Cheryl Gagne | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

A framework for health promotion services for people with psychiatric disabilities.

The concepts of wellness and its complement, health promotion, have popularized the notion that health itself is more than simply the absence of disease. Furthermore, the wellness concept has advanced the idea of the importance of engaging in certain health promoting behaviors within healthy environments, not simply for the purpose of preventing or better managing a disease, but also to enhance one's well-being and quality of life (Green & Kreuter, 1991; Mullen, 1986). Encouraging this emphasis on wellness is Healthy People 2010 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000), a national ten-year plan intended to increase quality and years of life and eliminate disparities which for the now features a new area that recognizes the importance of health promotion and disease prevention in the lives of people with disabilities. Increasingly, the value of promoting wellness--including for people with disabilities--is being recognized (Rimmer & Braddock, 2002).

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed2005

Implementing recovery oriented evidence based programs: identifying the critical dimensions.

In the decades of the 1990s many mental health programs and the systems that fund these programs have identified themselves as recovery-oriented. A program that is grounded in a vision of recovery is based on the notion that a majority of people can grow beyond the catastrophe of a severe mental illness and lead a meaningful life in their own community. First person accounts of recovery and empirical research have led to a developing consensus about the service delivery values underlying recovery. The emphasis on recovery-oriented programming has been concurrent with a focus in the field on evidence-based practices. We propose that evidence based practices be implemented in a manner that is recovery compatible. Program dimensions for evidence based practice, such as program mission, policies, procedures, record keeping and staffing should be consistent with recovery values in order for a program to be considered to be recovery-oriented. This article describes the critical dimensions of such value based practice, regardless of the service the recovery oriented mental health programs provide (e.g., treatment, case management, rehabilitation). The aim of this first attempt at conceptualizing recovery-oriented mental health programs is to both provide direction to those involved in program implementation of evidence based mental health practices, as well as providing a stimulus for further discussion in the field.

Adaptation, Psychological↗