Recovery Protocol-Part 3

Making of a Recovery
To support the inclusion of the “Recovery Protocol Breakthrough” in the meeting room space, salient recovery data is required for the person and their provider. As a result, Citizen Psychiatry has developed our proprietary “Flash Drive Forms” for consumers, available on this platform, to port critical recovery data, completed in the comfort of one’s home, into The Meeting Room. In a single sitting, the provider can see the chief components identified that impede recovery and elements that build recovery rather than taking months to accumulate the same information. The Flash Drive Forms information also provides a map of a person’s recovery landscape and what needs to be exercised or addressed.  The protocol as a practice utilizes this information to kick-start recovery and see it through by outlining the methodology and providing a step-by-step guide for service providers and consumers.

The Birth of Recovery
The adherence to a “Recovery Orientation Framework”, the first iteration of recovery, came into being as a systems approach to community mental health services beginning in the 1980s.  The idea was to orient the community services system toward a recovery framework within a “pill-first policy” of psychiatry. To date, countries like Ireland, the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada, which adopted this system approach, have shown the clinical relevancy of such an orientation through research, producing robust results. However, the most significant finding with consumers was a shift in their recovery mindset. Instead of having an illness-centric mindset, people were found to transition from this position to a person-centric mindset. Here, consumers were able to step into recovery-based thinking, where a predominately “person-led life” is experienced regardless of whether medications were taken or terminated.

The first iteration of recovery orientation applied on a systems level was also introduced to psychiatric meeting rooms. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has adopted recovery orientation practice. However, this protocol breakthrough has translated recovery orientation into an actionable practice that can work within the standard appointment times of psychiatric and other allied service providers. As a result, for the first time, a recovery program can be offered to providers who are facing clients affected by “treatment resistance” pain.

The Big Ask
Today, many people find the world of psychiatry and supporting mental health services puzzling and confusing after all the horn-tooting by media echoing institutional voices saying, “effective treatment is a walkway starting with your primary doctor, “only to find this trail lukewarm to cold. For many people in this position, the question becomes,

-What is next other than more drug trials when experiencing medication failure?

In Citizen Psychiatry, it is incumbent on each consumer to take the reins of their life in another direction.

“The Big Ask” is a request made to consumers. It involves consumers approaching and speaking to their providers about the recovery protocol program to kick-start recovery. Citizen Psychiatry sees this regenerative practice as value added to the treatment equation.

The Cost?
We find that succumbing to “ medication resistance” is the canary in the coal mine for psychiatric care and recovery. This view can be elucidated by answering these inquiries not yet posed quantitatively:

1. a) The Human Toll
   – How does ongoing “medication resistance” impact a person’s work and personal life?
   – What is the impact of wage losses and missed days at work for people enduring continual poor drug returns?
2. b) The System Toll
   -What are the costs to employers and the economy in missed days, productivity, and disability entitlements due to
   “treatment resistance”?
   -How much tax dollars are the government, unknowingly, spending to address “poor medication response”?

In closing, for the many millions of individuals experiencing the condition of “treatment resistance” with longstanding depression and anxiety disorders that are undermining their lives with no end in sight, the Recovery Protocol Breakthrough provides a program of practice that can, in partnership with one’s service provider be applied to provide the opportunity to, Own One’s Life Again.