Measuring recovery-oriented rehabilitation language in clinical documentation to enhance recovery-oriented practice.

Background: Mental health services are encouraged to use language consistent with principles of recovery-oriented practice. This study presents a novel approach for identifying whether clinical documentation contains recovery-oriented rehabilitation language, and evaluates an intervention to improve the language used within a community-based rehabilitation team.

Aims: This is a pilot study of training to enhance recovery-oriented rehabilitation language written in care review summaries, as measured through a text-based analysis of language used in mental health clinical documentation.

Placing rehabilitation at the core of assertive community treatment.

Objectives: Assertive community treatment (ACT) teams are increasingly being adapted to suit the needs of consumers who have never experienced long-term institutional care yet struggle to retain community tenure and quality of life due to residual functional disabilities associated with severe mental illness. Support needs can be provided by the growing disability support sector but recovery-orientated rehabilitation services delivered by specialist rehabilitation clinicians are also required. The Mobile Intensive Rehabilitation Team (MIRT) within the Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Service has adapted the ACT model to deliver assertive outreach that aims to work collaboratively with the person and their chosen supports to improve their function and their sense of self-efficacy in illness self-management.