Hope and Self-Reported Recovery Plan

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Recovery of any patients depends on several factors that have been proven by different scientists and psychologists. One such factor is hope that explains how a positive attitude towards life and a strong credence that recovery is a possibility, hence able to delete any negative thoughts that might come. Hope requires any patient to be able to recognize and assent that there are real problems and focusing on ability to work to solve the problem and never viewing failure as any near option (Barker, 2003). Through hope, any patient is able to focus ahead without looking at the past experiences and encouraging him or she by celebrating any achievements made in the course of recovery however small the progress is.

It is through hope that people believe that God exists and that by trusting in Him, anything is possible and therefore at times of recovery, people exercise their spiritual connections with the Almighty in order to receive healing (Barker, & Buchanan-Barker, 2010). Hope sustains people even in situations where there is a fall back from recovery. For example, when one recovers from sickness today and then the next day the situation regresses back. It is only hope that keeps one fighting knowing that situations will be better sooner than later. Hope is always perceived in the mind and thus having positive hopes is always the beginning of healing process while any despair leads to deterioration of the current state with no healing (Deegan, 2008).

Personal Recovery Plan is important for any patient to help him or her plan on how to manage the high and low moments, plans on how to manage relapse that may occur during recovery, and plans to follow dreams in life. Recovery plans may also be set to ex patient who may be suffering from depression. James was one of our clients who for a long time had a history of depression since he recovered from a mental illness three years ago but since then he has never been able to undertake his duties as he did prior to the illness. Being a husband and further of three and an employee of a multinational company, several roles which he previously played were at a standstill. James explains that following his recovery and discharge from the hospital, he found it difficult to fit in to the society again and this was the major source of his depression. He explains that to fight the stigma associated with mental illness proved to be a great challenge to him. He explains the steps he undertook to fight the stigma as one that required commitment and staying positive in all that he did. James explains that his first step involved taking responsibility as the head of his house. He played his role as a bread winner with the support of his wife and children who viewed him as a hardworking and a loving father and husband. This positive welcome from his family facilitated his healing process to a great deal. He also explained that through the healing process, he did all his favorite activities such as listening to music, and watching his favorite team play at the local premier league matches. (Jacobson & Curtis, pg. 333-341)

Framing mental illness provides an opportunity for both the patient and the nurse to consult one another and find a way of working with an aim of helping the patient recover faster. James further states that through this interaction with his nurse, he shared his personal experiences through the healing process and thus got the best psychological guidance and counseling and helped in his healing process. (Nora, & Greenley, 2011).

James also managed to manage his mental illness recovery by himself. He explains how he struggled to gain self-esteem and how it was stigmatizing to realize that at one moment he was mentally ill. (Slade, 2009). Managing mental illness involves the ability of the patient to work towards finding ways of reducing psychological stress effects that follow recovery as mental illness from a very traumatizing case. Some patients use response and symptom monitoring techniques as a way of monitoring and reducing symptoms of mental illness (Cleary, et al., 2013).

In his current state, James explains that he is 80% healed and is still finds difficulties in a few are such engaging in majority of social activities but he is always determined to improve each day. His advice to any person recovering from any trauma be it health or anyone who may become physically handicapped through accidents is that staying positive and building hope that life will go back to normal or even better if any patients works towards improving his or her health. He explains that mental illness is very traumatizing and he has managed to go through that. His parting shot is ‘with hope, anything is possible’. One can either build or destroy his or her life. (Slade, 2009).

References

Barker, P. (2003). The Tidal Model: Psychiatric colonization, recovery and the paradigm shift in mental health care. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 12, 96–102.

Barker, P., & Buchanan-Barker, P. (2010). The Tidal Model of Mental Health Recovery and Reclamation: Application in Acute Care Settings. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31:171–180.

Cleary, M. et al. (2013). Mental health nurses’ views of recovery within an acute setting. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 22: 205–212.

Deegan, P.E. (2008). Recovery: The Lived Experience of Rehabilitation. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 11(4):11–19.

Nora, J., & Greenley, D. (2001). What Is Recovery? A Conceptual Model and Explication. Psychiatric Services, 52:482–485.

Slade, M. (2009). 100 Ways to Support Recovery: A guide for Mental Health Professionals. Rethink Recovery Series (1).

Jacobson N, Curtis L: Recovery as policy in mental health services: strategies emerging from the states. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 23(4):333–341, 2000