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Isak Dinesen |
The cure for
anything is salt
water - sweat,
tears, or the sea
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Goethe |
The sea is flowing
ever,
The land retains
it never.
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Beginner's Guide
 | 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, 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).
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 over 100
official projects in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand.
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 are exploring the Tidal Model
as an alternative philosophy for the care of people
who are dying.
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The Tidal Model
is a philosophical approach to the discovery
of mental health. |
Tidal
is philosophical in the sense that 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.
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The Tidal Model helps people reclaim
the story of their problems of human living, as
a first step towards recovering the story of
their lives. |
Tidal aims to help
people reclaim the personal story of their
distress, 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.
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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?
| The Tidal Model
was developed through the unique
collaboration of mental health nurses and
users/consumers of mental health services.
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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.
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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.
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The Tidal Model helps the person to
navigate her or his own way to 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.
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The Tidal Model uses specific human
values to guide the helping and enabling
practice of mental health recovery. |
The Tidal Model has a value base -
the
Ten Commitments
- that guides
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.
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The Tidal Model is a philosophical
and theoretical template upon which to build and
develop the practice of mental health recovery.
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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” (George Bernard Shaw)
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.
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