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Reflections by a consultant psychiatrist on the experience of implementing a recovery-focused mental health service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2025

Emer Rutledge
Emer Rutledge*
Affiliation:
An Táin Mental Health Services, Navan Community Health Unit, Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland
*
Corresponding author: Emer Rutledge; Email: emer.rutledge@hse.ie
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Abstract

The recovery model of mental health care is distinct from the biomedical model of mental health care. To promote one runs the risk of marginalising the other. Both approaches have merit. Values of hope and optimism, social inclusion, collaborative decision-making, retaining a personal identity beyond an identity simply defined by a diagnosis of mental illness, are all central to the recovery model. A reorientation of mental health services is required, a change in culture which embodies the principles of a recovery model within which, the perspectives of patients and families are heard together with the perspectives of mental health professionals who have knowledge and expertise to offer. In Meath Community Mental Health Services we have implemented such a recovery model, the model of open dialogue where principles of dialogue, social inclusion, immediate help and collaborative decision-making are paramount. We began this service in 2019 and carried out an audit of the first 6 months of our implementation. The audit illustrated overwhelming satisfaction from service users and their families with the new approach. On foot of our successful pilot project we have extended the model of open dialogue to other teams in Meath and Louth, including the in-patient unit in Drogheda. Our open dialogue project illustrates how a recovery model of mental health care can be successfully implemented in a public mental health system.

Keywords

Mental Healthopen dialoguerecovery

Information

Type
Perspective Piece
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , First View , pp. 1 - 5
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of College of Psychiatrists of Ireland

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