Recovery at Family Services of Western Pennsylvania

FSWP is one of six agencies participating in a collaborative effort with ACHI to foster an even greater culture of recovery throughout all areas of our agency.  This collaborative is called Recovery Centers of Excellence.  As a part of this collaborative, FSWP has developed a strategic “Recovery Plan” to address areas that were identified as opportunities to enhance our agency’s orientation toward recovery.  The plan is lengthy and focuses on all areas of the agency.  Four primary objectives of this plan are to:

1)      Train all staff on the Principles and Practices of a Recovery Oriented System of Care,

2)      Increase the number of individuals in governance,

3)      Include a Crisis Plan in the Individual Service Plan (ISP), and

4)      Reduce reliance upon high intensity (and costly) support services.

An internal Recovery Committee that is comprised of staff and individuals from departments throughout the agency and a Consumer Recovery Committee (CAR) that is comprised of individuals of FSWP’s services has also been developed in response to one of the many other Recovery Plan objectives.  The Recovery committee is an advisory committee that will be consulted as strategic objectives and steps of the Recovery Plan are developed and carried out.  In addition, the Recovery committee and CAR is charged with working to foster a culture of recovery throughout the agency by outreach, celebrating successes and educating FSWP staff and consumers on the concepts and components of recovery.  The committee convened in February 2005 and has since had many successes.  Some of the more recent successes are:

§         The Recovery committee held a contest, voted on and chose a logo that will appear on all FSWP documents related to recovery,

§         The Recovery committee developed the first ever FSWP individual award (Shooting Star award) to be presented to one adult and one family / child at our annual awards luncheon,

§         The Recovery committee helps out in consulting / implementing FSWP's Recovery Plan – ongoing,

§         The Recovery committee solicits Recovery successes from FSWP staff and celebrates them by publishing them in our weekly newsletter,

§         The Recovery committee helps encourage the building of community partnerships and

§         The Recovery committee helps educate staff and individuals on agency and community programs and on the fundamentals of recovery in the MH system.

§         From the Recovery committee has sprung the CAR sub-committee (Consumers Advocating Recovery)

Anyone who may be interested in knowing more about the Recovery committee, CAR, attending a meeting, or what recovery looks like to us, please contact Andrea Pavlik at pavlika@fswp.org

To View a Power Point Presentation on RECOVERY AT FSWP click here