Recovery, Employment and IPS

In achieving a meaningful, valued and satisfying life these three things appear to be important:

• Hope – the belief that a decent life is possible
• Control and self-determination – getting back into the driving seat of your life
• Opportunity and citizenship – the chance do the things you value and be a valued part of your community.

The workshop will address what this might entail, especially, having a home of your own, taking back control over your life and the opportunity to do the things you value and be a valued part of your community.

In particular, it will explore the central importance of employment, and Individual Placement and Support services, in promoting recovery and social inclusion. Having a job links us to our communities and enables us to have a valued role within those communities; fosters social networks and friendships; affords us status, identity, meaning and purpose in life, and provides us with the resources we need to do other things that we value in life … all of which are central to recovery.

As so many people have found the support of their peers – others who have faced similar challenges – to be important in their recovery, the workshop will also explore how IPS services might foster peer support in enabling people to gain and sustain employment.

Workshop leader

She established the first UK Individual Placement with Support (IPS) service, developed the first ‘Recovery College’ and has contributed to programmes to employ peer support workers within mental health services. She has written and spoken widely about recovery and social inclusion and ways of achieving this and has been a member of, and contributed to, many national advisory groups and initiatives. She also has personal experience of mental health challenges and using mental health services.

Since her retirement from the UK NHS, she continues to provide consultancy work and training within mental health services and is a consultant and non-executive director with the IPS Grow programme designed to support the roll out of Individual Placement and Support Programmes across England. In 2010 she led an independent review for the UK Government on better ways of supporting people with mental health challenges to gain and sustain employment and was awarded an OBE for services to mental health.

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