A good deal of discussion is taking place around the idea of peer support workers in mental health practice. A recent Guardian article entitled 'Putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum' has highlighted the debate.
It's not just the 'asylum', hospital, day centre or residential setting where peer support working can take place. Nor does a peer support or recovery worker have to be an official post, paid or voluntary within the NHS or any clinical setting.
Peer support in mental health is taking place informally all over the place. Many peer supporters would not even give themselves such a title. In many cases they are simply spending time with the friends they already know or with the peers who have accessed a setting or venue which attracts them too.
As a bridge builder who has signposted people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses to mainstream settings of their own choice, I have witnessed this peer support happen over and again.
Four years ago I signposted a client to a mainstream recording studio. With the help of direct payments he has been accessing this venue weekly ever since, practising guitar and collaborating with others in the studio. He has also secured part-time employment as a studio assistant, getting the rehearsal rooms ready for bands and bookings.
What has happened as a result of this client's involvement is an informal cascading of peer support and group participation. Again, this has occurred with very little prompting from the bridge builder. As my client relishes working with other musicians, he is happy to have peers who also wish to participate i.e. start a band during his weekly studio sessions. This has resulted in a drummer peer and a singer peer rehearsing regularly together with Bernie (not his real name). Another peer also attends regularly - a long-term friend of Bernie who is learning guitar from him and who has previously been impossible to place by the bridge building team in any mainstream setting.
This is informal and highly effective peer support. Above all, it is taking place in mainstream not in any clinical, residential or daycare setting. Recovery that takes place in mainstream allows for hope, confidence, friendship, group projects and routes to employment.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
The viral effect of mainstream
Things can happen when a client with a mental health condition is allowed the opportunity to access mainstream on his or her own terms. Mainstream can be highly supportive of clients' individual aspirations and self-development. Sometimes this encouragement comes directly from the mainstream outlet itself rather than being dictated by carers, statutory services or voluntary agencies.
There are sound reasons for this. Mainstream allows individuals to access services as consumers with consumer rights. If someone with a mental health diagnosis freely chooses to develop his or her aspirations in a mainstream environment, there is no good reason why that person should be denied any of the services that particular venue may provide. The client is accessing mainstream as a consumer of that service, not as a 'diagnosis'.
Once a firm relationship with mainstream has been established, there are multiple ways that mainstream finds to continue to develop individual hopes, dreams and aspirations. I have clients who have found employment through accessing music by rehearsing regularly in a mainstream recording studio. This has not happened because I have requested the venue to provide employment for my clients. Far from it, the venue itself has instigated the process that can lead an individual towards a working role in the environment where he or she happens to feel most fulfilled.
This is the viral effect of mainstream
There are sound reasons for this. Mainstream allows individuals to access services as consumers with consumer rights. If someone with a mental health diagnosis freely chooses to develop his or her aspirations in a mainstream environment, there is no good reason why that person should be denied any of the services that particular venue may provide. The client is accessing mainstream as a consumer of that service, not as a 'diagnosis'.
Once a firm relationship with mainstream has been established, there are multiple ways that mainstream finds to continue to develop individual hopes, dreams and aspirations. I have clients who have found employment through accessing music by rehearsing regularly in a mainstream recording studio. This has not happened because I have requested the venue to provide employment for my clients. Far from it, the venue itself has instigated the process that can lead an individual towards a working role in the environment where he or she happens to feel most fulfilled.
This is the viral effect of mainstream
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Mainstream - the Cascade Effect
As a social inclusion bridge builder I work with clients with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses. They are referred or they self-refer with the desire to access mainstream life domains.
Clients aspire to a variety of mainstream choices. It might be volunteering or befriending, it may be arts activities, it might be employment or running your own business. Client aspirations may include sports, faith, education, training or a selection from any or all of these.
Enabling individuals with a 'severe and enduring' background is not always a straightforward process although it certainly can be sometimes. A client can be introduced to a mainstream outlet and it can work for him or her almost immediately. Other clients may be unready for mainstream for a variety of reasons. They may suffer a relapse before accessing the mainstream environment. They may visualise mainstream as another form of day service or statutory support system, which it isn't.
Equally, clients can sometimes express a wish to access mainstream out of a misplaced fear that not accessing it might in some way affect their payments and benefits. It can be a long process before the value and rewards of mainstream are understood.
What is true is that clients who successfully access or re-access mainstream in turn become examples of mainstream's effectiveness. Signposting to mainstream as part of the mental health recovery pathway is undoubtedly effective, even if it does not work for everyone straight away.
Mainstream also helps to sustain recovery in the individual and even better, it can propagate more success and recovery out of its own resources. An example of this would be the musician who successfully links up with a mainstream recording studio. After months of regular rehearsal the musician is invited by the studio manager to contribute to a recording session. I witness this kind of beautiful outcome and its benefits for the client in my work as an arts bridge builder.
Another example - again from music bridge building - is the guitarist client who uses a studio regularly and invites a friend to join him during the session. The friend may well be another mental health service user who has never successfully engaged with mainstream despite the best efforts of the bridge building service. Where services have been unsuccessful a friendship and peer network can do the job far more effectively.
Mainstream reaches the places other services cannot reach and in the process it is able to create a cascade effect - a continuing path of development, recovery and individual growth.
Clients aspire to a variety of mainstream choices. It might be volunteering or befriending, it may be arts activities, it might be employment or running your own business. Client aspirations may include sports, faith, education, training or a selection from any or all of these.
Enabling individuals with a 'severe and enduring' background is not always a straightforward process although it certainly can be sometimes. A client can be introduced to a mainstream outlet and it can work for him or her almost immediately. Other clients may be unready for mainstream for a variety of reasons. They may suffer a relapse before accessing the mainstream environment. They may visualise mainstream as another form of day service or statutory support system, which it isn't.
Equally, clients can sometimes express a wish to access mainstream out of a misplaced fear that not accessing it might in some way affect their payments and benefits. It can be a long process before the value and rewards of mainstream are understood.
What is true is that clients who successfully access or re-access mainstream in turn become examples of mainstream's effectiveness. Signposting to mainstream as part of the mental health recovery pathway is undoubtedly effective, even if it does not work for everyone straight away.
Mainstream also helps to sustain recovery in the individual and even better, it can propagate more success and recovery out of its own resources. An example of this would be the musician who successfully links up with a mainstream recording studio. After months of regular rehearsal the musician is invited by the studio manager to contribute to a recording session. I witness this kind of beautiful outcome and its benefits for the client in my work as an arts bridge builder.
Another example - again from music bridge building - is the guitarist client who uses a studio regularly and invites a friend to join him during the session. The friend may well be another mental health service user who has never successfully engaged with mainstream despite the best efforts of the bridge building service. Where services have been unsuccessful a friendship and peer network can do the job far more effectively.
Mainstream reaches the places other services cannot reach and in the process it is able to create a cascade effect - a continuing path of development, recovery and individual growth.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
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