Recovery in Mental Health-A Community Based Wellness Group Model

This paper presents a case study of a community-based intervention that supports older persons with mental illness. It also explains how the intervention minimises relapse protracted hospital stays and repeats admissions for consumers with mental health problems who are at moderate to high risk. This paper proceeds on the basis of the WHO definition of mental health being “a state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community [1]”. The community-based intervention titled the 'Wellness Group Program' is a holistic therapeutic program to assist older consumers with mental health problems in their recovery journey and to keep them well within the community. Since its inception in 2001, there have been approximately 750 Wellness Group Program sessions within the Western Sydney Health District of NSW State, Australia. During these 17 years, it provided therapeutic interventions for 12-18 consumers in each session and acted as a bridge between discharge from the hospital setting and complete community reintegration. Comparing relapse data and the average length of stay for group participants with the non-participants, the Wellness Group Program has been instrumental in freeing inpatient acute beds which has led to financial benefits for the health district. As such, it acted as a preventative vehicle and minimised relapse in patient's recovery journey in the community.