I’m a great believer in process. That doesn’t mean pigeon-holing the people we work with. It means having a process, a system that’s clear enough to keep us on track and flexible enough to allow truly collaborative and individualised working. That’s why I developed 2016-the-social-care-recovery-model-final. Designed around existing keyworking processes this model allows mental health care providers, housing association support workers and residential care workers to pinpoint exactly what their service-user needs and plan with them to meet their needs in a straightforward but effective way.

The Social care recovery model is simple to understand. It involves 9 domains that come together to create a cohesive system of care provision based upon skills development and recovery in an efficient and enabling environment.

The first 6 domains (the support domains) focus upon direct work with service users. They are developed through regular keyworking sessions and tools are provided to help service users and keyworkers to develop and plan for a range of situations as required.

As they progress through the 6 support domains, staff and service-users work collaboratively to address not only immediate needs but also the longer term issues that form the basis of recovery. The underlying assumption is that meaningful recovery is achieved via a succession of little steps, each of which is manageable and achievable. We always aim to take the next little step.

The 6 support domains are supported by 3 ‘process’ domains that govern the organisation’s own internal processes and the values and philosophy that make up the enabling environment.

If the support domains are about what we do, the process domains are concerned with how we do it. The process domains direct staff attention to key areas of work and the systems the organisation uses.

The first two process domains, ‘Focus on recovery’ and ‘Creating the right atmosphere’ relate entirely to the values and philosophies that govern social care work. They are based upon established recovery principles such as therapeutic optimism, expressed emotion and the self-fulfilling prophecy. All 9 domains should be supported by the appropriate training to ensure that staff understand how to help people recover most effectively.

The final domain concerns itself with the administrative and duty of care aspects of social care work and again, training and guidance is provided to ensure that both these vital activities are maintained.

To get more information about the Social care recovery model and how it can help your staff click here.  Go on – you know you want to!