This briefing paper examines the role of advocacy in empowering people to express their views and preferences and also their understanding of the meaning of mental distress. It provides an overview of the different types of advocacy, and the situations in which advocacy might be particularly important. It also addresses some of the misunderstandings surrounding the concept of advocacy.

This paper finds that recovery for people in forensic services is in most ways the same as for those using other mental health services. Hope for the future, control over your life and illness, andopportunity for a life beyond illness are key for both. But people with offending histories also have to come to terms with what they have done. Forensic services can help them to recover by supporting them to ‘come to terms with themselves’.

This paper argues that risk and safety are rightly major concerns in mental health care but that traditional methods of assessing risk have stood in the way of helping people to recover their lives. It argues that jointly produced ‘safety plans’ can be more effective ways of managing risk as well as enabling people to get on with their lives.

The development of mental health services which will support the recovery of those using them, their families, friends and carers is now a central theme in national and international policy (DH/HMG, 2011; Slade, 2009). In order to support these developments we need clear, empiricallyinformed statements of what constitutes high-quality services and how these will lead to key recovery outcomes. This is what the present paper aims to do.

Peer support is based on offering and receiving help based on shared understanding, respect and mutual empowerment. Whether paid or voluntary and working in statutory, private or independent services, peer support workershave a valuable role to play. The introduction of people with lived experience of mental health problems into the mental health workforce is a hugely significant step in a service becoming more recovery focused. This paper sets out four phases for an organisation looking to introduce peer worker posts: preparation; recruitment; employment; and ongoing development.

This paper shows how Team Recovery Implementation Plans, known as TRIPs, support a whole team in becoming more recovery-focused, but should not be seen as a management device. A TRIP aims to empower teams to translate recovery ideas into practice and to utilise the skills and resources of everyone at the front line, both those providing and those using services, to develop innovative ways of promoting recovery and recovery environments.

Using peer support workers to support the recovery of people with mental illness can add significant value to mental health services, sometimes at no extra cost, according to new research published today. This paper sets out the spectrum for peer support in mental health services, which can range from naturally occurring through to formal employment of people with lived experience of mental ill-health.

This Tool was created by people who have firsthand experience with acute care wards — whether as staff, patients, or supporting loved ones. It’s based on wellness recovery action planning and aims to provide a practical tool for those working on or staying in these wards. The main goal is to encourage conversations about Recovery. Instead of just focusing on diagnoses and medications, the approach focuses on understanding each person as an individual. It’s about learning who they are, their goals, and what matters to them.

This briefing paper examines what Recovery means for the families and friends of people with mental health conditions. It suggests ways in which these informal carers can support Recovery and looks at how mental health services can give the best possible help to do this. It also provides information about key resources, including the Triangle of Care and a Wellbeing Recovery Plan for families and friends.

Recovery is concerned with living a life beyond illness (Shepherd et al., 2008). While the ideas of recovery and recovery-oriented practice have the potential to transform mental health services, we need to look beyond what is provided by these services and examine the whole range of resources and opportunities that can support quality of life, full citizenship and human rights for people with mental health problems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between recovery and personalisation and demonstrate how both are part of a common agenda for mental health system transformation. While personalisation in mental health services is a more recent concept, it builds on approaches that are already underway as part of recovery-oriented practice. In fact, personalisation, personal budgets (PBs) in social care and personal health budgets (PHBs) in the NHS can help embed and enhance recovery-oriented practice.

Recovery Colleges can revolutionise mental health services and help people to fulfil their potential. They deliver comprehensive, peer-led education and training programmes within mental health services. They should be run like any other college, providing education as a route to Recovery, not as a form of therapy with courses co-devised and co-delivered by people with lived experience of mental illness and by mental health professionals.