Wellness Recovery Action Plan Talk at October 2000 Board Meeting

Wellness Recovery Action Plan Talk at October Board Meeting

– By Doug Huskey

B. J. North and Sharon Kuehn attended the October NAMI-SCC Board Meeting, and discussed the WRAP program. B. J. presented her WRAP – Wellness Recovery Action Plan and we had the opportunity to learn what WRAP is all about. Sharon Kuehn teaches the Transition To College Class at Cabrillo College, in which WRAP is covered in detail, and each student gets a chance to develop their own WRAP during the course of the class. B. J. and Sharon Kuehn have been working in both this community as well as other California communities teaching the methods introduced by Mary Ellen Copeland.

Mary Ellen Copeland is a mental health recovery educator and author. Her focus is on self-help. She has learned the concepts, skills and strategies she teaches from her own personal experience with extreme mood swings and from her ongoing studies with people who experience psychiatric symptoms. Her expertise is not related to psychiatric medications, psychiatry, or legal advocacy. She does not provide counseling services. The skills and strategies she teaches are not necessarily a replacement for other kinds of treatment, but complement any other treatment.

B.J. gave us a hand out which I include below. The hand out is not enough to really practice wrap. The program is taught in groups in which the members work on their WRAP. It often takes the participant a bit of time to come up with their plan. There is a honing in and a rewriting that often occurs. B. J. mentioned that often there is isolation involved with mental illness. The support system of the WRAP group gives structure to talk about what each individual sees as his or her way to recovery. There is one detail that I see as an onlooker here. The client has to have enough insight to know that they have an illness. If the client feels that everything is O. K. and there is no need to try to work a plan, then it will not work. Therefore WRAP requires each individual to be a certain stage of his or her recovery.

Here is the outline that we received:

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan is a simple yet powerful self-help system based on increasing awareness, improving self-care and strengthening supports.

Five foundations of recovery

Hope, Personal Responsibility, Education, Self-Advocacy, and, Developing & Maintaining a Support System.

Wellness Tools

Activities, routines, thoughts & behaviors that maximize wellness and minimize symptoms. These include: reaching out for support, peer counseling, maintaining an ongoing dialog with health care professionals, planning the day, stress reduction and relaxation techniques, focusing exercises, diversionary activities & fun, journaling, exercise, sleep, being outside, increasing or decreasing stimulation, and the act of stopping to analyze the situation to make a thoughtful decision on how to proceed.

Writing a Plan

Writing a plan must be done entirely by the individual who plans to use it. Mental health specialists, family members and friends can provide support, feedback and encouragement. The process can be lengthy and must be done at the individual’s own pace.

Sections of the Plan

1. Daily Maintenance -- What I do each day, when I am feeling well.

2. Triggers – What are my triggers & what is my response to each one.

3. Early Warning Signs – What are early warning signs for me, and what is my action plan for each one.

4. When Things are Breaking Down – How do I know? Breaking down list and responses / action plan.

5. Crisis Plan – How to know when I am well, crisis symptoms, supporters phone list, medications, treatments, treatment facilities & respite care, supporters’ roles, what to do if I am a danger to myself or others, and how to know when my supporters no longer need to use this plan.

WRAP Works

It promotes a higher level of wellness and stability for people who experience psychiatric symptoms while helping us to see ourselves as “whole people.” It allows people who experience psychiatric symptoms to develop a plan to increase stability and allow them to take on new social roles. It decreases traumatic life events and the resulting stigma, as well as cost of intervention. It encourages open communication with health care providers and creates the opportunity for people who experience psychiatric symptoms and their supporters to better understand each other. The plan is empowering, and allows the person to make choices and discover what works best for him or her as an individual. Using a Wellness Recover Action Plan allows consumers to play leadership roles in creating a recovery oriented mental health system.

For further information or to arrange for training, please contact:

Sharon Kuehn (831) 479-6512 cscab@scvolunteercenter.org

BJ North (831) 462-4681 bjuniquebj@aol.com

Using an Advance Directive as part of your WRAP - Mary Ellen Copeland.

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