Fundamentals of Recovery-Oriented Care

Fundamentals of Recovery-Oriented Care

Level ~ Graduate Certificate
Availability ~ Semester 1
Type ~ Core

This unit enables the student to explore the recovery approach, which has emerged to help improve outcomes for people who experience mental distress across the lifespan. This unit enables the student to understand and apply the recovery process, within the context of action and promotion of practices that support and facilitate people’s self-directed recovery, regardless of age, to ensure achievement and maintenance of meaningful lives and full citizenship. It requires students to challenge current systems and consider alternatives that support recovery-oriented care in practice.


Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate application of the concepts and principles of recovery that derive from the lived experience of mental distress.
  • Explore adaptations of recovery-oriented practice that may be required to be responsive to the needs of diverse people.
  • Apply knowledge of, and respect for, Aboriginal people and cultures in practice.
  • Evaluate how people may be impacted by the values, biases and beliefs built into professional training and service systems.
  • Examine the principles of collaborative decision making in regards to treatment choices, including medication and a range of other types of resilience-promoting supports, skills and strengths.
  • Apply the principles of mental health promotion and prevention to community and individual contexts.
  • Demonstrate a recovery-oriented and person-centred approach to developing a plan of care and support which embodies a genuine partnership with a person, their family and support network.

Weekly Schedule
Week 1 Models of mental illness, mental ill health and wellbeing
Week 2 Recovery-oriented care and trauma-informed care and practice
Week 3 Suicide prevention: Population approaches
Week 4 Suicide prevention: Individual practice and experience
Week 5 Improving outcomes in your context
Week 6 Impact of evolving models and their contribution
Week 7 Using recovery as a concept to understand the people you work with
Week 8 Adapting your practice
Week 9 Recovery-focused interventions
Week 10 Applying recovery principles to the populations you work with
Week 11 Overview of normal development
Week 12 Attachment in normal development
Week 13 The impact of attachment on resilience across the lifespan
Week 14 The impact of attachment on mental ill health across the lifespan
Week 15 Mental health promotion across the lifespan

Mental Health Course Unit