The Importance of Relationships: Relationships are central in fostering and maintaining hope (Byrne et al 1994).
It is hard to sustain positive expectations for the future and a positive view of yourself when those around you offer only bleak prophecies. Hopefully support can be provided by relatives, friends, others who have experienced similar challenges and mental health professionals:
The turning point in my life was when I started to get hope that I could actually make the leap from being sick to being well … Dr Charles believed I could. And Rev Goodwin believed that I could … Certain people believed that I could make the leap and held that belief even when I didn't believe it myself'.
A common denominator of recovery is the presence of someone who 'stands by' you. This person is someone who believes in you when you find it hard to believe in yourself. It is very east to lose site of yourself as anything other than a mental patient when you enter psychiatric services, where all the attention is on your problems. Professionals do not hold the key to recovery: relationships with others; friends, family, neighboours, colleagues are more central.
Although it can be important, there will always be limitations to the worker/client relationship because its very content is devaluing. The worker is not in the relationship from choice but is there because he/she is paid to be there; the relationship is circumscribed by this. But mental health workers do have an important role to play in sustaining other social relationships when these become strained by the difficulties associated with mental distress. Problems may arise from the behaviour of the individual, or they may result from negative assumptions and expectations, associated with mental illness held by family and friends.
Perhaps the success of a relationship between mental health worker and client might best be judged in terms of the extent to which it helps the client to maintain and regain other relationships of value.
Of great importance to people who face the challenge of recovery are relationships with others who have experienced similar difficulties. Others who have embarked on the journey of recovery are often more likely to inspire hope and offer pointers, role models and a vision of the future. It is vital that mental health professionals recognise
'.. the gift that people with disabilities can give each other... hope, strength and experience as lived through the recovery process ... a person does not have to be fully recovered' to serve as a role model. Very often a person who is only a few 'steps' ahead of another person can be more effective than one whose achievements seem overly impressive and distanced.' (Deegan 1988)
Young & Ensing (1999), in their interviews and focus groups with people who had experienced serious mental health problems, remarked upon
'... the tendency of people to speak primarily about their relationships with other people with psychiatric disabilities when discussing significant relationships in their lives. Although relationships with family members were mentioned by several participants, the majority reported that it was their relationships with other people with psychiatric disabilities that were the most meaningful and supportive.' (Young & Ensing 1999)
People may have contact with others in a similar situation directly, or via their writing (Deegan 1989, Spaniol & Koehler 1994, Reeves 1998, Kirkpatrick et al 2001): - 'My suggestion is to get as many success stories from those who have schizophrenia to give a sense of hope to those just beginning their journey' (a participant cited in Kirkpatrick et al 2001). Others have found inspiration in accounts of people facing other challenges: `I worked it out for myself by reading a lot about people in extreme situations, dying of cancer etc. and how they came through' (Pam, cited in Roads to Recovery, Mind 2001).
In mental health services there is a tendency to regard relationships as a 'one-way street'. Workers, friends and relatives give support and help, which the person with mental health problems receives. It is important to recognise that meaningful relationships are as much about giving as receiving. Always being on the receiving end of help is a dispiriting and devaluing experience. To reciprocate and to help others makes one feel valued and worthwhile. More |
