Mid West ARIES Session Plan – After Recovery What Next

Title: After Recovery What Next
Duration: 3 Hours / Number in Sequence:
6/7
Aim(s): To empowerlearners to considerrecovery following treatment and to provide an opportunity for learners to share different ways of understanding resilience.
Learning Outcomes: At the end of this session the learners should be able to:
1) Consider a definition of recovery in terms of their own experience
2)Identify ways to incorporate recovery as a means of living more fully
3)Recognise the ‘Wheel of Life’ and the CHIME recovery processes
4)Feel that they are not alone in the more difficult aspects of recovery
5)Consider different understandings of resilience as an aspect of recovery
Time / Allocated to / Content / Action
10.00-10.05 / [Slide 1]
Welcome; Housekeeping / Welcome the group to the session. Each facilitator introduces themselves by name. Say as much or as little as you wish. Agree time for break(s). Point out Fire exit(s). One facilitator reads out Group Guidelines. Invite any additions to Group Guidelines.
10.05-10.10 / [Slide 2]
Session Aims
/ Read out the session aims. Invite any questions or comments.
10.10-10.25 / Icebreaker. / Use an icebreaker exercise of your choice from the many available online. Alternatively, show either Pat Deegan’s 4 minute YouTube video available at
Or Eleanor Longden’s 14 minute TED Talk available at
Invite the group to comment on the video.
10.25-10.35 / [Slide 3]
Mid West Definition of Recovery
/ Explain that the slide shows a definition of recovery which a group of people in the Mid West developed during research into the need for recovery education in the region.
Invite comments from the group and encourage whole group discussion. The aim here is to focus the group on the place recovery currently has in their own lives.
10.35-10.55 / [Slide 4]
Scenario for Group work
/ Read through the scenario on the slide. Divide the group into smaller groups, 3 people per group minimum. Ask the groups to spend ten minutes discussing what advice they would give. Then bring the smaller groups back to the larger group and ask for feedback from each group.
10.55-11.05 / [Slide 5]
Advice to a friend from coproduction
/ Explain to the group that the slide shows some of the advice that a group of people with lived experience came up with during a coproduction session, when asked the same question as in slide 4. Invite any comments and discussion.
11.05-11.30 / [Slide 6]
The Wheel of Life and CHIME
/ Introduce the Wheel of Life and CHIME to the group. The wheel of life is a tool that is popular in self-help and life-coaching. The idea is that a person starts at the centre for each area of life and marks off how far towards ideal they are. They can then set goals in order to get closer to their ideal for each area. CHIME describes five recovery processes and is a well-known framework for recovery based on research into what people report as helpful in personal recovery. Divide the group into smaller groups and ask each group to focus on one area from the wheel of life, and think about how CHIME might help them or a loved one to get closer to their ideal. Then ask each group to feed back on their discussion to the larger group.
11.30-11.50 / BREAK / BREAK
11.50-12.00 / [Slide 7]
The things nobody talks about
/ Caution: Consider individual/group safety carefully here. This slide shows a list of items that the coproduction group identified as things people tend not to talk about in mental health and recovery. The point here is to share these safely with the group and show that there is a commonality of experience in recovery, and if there are things they have not been able to share, they are not alone.
12.00-12.25 / [Slide 8]
Resilience
/ This slide shows some of the ways in which the people from the coproduction group understood resilience. Divide the group into smaller groups and ask them to come up with words or phrases that describe their ways of understanding recovery. Then bring the group back together and ask each smaller group to share what they have discussed.
12.25-12.45 / [Slide 9]
Recovery- words
/ The coproduction group were asked to come up with a list of ten words that were meaningful to them in their own recovery. The slide shows a selection of the words they produced. Ask the group to write down or think of 5-10 words that are important to them in recovery. This can be done individually or in smaller groups, depending on the preference of the group. Then invite anyone who wishes to share their words with the rest of the group to do so.
12.45-13.00 / [Slide 10]
Closing
/ Invite any final comments or discussion. Check in with participants and ensure the group is safely closed down. Thank everyone for taking part. Don’t forget feedback sheets.
Resources needed:
Laptop/PC; Projector & Screen; Flipchart and Markers; Paper & Pens; Feedback sheets

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