Holistic

Holistic and personalised care: As recovery is understood to be multidimensional, a recovery-oriented approach considers people holistically and acknowledges the multitude of factors that affect a person's wellbeing. In understanding that people's wellbeing, recovery and lives are their own to direct, mental health services may be well placed to support people in a range of other aspects of their lives, if people request support in these areas. As such, services create an enabling environment to assist people to live in accordance with their values and wishes and to find ways to meet their needs.

• Core principles
  • Mental health care is personalised and informed by people's particular circumstances, preferences, goals and needs.
  • Mental health service providers understand that a range of factors impact on people's wellbeing and the corresponding need to consider people in the context of their cultural values and beliefs, social networks, family, community, housing, physical health, education and employment.
  • Mental health care is responsive to the whole person and all the factors that impact on their wellbeing.
  • Mental health care is relevant, appropriate and responsive to people's age and developmental stage.
  • Mental health care is responsive to the range of different needs people may have, which involves effective collaboration with non-mental health service providers.
• Key capabilities

  	Mental health professionals
  Behaviours	tailor their practice to provide relevant, appropriate and responsive care in accordance with people's values, needs, aspirations and circumstances use practices that are appropriate and sensitive to people's age and developmental stage support people to access opportunities, resources and services to meet their needs and attain their recovery goals
  Attitudes	view people in the context of their whole selves, lives and wellbeing, including their cultural values and relationships value and support people's aspirations and recovery efforts
  Skills	are sensitive and respectful in enquiring about people's individual needs, wishes and circumstances advocate, coordinate and collaborate effectively with non-mental health service providers to support people to meet their needs and attain their recovery goals support people to live lifestyles of their choosing develop a range of skills to support personalised practice
  Knowledge	work to continually enhance their knowledge of opportunities, resources and services available and support people to access these have an understanding of different age-related and developmental stages and acknowledge the impact of culture on these stages

• Good practice
  • Routinely enquire about people's wishes, support needs, goals, values and interests and use this information to personalise care.
  • Support people to fulfil their social, educational, vocational and caring responsibilities.
  • Incorporate different non-conventional and non-clinical approaches to supporting people's mental health and wellbeing.
  • Support people to improve their social and emotional wellbeing.
  • Congratulate and celebrate people's successes and achievements.
  • Network and build partnerships with non-mental-health service providers to ensure that people are supported to meet their needs.
  • Find out what services have been involved in a person's mental health care when the person is referred to the service and involve these services as appropriate.
  • Support people to enjoy full physical health and to address health concerns when they present.
• Good leadership
  • Encourage home visiting and environmental assessments to assist in understanding the person, their priorities, relationships, circumstances and strengths.
  • Review the service environment to see if it makes sense to people accessing the service and is age appropriate (for example no low chairs in the waiting room if people using the service are older people; easy way-finding).
  • Seek ways to flexibly respond to people's needs and availability.
  • Promote good holistic practice for shared care (for example, advise relevant people if a person is being discharged for coordinated discharge planning).
  • Ensure regular case conferences, even when people are doing really well.
  • Ensure staff are skilled at networking and building partnerships with other organisations and that this aspect of their work is recognised and supported by the organisation.
  • Support people to access the broad spectrum of health services available.
  • Review local policies and procedures to incorporate personalised approaches.