Creating HOPE: Health through online & offline peer support and education

Abstract

This symposium consists of a series of four presentations: Overview: Creating HOPE Project and Balance NZ “BalanceNZ” is a grassroots consumer organization founded froma network of support groups that originally connected by telephone. It is now involved in providing peer support, training & education, advocacy and research in the area of affective disorders. With the growing understanding of the importance of psychotherapeutic interventions for people with affective disorders and the central role of selfmanagement skills,BalanceNZ promotes theuse of TheWellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)1 within a context of peer support. TheWellness Recovery Action Plan(WRAP): “Is itwell enough to use?” WRAP was developed by and for people living with mental illness to assist them to stay as well as possible. It is a people-centered, selfmanagement system that assists people to identify the things that contribute to and maintain or prolong their unwellness and to create an action plan to manage these. By addressing these issues early on WRAP allows individuals to take control and make decisions about their health before things go wrong. The WRAP has been adapted for use by many who experience affective disorder. Despite the popular use of WRAP by individuals or mental health organizations in many countries, there are limited published studies on its usefulness or application2. This presentation will outline a recent study that evaluated the delivery of a series of workshops on WRAP. Preliminary support was found for the use of WRAP to change consumers’ and mental health professionals’ knowledge and attitudes about recovery3. Internet-based WRAP(I-WRAP) A portal type website was developed using a health promotion framework as a resource primarily for those with lived experience of affective disorder, and their families and friends. The website contains information, links to online forum type support groups, and a searchable database. The main site links to an e-learning site on which interactive psychoeducation online courses can be facilitated. Development of this website opens up opportunities for those who are isolated to utilise lay moderated peer to peer learning fromhome. OnlineWRAP training and other initiatives are being piloted in 2009. Online initiatives delivered within the community by lay professionals and consumers are potentially a useful adjunct to clinical interventions for affective disorder. WRAP, is it empowering for all? WRAP has emerged out of the empowerment focus of the mental health consumers movement and a vision of recovery that is open to all but is has the potential to promote a lifestyle that is focused on high levels of self surveillance, monitoring for the presence of disorder and under pressure to be responsible for staying well. The uncritical use of WRAP risks promoting a sense of self that is defined by deficit and disorder and undermining self esteem and self determination; all core aims of consumer vision of recovery. An awareness of this possibility and an embedding of the training of WRAP facilitators within the mental health consumers’ movement may go some way towards alleviating these dangers.