Reaching Recovery is a new project at the Mental Health Center of Denver. Through the program, participating mental health centers create a broad assessment of their “recovery readiness.” Managers, clinicians, and consumers use the assessment to guide the development of practices that lead to consumer recovery. The Reaching Recovery team provides advice, guidance, and problem-solving to implement the center's recovery action plan.
Dr. Antonio Olmos, Director of Evaluation and Research, and Roy Starks, Director of Rehabilitation and Reaching Recovery, have introduced Reaching Recovery at various locations in the United States.
The first week of December, Dr. Olmos and Mr. Starks will present Reaching Recovery in England. Dr. Jan Walcraft arranged the invitation after visiting Denver as part of her research for a position paper entitled “A Common Purpose: Recovery in Future Mental Health Services.” She is a consumer/provider working for the UK's Care Services Improvement Partnership (formerly National Institute of Mental Health of England). After visiting several sites in the US, she was referred to MHCD and was very impressed with Reaching Recovery.
There will be three presentations in England. First will be a regional meeting of the Northwest Section in Garstang. They will then travel to Manchester for a presentation, videotaped interview, and questions from consumers (known as service users in England). The third presentation will be in London for representatives from around the country combined with other presentations on recovery measurement.
“All in all, we do three presentations in the week and have the opportunity to meet with providers and representatives from the Care Services Improvement Partnership,” said Roy Starks. “I think it is very exciting that the work of MHCD is receiving attention in England and I am very proud of the work we are doing to help transform mental health systems toward consumer recovery.”
Click here to download presentation, useful links and documentation.
