What is the program about?

Your Recovery Journey is based on the premise that there is hope, that people with mental illness can get well and stay well for long periods of time, doing the things they want to do with their lives.

Objectives of the program

The overall goal of the program is to increase participants’ ability to meet their personal recovery goals by enhancing their self-determination and quality of life. We hope to accomplish this by

• providing an opportunity for participants to explore the many aspects of recovery
  
• exploring the role of personal goals in the recovery journey
  
• giving participants the knowledge and tools they need to be active participants in managing their illness and recovery
  
• modelling hope and recovery by using a peer-support approach
  
• providing an opportunity for participants to reflect on and plan for their recovery journey

Your Recovery Journey is important for several reasons. It builds on the now well-established literature and evidence base for recovery from mental illness, and contributes to the growing number of programs that focus on empowering people to manage their own treatment and recovery journey.

We have based the program on a peer-support model for a number of reasons:
because peer support is an example of the kind of self-determination that occurs in recovery, and because peer support can transform lives. Hearing from others who have experienced similar struggles, and who understand how we are feeling, is an important factor in recovery.

The program is designed to be facilitated or co-facilitated by people who themselves have experience with mental illness and have also experienced recovery in their own lives. This “hope in action” approach is a fundamental principle of the program.