Prior to beginning the discussion of the steps involved, two important components should have occurred or be in place:
- First, self-determination: the individual should want to receive services from the mental health system and have asked for assistance.
- PSR Canada’s Practice Competency of PSR domain, Supporting Practices and PSR Recovery-Oriented Services and competency C3: Forming effective relationships with individuals and their supporters
- PSR practitioners demonstrate mutual respect, trust and building strong rapport.
- PSR Canada’s Practice Competency of PSR domain, Supporting Practices and PSR Recovery-Oriented Services and competency C3: Forming effective relationships with individuals and their supporters
- Secondly, the mental health system should be one that actively promotes and supports a recovery orientation and person-centered planning. Without such commitment, mental health practitioners will find it difficult to undertake person-centered planning and to follow through with agreements made with the people receiving services.
- PSR Canada’s Practice Competency Domain of Facilitating Change and Providing Leadership, and competency E1: Promote application of PSR recovery–oriented practices.
- You may suggest having regular conversations with your manager and team may help promote a more recovery-oriented system.
- PSR Canada’s Practice Competency Domain of Facilitating Change and Providing Leadership, and competency E1: Promote application of PSR recovery–oriented practices.
Defining Patient Centered Care and Service Delivery
Source: Green, Estroff, Yarborough, Spofford, Solloway, Kitson & Perrin, 2014.
“A patient-centered intervention for people with serious mental illnesses is defined as: An organized process of care or service delivery that is directed by the person receiving services. Care and services are delivered collaboratively, attentively, and compassionately, with providers as partners who understand and respond to the person’s perspectives, culture, and concerns. The delivery process is structured to educate, inform, guide, and assist the person to be a knowledgeable consumer of the services relevant to attaining the person’s self- defined needs, goals, and outcomes, taking into account the person’s individual circumstances.
All individuals, including those who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, have the right to direct their own care. People who are limited in their ability to direct their care as a result of acute symptoms or legal constraints should be provided with the support necessary to make as many care-direction decisions as possible. If a person is unable to make informed choices about his/her care, providers will rely on historically expressed preferences and values and, when available, psychiatric advance directives and designated surrogates to maximize the person’s participation in decision-making about services and treatment. Care decisions made for persons when they are unable to direct their own care should be based on the premise that such decisions will enable those persons to make future choices about their care. Care and services provided to service users should take into account available scientific knowledge and the resources of the service system.”
Prior to beginning a change process toward employment or volunteerism, it is important to explore with the person their interest in the planning process.
- All too often, service plans are written assuming that individuals are ready to take action, when people may not actually be ready to do this. The result can be that the person does not participate in the planning process and the person is labeled non-compliant or resistant.
- “Work readiness refers to the employee’s ability to complete work activities in a productive manner such that they can return in some meaningful and productive capacity to the workplace. The concept of “readiness” suggests a progressive movement from one stage to the next, while accepting that there can be a reverse movement to a previous stage (Franche et al., 2002). The term work readiness is often used by occupational therapists to refer to the worker’s ability to participate in and sustain activity to a level that is acceptable in a work environment. Level of readiness is demonstrated by sustained activity tolerance in functional daily activities within the home and community. Occupational therapists, through a mental health practice focus on the behavioural, emotional, and cognitive components, will take into consideration the physical component within one’s functional abilities as well as the behavioural, emotional, and physical demands of the client’s environment. Underlying work readiness is the individual’s ability to effectively manage work demands and stressors in a dynamic and effective manner as they arise in their environment” (Chan et al., 2020, p. 8).
- In order to avoid this, exploring with the individual thoughts about his or her readiness for the process, with a focus on engagement and building trust, would be the first course of action.
- During the first meeting, each person should be informed about the process, asked if they want to participate, and asked if there are supporters the person would like to have present throughout the process. If so, they can be invited to subsequent meetings with the understanding that they are not there to speak for the person or make decisions for the person, unless determined by the person.
- In future meetings, it is important that the person’s identified supporter(s) be asked to take part in the process with the person, not to speak for him or her, but to provide support and fill in detail, as requested.
For additional guidelines, please see the below resource:
