The B.C. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Advanced Practice

What is the PSR Advanced Practice?

The purpose of the PSR Advanced Practice (PSR AP) is to support clinicians and managers responsible for providing PSR services.   The PSR AP provides support to the field by transferring evidence-based knowledge, providing expert clinical consultation, developing and presenting training and education events for the field, developing website/resources, and project management including provision of secretariat support for the PSR Provincial Advisory Committee and the community of PSR practice.

Background

Healthy Minds, Healthy People, A Ten-Year Plan to Address Mental Health and Substance Use in British Columbia calls for action to implement evidence-based rehabilitation services including employment, education, leisure and wellness. This will be facilitated through the completion of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Service Framework mid-2014 to support the implementation of psychosocial rehabilitation for people with severe mental health and/or substance use problems. 

PSR approaches include programs, services and practices with well documented effectiveness in facilitating the recovery of persons living with serious mental illness, substance use problems or concurrent disorders. The Service Framework reviews the evidence on best and promising practices and makes recommendations in the life domains of employment, education, leisure, wellness and basic living skills. In addition the Service Framework also reviews the evidence and makes recommendations in the emerging areas of the Peer Support and Family Involvement literature. Recommendations are made to develop and implement best and promising practices in each of these topic areas. 

PSR approaches are strengths based and recovery oriented. Recovery is now emerging as the dominant philosophy in mental health. This has occurred largely as the result of major longitudinal studies, e.g. Harding, Brooks et al, (1987a, b) which have shown that recovery is possible for most persons living with serious mental illness, as well as from the influential writings of William Anthony and Patricia Deegan. Historically, the substance use problem field has had a vision of recovery from addiction. This was replaced until recently by a medical model with these problems regarded as medical diseases. However, the recovery vision is now re-emerging in this field as well. 

To support the field, in implementing the recommendations of the PSR Service Framework and advance strengths based, recovery orientated approaches in BC, an Implementation and Sustainability Plan for PSR Advanced Practice will be developed. This plan will assure the development of a capability which meets the following requirements:

• Provides an Advanced Practice capability which is aligned and consistent with the Advanced Practices established in other program areas such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Early Psychosis (EPI). This Advanced Practice support is provided to the Health Authorities as well as non-governmental organizations which are providing mental health and substance use problem services
   
• Provides  leadership and expertise to facilitate and support evidence-based service development, delivery and sustainability
   
• Develops processes to model and mentor the adoption and  use of evidence-based approaches
   
• Facilitates research and evaluation to refine and strengthen the evidence base regarding best and emerging, promising practices
   
• Provides training and education opportunities to students, clinicians and managers, decision and policy makers in the  in the mental health and substance use fields
   
• Identifies strategies to support practice change management with clinicians and managers, decision and policy makers in the mental health and substance use fields
   
• Develops a capability to provide expert clinical consultation to practitioners on complex cases