1. The Tidal Model is an internationally accepted theory for the practice of mental health recovery.
The Tidal Model
has developed a specific theory of personhood. This is based around
the 'storytelling' process involved where people talk to themselves
(Self Domain), share something of the story of
their lives with others (World Domain) and enact
the living of their lives, influencing others and being influenced
in turn by them (Others Domain). (See
Theory for more details)
These three
Domains
also provide the theoretical basis for the key individual and
group-based processes of the Tidal Model: the
Holistic
Assessment; the
One-to-One Sessions; the
Personal Security Plan; and the three forms of
Group Work - Discovery, Solutions and
Information-Sharing.
Since its launch in the mid
1990’s the Tidal Model has generated projects
in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany,
Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil and several states
in the USA.
These projects range across the complete mental
health care spectrum: from home-based care and outpatient
addictions, through acute, rehabilitation and forensic units, to the
care of older people with early stage dementia. Beyond the mental
health field, practitioners in palliative care have explored the
Tidal Model as an alternative philosophy for the care of people who
are dying.
2. The Tidal Model
is a philosophical approach to the discovery of mental health.
Tidal is a philosophical approach. It is a way of thinking about
what people might need in the way of help. Tidal asks: What might
need to be done to help people reclaim the story, and eventually
recover their lives?
Tidal emphasises the
discovery of
mental health, as its meaning varies from one person to
another. We hope that people will discover what mental health means
for them – as unique persons.
Tidal assumes that recovery
must begin when the person is at their 'lowest ebb'. In practice,
this usually means beginning the work as soon as possible after
people have been admitted to any form of psychiatric care,
continuing and developing the recovery-focused care as the person
moves through the care system, and eventually carrying this over
into everyday life back in the community.
3. The Tidal Model helps people reclaim their story as a first step towards recovering the story of their lives.
Tidal aims to help people reclaim the personal story of their
distress and difficulty by recovering their voice. By using
their own language, metaphors and personal stories people begin to
express something of the meaning of their lives. This is the first
step towards helping people recover control over their lives.
As people, all we have is our story. All we can ever be is
framed by the story of our lives – the events that have occurred,
and how we responded to them. This story charts not only the changes
that have occurred on our voyage from birth, through childhood and
adulthood and eventually into death but also the growth and
development that has taken place within us.
4. The Tidal Model focuses on helping people deal with their problems of human living.
When people experience problems of human living they are described
as being ‘mentally ill’ or affected by some ‘psychiatric disorder’
or ‘psychological dysfunction’. Frequently, the person’s story is
overshadowed by stories of ‘illness’ or ‘psychological disorder’.
People often talk less about the ‘person’ and talk more about the
‘patient’, ‘client’, ‘service user’ or ‘consumer’.
Tidal
focuses explicitly on the person’s story. This is where the person’s
problems first appeared. This is where any growth, benefit, or
recovery will be found. Tidal also focuses on the problems that are
affecting the person in living an ordinary, meaningful and
fulfilling life.
The key Tidal question is :
What
needs to be done to help the person begin to address, resolve or
come to terms with this problem, and so begin to recover her or his
life?
5. The Tidal
Model was developed through the unique collaboration of mental
health nurses and people with experience of mental health services.
Most ideas around recovery were developed either by mental
health professionals or by former users/consumers of psychiatric
services. All the processes within the Tidal Model were developed
conjointly with people who either had been
'psychiatric patients', or who were defined as 'service users'.
These people acted as 'user consultants' to the field testing of the
original model and we continue to seek support and guidance from
similar 'consultants' in the further refinement of the Model.
6. The Tidal Model is a person-friendly approach to mental health recovery.
Tidal has no age, class or cultural boundaries and at present is
being used to facilitate recovery as easily with younger people, as
with adults, or with the older person, across a wide range of
societies and cultures.
Tidal actively avoids the use of
professional or technical jargon, focusing instead on the use of the
natural language of the person.
Originally developed as an
alternative model of mental health nursing, the Tidal Model
continues to be practised mainly by nurses, but also finds support
within psychiatric medicine, social work, occupational therapy and
psychotherapy. Increasingly, Tidal is viewed as an important
alternative approach to helping people use their natural voices as
the key instruments for charting their recovery.
7. The
Tidal Model helps people navigate their own voyage of recovery.
The
concept of ‘recovery’ means many different things to different
people. Tidal aims to help people clarify what is distressing or
disabling about their problems of human living, as the first step
towards clarifying what needs to be done to begin to move away from,
or overcome those problems.
We make no assumptions about what is - or is
not - a 'problem in living'. Nor do we assume that we know what
might be 'good' for a person; or what might represent a destination
that might be called 'recovery'. All such meaning must be defined by
the persons themselves.
8. The Tidal Model uses specific human values to guide the helping and enabling practice of mental health recovery.
The Tidal Model uses a dsiscrete value base - the
Ten
Commitments - to guide all the practical process of
individual and group work within the Model. These values emphasise
the importance of genuine person-centred care that is respectful of
culture and creed, and which recognise that belonging and membership
are vital to our personal identity as social beings.
9. The Tidal Model is a
philosophical and theoretical template for the development of mental
health recovery.
From Tidal theory we have
developed a range of ways of working with people - individually and
in groups - that can be adapted to fit the person's changing
circumstances. We have developed ‘examples’ of how practitioners
might work with people individually or in groups. These are examples
or illustrations —not rules. “The golden rule is that there
are no golden rules”.
Nurses, and other practitioners, around
the world are using the philosophical and theoretical principles of
the Tidal Model to develop their own practice to suit the unique
needs of the many individuals within their service
10. The Tidal Model does not work - people do.
There now exists a substantial body of research that illustrates the usefulness of working with the Tidal Model, across a range of populations. From a research perspective this is interesting - but no more than that.
Ultimately, the Tidal Model represents a theory of personhood and some processes, drawn from this theory. these processes provide a means by which professionals might help shape their practice in working with people experiencing problems in living.
However, like all other theories, the Tidal Model does not -cannot - work. It involves only ideas on paper. Ultimately, what 'works' (or does not work) is the person, or team of persons, who might help make a difference. We do not undervalue the possible helpfulness of the Tidal Model in helping people develop their practice to become more recovery and person-focused. However, ultimately any success belongs to the persons delivery the Tidal Model.
