Implementing the Imroc methodology in Ireland

As with much of the western world the early part of the 21st century has been a time of change in the Irish mental health services. A new Mental Health Act was put in place in 2001 which facilitated the move from institutionalised medically driven care to a more recovery, social and community-based approach. Over the following decade all of the institutions were closed and community supports developed. However a key to establishing Recovery Orientated service is the inclusion of Lived Experience expertise in services to tackle stigma and inform service improvement. A new mental health policy ‘A vision for Change’ was published in 2006 which placed a big emphasis on the recovery approach and the involvement of people with ‘Lived Experience’.  

However, the expertise to bring about the organisation change required to integrate ‘Lived Experience’ into service was not available in Ireland. To address this the Irish Health Service (HSE) facilitated Imroc to come to Ireland and build capacity within Irish services around integrating ‘lived experience and the recovery approach. From 2013 to 2017 ImROC provided consultants led by Julie Repper and Geoff Shepherd provided a structured programme based on the 10 Imroc challenges for organisational change focusing on building service readiness and lived experience capacity to make the Irish mental health service more recovery focused.  

In the ten years since a complete transformation has occurred with the Irish MH service, there is an understanding and acceptance of the essentiality of the inclusion of Lived Experience to provide a recovery oriented service as set out in the Irish national Framework for Recovery (HSE Ireland) 

The establishment of the office of Mental Health Engagement and Recovery which is a Lived Experience led office whose focus is to ensure that that Lived Experience informs the design, development, delivery and evaluation of services  and which also has a responsibility for delivering a number of key recommendations from the national MH policy’ Sharing the Vision’. The office of Mental Health engagement leads on five key areas of integrating Lived Experience and recovery innovation in services as set out in its strategic plan https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/mental-health-services/mental-health-engagement-and-recovery/mher-strategic-plan-engaged-in-recovery.pdf including  

The development of a formal grade code for Peer support workers by the department of Health with approximately 50 Peer workers in place across the system 

An accredited Special Purpose Award level 8 in Peer support working, 

The establishment of ten Recovery Colleges/Recovery Education services in Ireland employing 60 peer education staff serving 21000 students in 2023. 

The integration of Individual placement and support service in the HSE with approximately 50 IPS workers employed. 

Testimonial 

It was not have been possible to achieve this without collaborating with Imroc