This guide describes the wide range of things
that need to be in place for a personalisation approach to be a common
experience, not an exceptional one, for people with mental health needs. It
proposes a whole system approach, looking at the way different elements and
strands of activity work together and impact on one another to achieve better
outcomes for people.
What people know and feel to be right
sometimes gets lost in translation when filtered through the systems set up, in
good faith, to provide help and support.
However, it has always been the case that determined individuals, staff
and people using services, have managed to just get on and make the right things
happen. This often involves
working round processes and systems and the prevailing culture in order to do
something different that meets an individual's unique and particular
needs.
A whole system approach, looking at all the
things that need to be in place, does not mean that people should stop driving ahead
for individual successes while they wait for everything to be fixed. It simply acknowledges that we can only
get so far, for a limited number of people, if we do not make progress on all the
cultural and organisational changes that need to take place so that everyone
can benefit as a matter of right and common practice.
This framework is
only a guide and is not comprehensive. Like most frameworks, there is not a perfect fit for all the
sections, they are all connected and there are overlaps. The aim of this
framework is to provide a tool to start checking what needs to be in place for personalisation in mental health, and planning what action
can be taken to ensure that it is. It highlights the need for refreshed and
energetic partnership and collaboration across the whole system. The framework will
be further developed to take
account of learning from the experience of implementing personalisation as it progresses.
Anita Cameron
