look at Recovery at VCMHS
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On Our Way: VCMHS Recovery News
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Onward and Upward
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Tales of Hope at VMCHA: Recovery on the Frontline
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HOUR Magazine (stands for Honoring Our Unique Recovery)
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Discover Recovery Times
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Re-Discovery Bulletin
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Recover Discovery News
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Recovery Matters
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Brain Storming
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A New Leaf
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New Beginnings
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Recovery thru Growth
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Growth & Recovery
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Looking to the Future
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Mental Health Cornerstones
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Three Sides of a Coin
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New Horizons
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Horizons
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The Express
Mental Wealth Magazine Mind Works Shifting Gears Mind Bank Head Lines
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Mind Stories
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Head Sense
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Synaptic Symphonies
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Mind Games
Special thanks to those who submitted: Elaine Ansell, Michael Crain, Maureen Glaser, Laura Haskell, John Massam, Meredith McLeod, Caroline Penhale, Paul Strashok and Ron Warbrick.
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And the Winner is… We are pleased to announce the winner of the Recovery Newsletter is: Caroline Penhale who suggested “On Our Way: VCMHS Recovery News”. We took her suggestion and modified it slightly to include Acute Services. Caroline received a $100 gift basket from Capers, shown below.
Words of Wisdom – continued…. “Recovery to me is about living the life I want despite living with a mental illness. It is about recognizing that mental illness is only a small part of who I am. I am a valuable, contributing member of society doing all I can do and being all I can be.” - Debbie Sesula “Recovery involves addressing one’s changed status; one’s changed relationship to state power as embodied in mental health legislation, one’s own perception of one’s status and power, and above all one’s identify.” - Ron Carten Do you have a recovery quotation or “Words of Wisdom” statement based on personal insight you’d like to share? Please send to: renea.mohammed@vch.ca
Above: Caroline Penhale with her Capers Gift Basket.
On Our Way: Recovery News Vancouver Acute & Community Mental Health Services
Credits
Words of Wisdom “For those of us who have struggled for years…recovery is not about going back to who we were. It is a process of becoming new. It is a process of discovering our limits but also a process of discovering how these limits open upon new possibilities. Transformation rather than restoration becomes our path.” - Patricia Deegan “Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process changing one’s attitude, values, feelings, goals, skills and/or roles.” - William Anthony “Recovery may be a journey but if you never get anywhere it can easily become a treadmill.” - Joe Marrone “Recovery is remembering who you are and using your strengths to become all that you were meant to be.” - Ashcroft, Johnson & Zeeb
Renea Mohammed, Editor Contributing Writers: Stephan Bunton, Simon Davis, Andrew MacFarlane, Renea Mohammed, Shirley Rogers, Debbie Sesula, Susan Inman, Robena Sirett, Jude Swanson, & Aaron Zacharius.