Membership of the Consortium:
The IMHREC consortium consisted of the following agencies:
- Ballyhoura Development Ltd. (Limerick)
- EVE Limited (Dublin)
- Mayo Mental Health Association
- Slí Eile (Cork)
- STEER Ireland (Donegal)
Our Purpose
Having come to a close on the 31st March 2010, the purpose of the IMHREC consortium was to develop, deliver and evaluate a mental health recovery education programme, using the Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) approach during the course of 2009. The learning programme was designed to enable its participants to consider and adopt the WRAP recovery principles into their own lives and/or practice in order to achieve their own goals within a philosophy of recovery.
How did IMHREC facilitate the delivery of this Mental Health Recovery Learning Programme using the WRAP approach?
Prior to the project there was only a small number of people in Ireland who use the WRAP approach to support themselves in order to stay well and in control of their own lives. There were even fewer people, known as WRAP Facilitators, who have been enabled to use the WRAP approach to assist people on their recovery journey, so that they can regain control of their lives and stay well. IMHREC were keen to address this by delivering a two stage Learning programme which will seek to develop skills in the use of WRAP in Ireland.
Piers Allott, the Emeritus National Fellow for Recovery at the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE), and an approved Mental Health Recovery Educator with Mary Ellen Copeland, was commissioned to deliver this programme in three regional hubs in Dublin, Cork and Sligo.
Funding
This project was fully funded by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform under the Enhancing Disability Services (EDS) programme. The EDS programme is managed and administered by Pobal.
Evaluation
The project is being evaluated by a group of researchers from University College Cork, the University of Nottingham, and Trinity College, Dublin led by Dr Agnes Higgins from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College, Dublin. The final Evaluation Report will be published later this year and will be uploaded to this site.
Advisory Group
The project was also informed by an Advisory group whose role it was to advise and support the consortium in the design, delivery and evaluation of the Mental Health Recovery and WRAP education programme nationally and support the achievement of the agreed project outcomes.
Members of the Advisory Group:
- Dublin City University – Professor Chris Stevenson, Head of School of Nursing
- Health Service Executive – Catherine Brogan, HSE-Vision for Change Project Team
- Institute for Mental Health Recovery – Jim Walsh/Paddy Mc Gowan, Board Member of the Institute
- Irish College Psychiatry – Dr Ena Lavelle, Chair of Faculty of Rehabilitation & Social Psychiatry
- Mental Health Commission – Rosemary Smyth, Head of Training & Development
- National Service User Executive – John Redican, CEO
IMHREC - the Final Chapter
The IMHREC project, which came to a close on the 31st March 2010, was extremely well received and delivered Mental Health Recovery & WRAP training to almost 200 graduates across the country, 67 of whom who are now qualified Mental Health Recovery & WRAP Facilitators who will be continuing to disperse the learning of the project after IMHREC finishes.
We have also created a variety of Irish Recovery Resources including a DVD, poster, bookmarks amongst others, all of which can be viewed on the Download section of this site which will continue to be active after the project finishes.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to making this project such a great success and let’s continue our dialogue on what Recovery means to us and how we can best look after ourselves!
Warmest wishes and take care,
Valerie Maguire
IMHREC Programme Coordinator