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Recovery & Thriving Approaches
Dr Mike SmithDr Mike Smith RMN. B.Sc. MA Ph.D is a mental health professional with 30 years international experience. Mike was Director of Nursing in North Birmingham from 1997 until- 2001 when he left to become an independent freelance trainer / consultant. He has been a champion of recovery since his early days of working as a psychiatric nurse, with a special interest and breadth of knowledge in the areas of self harm and voice hearing. He continues to work voluntarily with young people in these areas and has gained international respect for his innovative and alternative advancements to recovery and thriving. Mike has an expertise in risk and crisis management and oversees training in these key areas in many parts of the UK.In 2007, Mike published The THRIVE Approach to mental wellness co-written with his colleague, Marion Aslan, and this fresh concept is currently challenging psychiatric services to re-evaluate recovery and what lies beyond. Many of Mikes articles have been published in nursing magazines and journals worldwide and he has authored a number of other books, including Working with Self Harm, and First Aid in Psychosis. He is also a frequent guest speaker on radio and television. A former UK Nurse of the Year 1997 for his work and research in developing new practical approaches to self-harm, voice hearing and psychic distress, Mike was also awarded the Bethlem & Maudsley 750th Anniversary Award for the advancement of mental health care. Mikes current work reflects his passion around recovery and thriving and encouraging people to reclaim their lives; his training is noted for his humour and challenge of the traditional psychiatric orthodoxy, coupled with guidance and practical tools for values based practice. Contact Mike at: mikesvoice_aol.com
Marion AslanMarion Aslan qualified as a teacher in the 1970s and worked in the learning disabilities sector for many years, then became a successful business woman until 1994 when she had some difficult life experiences for which she sought assistance. Being described as seriously mentally ill was not only a surprise but also quite an unhelpful concept for her and one that she totally refuted. She charted her own pathway to recovery and since that time she has worked within mental health services as a recovery activist, training staff and developing more helpful concepts and ways of supporting people. From 2003 - 2006 Marion managed a pilot research project funded by the Department of Health. The project spread recovery knowledge and person centred approaches to a range of mental health organisations across England through training, consultancy and developmental work, and gained international acclaim. Marion spent time in Italy and Germany developing mental health programmes for nursing students, and more recently, her work has taken her to Australia and America, and to Denmark on a regular basis, developing recovery and person centred planning toolkits. Finding her own pathways to full recovery and thriving inspired her to co-author The THRIVE Approach to Mental Wellness with her colleague Mike Smith and identify the core essentials of self help and self advocacy. She has since authored a further four books, and is developing innovative approaches to working with episodes of psychosis. Marion is the executive director of EleMental, International Centre for Principles and Values of Recovery and Thriving introducing and developing values led practice in many countries throughout the world, working with local people and communities and developing arenas of helpfulness and hopefulness within and without of governmental services. Contact Marion at: marionaslan_aol.com
"Once we have moved beyond seeing signs of distress as mere symptoms or in any way as part of an illness entity our eyes are opened to new possibilities. This needs to be central to Recovery Approaches and this is why True Recovery has no links to medical models, and the Medical Model has no place in Recovery and Thriving. The Medical Model has its place in getting people stable and maintained, but with regard to recovery, it remains an irrelevance. Approaches that attempt to weave the medical model into Recovery & Thriving are merely assimilating and co-opting the message"
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