Organisational change in the context of recovery‐oriented services

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on the process of organisational change in the implementation of recovery principles into everyday NHS mental health practice, in order to highlight the centrality of this process in enabling implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

Several recent good practice examples are given below of relevant projects in which similar challenges have been met and the methods of doing so.

Findings

The organisational change process for recovery‐oriented services needs to be a win‐win situation, in which all of the participants would be able to recognise that each of them can win from the implementation of a recovery‐oriented service, even if they are in for some losses (in status, in having to share power, being indirectly criticised for the way they have worked up to now, having to unlearn). This implies that the losses need to be recognised by the leaders of the change process and addressed as much as possible, but that the emphasis should remain on what the participants stand to gain in the new culture and structure.

Originality/value

Conceptual framework of such a process and its significant components are linked to the challenges inherent in recovery implementation for the workforce. The challenges are expanded upon in terms of their implications for the specificity of the organisational change required and its complexity. Organisational change is both differentiated from the change in the content and structure of services necessary for implementing recovery yet related to it.

Citation

Ramon, S. (2011), "Organisational change in the context of recovery‐oriented services", The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 38-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/17556221111136152