by
Mary Ellen Copeland, PhD author of:
The Depression
Workbook: A Guide to Living with Depression and Manic Depression, Living
Without Depression and Manic Depression: A Guide to Maintaining Mood Stability,
Wellness Recovery Action Plan™., Winning Against Relapse, The Adolescent
Depression Workbook, The Worry Control Workbook, The Loneliness Workbook,
Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Women's Workbook.
About
the Presenter
Mary Ellen Copeland is an author, educator and mental health recovery
advocate. She specializes in the successful self-management of psychiatric
symptoms. Her work is based on her intensive nationwide studies of thousands
of people who have psychiatric symptoms and on her own personal struggle
with manic depression - rising from total incapacitation to enjoying a
rich and rewarding life.
Abstract
People who experience psychiatric symptoms no longer feel that they are
sentenced to a life of chronic illness that interferes with their ability
to work toward and reach their goals. Instead, by using self-help skills
and strategies that complement other treatment scenarios, they are achieving
levels of wellness, stability and recovery they always hoped were possible.
This recovery information is being networked across the country by Mary
Ellen and an ever-growing number of recovery educators, through self-help
publications, seminars, workshops, presentations, support groups and the
internet.
Goals
To teach participants recovery and self-management skills and strategies
for dealing with psychiatric symptoms so as to:
Objectives
The following topics will be covered using a workshop style, including
presentations, demonstrations, interactive discussion and related activities:
Expected
Long Term Outcomes From a Recovery/Self-Management Focus
After work was completed in five regions, forty people with interest in teaching recovery skills attended five day "training of trainers" program. These people are now being paid through the Division of Mental Health to lead similar seminars in their region, effectively networking this information throughout the community. They are supported by the Office of Consumer Affairs, a committee of their peers and by ongoing consultation with the presenter. They use the leader's training manual Dealing with Psychiatric Symptoms as a guide.
Vermont Program
The Vermont Recovery Program is modeled after the New Hampshire Program.
Eight-day recovery programs were held in three areas of the state.
Following the seminar, the presenter has gone back to each region
for two full days to problem solve with the group. Two Training of
Trainers Programs have been held in New Hampshire and they have over
30 trainers currently teaching recovery skills and strategies.
Through Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, the program received funding through the Van Ameringen Foundation to provide for on-going networking of this information. They have hired a coordinator, and trainers are being paid to lead seminar series throughout the state.
Other Training Programs
The Vermont and New Hampshire programs have now been replicated in Kentucky,
Oklahoma, Kansas, and in many regional centers. Several other states are
working on developing similar plans. In addition, fifty trainers from
across the country have attended Training of Trainers programs and are
teaching in hospitals, mental health centers, community support programs,
peer support centers, support groups and at public forums.
Mental Health Recovery Seminars
Intensive five-day seminars led by Mary Ellen Copeland and her staff are
being held several times each year in the Brattleboro, VT area. There
are two sessions: Mental Health Recovery Seminar I: Learning Mental
Health Recovery including Wellness Recovery Action Planning, and Mental
Health Recovery Seminar II: Facilitator Training. The first session
is open to people who experience psychiatric symptoms, to family members
and supporters, and to health care providers. The second session is open
to people who have completed the first session or have taken the four-week
Correspondence Course. The seminars make this information available to
people from across the country and from diverse backgrounds in an intensive,
supportive environment that encourages networking. The diversity enriches
this program as participants learn from and support each other.
Outline of
a Typical Recovery Scenario
The following scenario can be modified as necessary to meet individual
needs and preferences. It is used as the basis for the eight-day recovery
education programs in Vermont and New Hampshire, and has been shared
nationally at numerous conferences and seminars.
Key Recovery
Concepts
There are five key recovery concepts that provide the foundation of
effective recovery work. They are:
When you
go to see your doctor take a complete listing of:
a) all medications and health care preparations you are using
b) any new, unusual, uncomfortable or painful symptoms.
Symptoms
Monitoring and Response System
Through careful observation you will learn: the things you need
to do every day to keep yourself well, external events that may
trigger an increase in symptoms, early warning signs of an impending
episode, and symptoms that indicate you are in trouble. With this
knowledge, and by using the tools listed here, and others you have
discovered for yourself, you will be able to develop a symptoms
monitoring and response system (Wellness Recovery Action Plan™) that
will help you keep your moods stabilized. This system would include
listings of:
Wellness
Toolbox
Use the following tools as part of your symptoms monitoring and
response system to reduce symptoms and maintain wellness.
Crisis
Planning
Write a personal crisis plan to be used when your symptoms have
become so severe and/or dangerous that you need others to take
over responsibility for your care. Your crisis plan includes:
Addressing
Traumatic Issues
If you feel your symptoms are caused or worsened by traumatic
events in your past, seek out a treatment program that:
Suicide
Prevention
Up to 15% of people diagnosed with depression or manic depression
end their lives by suicide. Make sure that doesn't happen
to you by:
Developing
a Wellness Lifestyle
Develop a lifestyle that supports your wellness by:
Other articles by Mary Ellen Copeland