Jannine’s recovery role is key to new community mental health model
Note: This story was originally published on the Devon Partnership NHS Trust website.
People in Devon struggling with serious mental illness (SMI) are being supported in their local community by health professionals in a new role. The Devon Mental Health Alliance’s Recovery Practitioners focus on working closely with people with a wide range of needs who traditionally may have fallen through gaps between services and organisations providing help.
The new role is a key element of Devon’s Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF), an ambitious project backed by more than £15 million of new funding, to transform how services and organisations work together to make it easier for people get the right care at the right time, where they live. Recovery Practitioners work with people with SMI and complex needs, providing 1:1 practical and emotional support to enable them to improve personal resilience manage their mental health.
Jannine Corby is now a Recovery Practitioner in East Devon, joining from the charity Step One where she was a Mental Health Support Worker. She previously worked in supported living with people with paranoid schizophrenia.
Jannine said:
“Our role is to take those people who fall into the gap between primary and secondary care — those who might be too complex for primary care, but just not complex enough to need secondary care services.”
People are referred to the Recovery Practitioners by new multi-agency teams based around GPs and primary care networks. Jannine is supporting people with anxiety and depression, as well as bipolar, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, and paranoia. By taking a holistic approach, the practitioners can factor in the impact of debt, poor housing, unemployment, homelessness, loneliness, and caring responsibilities on someone’s mental health.
“We try and do a lot of coping skills and self-help strategies, and work on self-compassion and self-care, as well practical help with paperwork — things like benefits and housing.
We also signpost them to projects in the community to help keep them motivated and identify places they can go for support and input that they probably weren’t aware of, things like voluntary work they want to do or education.”
Importantly, the practitioners also help people while they are on waiting lists for treatment. Jannine added:
“We know that people can potentially decline while waiting for treatment and feel that nothing is happening, but by providing this one-to-one support, we’re aiming to avoid people escalating to some kind of crisis point.”
The initial offer for people is up to eight one-to-one sessions, but there is flexibility.
“Some people may just need signposting to support and other services, while others need more time. It can take a few sessions to establish the relationship, particularly if they are nervous or anxious, or if they’ve had help in the past that they feel hasn’t worked.”
Jannine says the challenge of gaining the trust of clients and enabling them to talk a little bit about what they are going through is also what makes the role so rewarding.
“Previously, as an enabler I worked with the same people for years, shopping, attending appointments, things like that. Now I’m working with a variety of people, using psychologically-informed strategies and establishing a supportive relationship.
The main thing for me is just being there for someone. A lot of people feel they’ve just never been heard before and just giving them that, just having the first few sessions to listen, kind of validates them.
So that’s always a nice feeling, that you know you’ve helped someone be heard and as a result have lightened their load. And then we work from there, and watch them through their journey.”
The Recovery Practitioners are themselves supported by their multi-agency team with weekly meetings to give feedback and get advice, so there is no sense they are working alone.
Victoria Burns, Senior Responsible Officer for the CMHF at Devon Partnership NHS Trust, commented:
“Recovery Practitioners act as a link to the wider community to ensure people have access to effective, local and sustainable support, and therefore play a vital role in the implementation of the Framework.
It’s great to see how Jannine and her colleagues are turning the vision into a reality, making such a difference to each individual with more timely and relevant support.
I know that, as we continue to implement this new model, we are asking people to work in different ways and in new roles so it’s good to see Jannine highlight how much more rewarding professionally her new role is.”
Comments from Jannine’s clients
“Very compassionate and patient, also offered many great services to continue with helping myself through my recovery.”
“Welcoming, understanding and tailored to my mental wellbeing. Listened to my problems. Offered a variety of options on how to receive support, such as face-to-face or telephone call. More informal and helpful too my needs, not pressured or clinical. I found it a good starting point to open up without fear of judgement.”