Hello folks

I work in a medium secure setting (The Orchard Clinic in Edinburgh) and have
been working towards developing a more recovery focussed service here for the
last 4 years. So far we have established a multi-disciplinary and service user
recovery steering group which has a number of working parties attached. These
groups have been working on developing a new recovery focussed unit philosopy,
improving ward and staff areas and developed a recovery training plan for both
staff and service users. It has certainly been a challenge and it faced alot
of opposition initially but there has been a definite shift in attitudes towards
the recovery approach, which will hopefully continue!

Currently we are implementing a recovery training plan for both those who work
and live in the clinic, encouraging joint training between these two groups,
which for many has been a difficult concept to grasp... We plan to develop a
rolling programme of training to keep up the momentum and drive towards becoming
a recovery focussed service.

Myself and an art therapy colleague travelled to New Zealand to see how the
forensic services there meet the challenge of maintaining a recovery focussed
service within the restrictions of a forensic setting. We learned a lot from
this experience and developed ideas which we thought we could incorporate into
our service here. This work is developing and we are looking at what is
possible in terms of recovery rather than focussing on why it's difficult in
forensic (which is often easy to do). We have presented this last year at the
IAFMHS conference and developed it in to a poster, if anyones interested I'm
happy to share this information.

We were also lucky enough to get funding to have Mary O'Hagan
(www.maryohagan.com) from New Zealand to come to the clinic and conduct a
'recovery assessment'. The whole process of this was enlightening for staff
and service users and it was extremely valuable to have a recovery driven, fresh
pair of eyes look at our service and let us know where we are getting it right
and where we need to develop further.

I could go on as I'm hugely passionate about the recovery agenda and the
difference it can make in forensic psychiatry but I'll leave it there for now!
It's encouraging to hear others discussing this on this forum.

Thanks
Susi