Supporting the work of the Eastern Rehabilitation and Recovery Team

The following post was provided by James, one of our Recovery Practitioners.

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James and the Eastern Rehabilitation and Recovery Team

Hi, my name is James and I am a Recovery Practitioner for the Devon Mental Health Alliance. For the past 7 months, I have supported the Eastern Rehabilitation and Recovery Team, based at Wonford House in Exeter, where I was tasked to connect clients with activities in the local community. Generally, I strive to understand every client’s areas of interest, to seek the most preferential activities in the area and support them to build confidence.

Some examples of this work includes:

• gym/swimming passes;

• signposting for free academic courses, including Maths GCSE, content creation and digital communication, data analysis, software development, and introduction to care;

• volunteering placements in wildlife and support provided to existing volunteer placement at Poltimore House;

• healthy cooking courses;

• spoken word and poetry group;

• drawing for relaxation;

• open water swimming;

• tennis;

• virtual reality in healthcare;

• tai chi; and

• sleep hygiene and anxiety awareness.

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In addition to referring and signposting clients, I have supported the team with walking and cycling groups.

We also developed a 10-week music production programme, which is currently taking place at Exeter Phoenix for a small group of service users. The course was inspired by various clients who had an interest in music. Since there were no suitable groups in the community, I spent 3 months researching and developing a beginner’s music production programme. This, it was hoped, would enable clients to learn the fundamental skills and techniques to produce music using software.

I thoroughly enjoy working within this team and find it fascinating to learn how the Recovery Practitioner role fits within an NHS team.

Most recently, we were nominated at the Pride of DPT Awards 2023 for Clinical Team of the Year, for which we were “Highly Commended”. I feel proud to have been a part of this time and to have contributed towards this recognition.