THE TREATMENT of patients with mental illness across the State should in future be focused on their recovery, rather than on just the medical treatment of their symptoms, the Mental Health Commission has said. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
At a conference in Dublin, it outlined how this approach could be adopted by all health professionals.
The approach, which facilitates discussions with patients on how they would like to be treated, has already been adopted by a number of countries, including New Zealand, the UK and the US.
Dr Edmond O'Dea, chairman of the Mental Health Commission, said traditionally people believed that mental illness was something that destroyed lives.
"However, this is not so. The recovery approach is a fundamental change in how we work with people who have a mental illness," he said.
"The recovery approach involves focusing on strengths and opportunities rather than on the limitations and symptoms of illness. It is a shift towards the service user and making them the single most important focus of the service. In order for this approach to succeed, the entire mental health service and users of the service must work together to improve the quality of life for people with a mental illness," he added.
Dr Glenn Roberts, a consultant in psychiatric rehabilitation in Britain who attended the conference, said patients were likely to have better outcomes with the recovery approach. They were likely to be more in control of their lives and less distressed by their problems even if their problems continued. They were also less likely to relapse and if they relapsed, their relapse was likely to be less severe.
James Wooldridge, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1980s, told delegates how at that time he ended up in a mental institution on medication. "The outlook was bleak then. The expectations were that I wouldn't work, that I would be in supported housing, probably not have a relationship," he said.
However, his treatment in Britain now, he says, is much more positive and recovery minded. "I'm now setting goals and living the kind of life that I really want to live, and not just surviving, not just coping, not just managing, but thriving, actually living a valuable life and being valued and I think that's the emphasis of the recovery approach," he said.