News and Events

The Recovery Star is a tool for supporting and measuring change when working with adults of working age who are accessing mental health support services.  As an outcome measurement tool it enables organisations to measure and summarise; the progress being made by service users; and the service being delivered through a project.
 
The Recovery Star is also an effective key working tool. It is designed to be collaborative and to support individuals in understanding where they are in terms of recovery and the progress they are making, providing both the patient and staff member with a shared language for discussion on mental health and wellbeing.
 
The Farndon Unit Occupational Therapy department have selected this tool as the ten core dimensions sit well within the service, The Farndon Unit’s philosophy and the Meaningful Day Strategy, it also correlate well with the “Broadening Horizons” documentation and the general “Social Inclusion Agenda”. T he core themes address ten areas of life and are as follows:

•        managing mental health
•        self-care
•        living skills
•        social networks
•        work
•        relationships
•        addictive behaviour
•        responsibilities
•        identity and self-esteem
•        trust and hope
 
The Farndon Unit’s Head Occupational Therapist Naomi Stanfield said “This recovery planning tool will provide us with a framework which will ensure that staff practice, using a robust, proactive and meaningful focus and one which will clearly demonstrate that the unit is committed to working on the fundamental/core areas of our patients’ life, and recognising the impact of their illness / personality disorder on these areas and their recovery.  The principles of the tool are exactly what the focus should be for our patients’ care pathway as they look at each individual’s personal journey; they also fit very well with the revised CPA approach that is being utilised.  The model is occupation focused, holistic and person centred which is also fundamental to the practice of OTs.  The tool centres on the notion of a ladder of change and helps to identify which stage an individual is at in their recovery.  This promotes progress, enhanced functioning, self-belief, empowerment, choice and personal control.  It also addresses physical health issues and promotes health and well being correlating closely with the Health Promotion Strategy.  It is highly appropriate for addressing the forensic environment due to identifying any addictive and unhelpful behaviours in individuals.  The ‘managing mental health’ dimension looks at self-harming and injurious behaviours.