Recovery is Beautiful

Ohio’s Recovery-Oriented System of Care Blueprint

Introduced by Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities in 2014, this five-year plan with overarching goals and action steps is designed to provide a framework for moving Ohio’s mental health and addiction system toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care. Recovery is Beautiful, the Recovery-Oriented System of Care blueprint, will promote good health through prevention and wellness programs, as well as provide crisis intervention, treatment and recovery support when individuals experience a mental health or substance abuse problem.

Recovery is Beautiful is all about putting the needs of individuals and families requiring addiction and/or mental health programming first and foremost. Members of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities (OACBHA) have envisioned a framework moving Ohio toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care that transitions from a focus on acute care to one that focuses on recovery management to help individuals not only get well but to stay well.

Moving Ohio’s community mental health and addiction system toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care recognizes that while treatment for crisis situations and acute symptoms is necessary, for a person to recover in the long term, we must also offer an array of supports such as housing, peer supports and employment supports that help individuals truly become integrated into their local communities.

17 Essential Elements for Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care

  1. Person-centered – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be person-centered. Individuals will have a menu of stage-appropriate choices that fit their needs throughout the recovery process. Choices can include spiritual supports that fit with the individual’s recovery needs.
  2. Family and ally involvement – Recovery-oriented systems of care will acknowledge the important role that families and other allies can play. Family and other allies will be incorporated, when appropriate, in the recovery planning and support process. They can constitute a source of support to assist individuals in entering and maintaining recovery. Additionally, systems need to address the treatment, recovery and other support needs of families and other allies.
  3. Individualized and comprehensive services across the life span – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be individualized, comprehensive, stage-appropriate and flexible. Systems will adapt to needs of individuals rather than requiring individuals to adapt to them. They will be designed to support recovery across the life span. The approach will change from an acute-based model to one that manages chronic disorders over a lifetime
  4. Systems anchored in the community – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be nested in the community for the purpose of enhancing the availability of support capacities of families, intimate social networks, community-based institutions and other people in recovery.
  5. Continuity of care – Recovery-oriented systems of care will offer a continuum of care, including pretreatment, treatment, continuing care and support throughout recovery. Individuals will have a full range of stage-appropriate services from which to choose at any point in the recovery process.
  6. Partnership-consultant relationships – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be patterned after a partnership-consultant model that focuses more on collaboration and less on hierarchy. Systems will be designed so that individuals feel empowered to direct their own recovery.
  7. Strengths-based – Recovery-oriented systems of care will emphasize individual strengths, assets and resiliencies.
  8. Culturally responsive – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be culturally sensitive, competent and responsive. There will be recognition that beliefs and customs are diverse and can impact the outcomes of recovery efforts. In addition, the cultures of those who support the recovering individual affect the recovery process.
  9. Responsive to personal belief systems – Recovery-oriented systems of care will respect the spiritual, religious and/or secular beliefs of those they serve and provide linkages to an array of recovery options that are consistent with these beliefs.
  10. Commitment to peer recovery services – Recovery-oriented systems of care will include peer recovery support services. Individuals with personal experiences will provide these valuable services.
  11. Inclusion of the voices and experiences of recovering individuals and their families – The voices and experiences of people in recovery and their family members will contribute to the design and implementation of recovery-oriented systems of care. People in recovery and their family members will be included among decision-makers and have oversight responsibilities for service provision. Recovering individuals and family members will be prominently and authentically represented on advisory councils, boards, task forces and committees at the Federal, State and local levels.
  12. Integrated services – Recovery-oriented systems of care will coordinate and/or integrate efforts across service systems to achieve an integrated process that responds effectively to the individual’s unique constellation of strengths, desires and needs.
  13. Systems-wide education and training – Recovery-oriented systems of care will ensure that concepts of recovery and wellness are foundational elements of curricula, certification, licensure, accreditation and testing mechanisms. The workforce also requires continual training, at every level, to reinforce the tenets of recovery-oriented systems of care.
  14. Ongoing monitoring and research – Recovery-oriented systems of care will provide ongoing monitoring and feedback with assertive outreach efforts to promote continual participation, re-motivation and re-engagement.
  15. Outcomes-driven – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be guided by a recovery-based process and be outcome measured. These measures will be developed in collaboration with individuals in recovery. Outcome measures will reflect the long-term global effects of the recovery process on the individual, family and community; not just remission of biomedical symptoms. Outcomes will be measurable and include benchmarks of quality of life changes.
  16. Research-based – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be informed by research. Additional research on individuals in recovery, recovery venues and the process of recovery, including cultural and spiritual aspects is essential. The research will be supplemented by the experiences of people in recovery.
  17. Adequately and flexibly financed – Recovery-oriented systems of care will be adequately financed to permit access to a full continuum of services ranging from detoxification and treatment to continuing care and recovery support. In addition, funding will be sufficiently flexible to permit unbundling of services, enabling the establishment of a customized array of services that can evolve over time in support of an individual’s recovery.

Source: Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, http://www.oacbha.org/recovery-oriented_systems_of_c.php, retrieved February 17, 2015

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