WRAP

WRAP stands for Wellness Recovery Action Plan, and having procrastinated about it for months, I thought I'd have a go a writing mine today - or at least making a start. Basically, a WRAP is a Recovery tool that anybody can choose to use or not, to describe their ups and downs of life to whomoever they wish - or just as a self-help aid, really. It's a relatively new idea that sprung from America a couple of years back, and although they're using it quite extensively now in the mental health services of Hampshire and some other bits of England, it is literally just hitting Scotland, as we speak!

Anyway, it occured to me that with so many new people in my life that really haven't seen me in much other than the one state - and who most probably wouldn't be aware of half the difficulties I have, which are not immediately obvious or visible anyway - it might be quite a good idea to take the WRAP I've kept in my head for the past 18 months and put it down on paper. Besides - it will educate them a bit, as the chances of any of the doctors at my GP practice for instance, having ever as much as set eyes upon one is virtually zero. And I doubt that most of the other people I'm likely to share mine with - Salvation Army officers, for instance - will have even heard of it!!

A WRAP consists of seven sections which in theory, can be laid out however you choose but which, in practice, need to have the information they contain in some reasonably legible, understandable and accessible format. The sections are (1) a Wellness toolbox - basically a general list of things that you've tried and tested before and know help to keep you well - as well as another list of the things you know you should best avoid; (2) a Daily Maintenance Plan - which consists of a description of what you're like when you're well and a list of things that you need to do at regular intervals to keep you well; (3) Triggers - a list of external events/circumstances that are likely to make you feel less well, and an action plan of what to do if/when they occur; (4) Early Warning Signs - those subtle indications that we all have that something specific is amiss - and yet another list and action plan in the same format; (5) When Things Are Breaking Down - a list of the more serious symtoms requiring urgent actions; (6) Crisis Plan - self-explanatory really, a bit like an advance directive or statement, of how you'd like to be treated/not treated in the event of serious incapacity, who you'd like to act on your behalf and so on - but really quite comprehensive; and finally (7), Post-crisis plan - an indication of how people can recognise your needs are subsiding, and yet another action plan.

Some of it - particularly the Crisis Plan - is quite similar to the Advance Statement provisions of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, which came into force just under a year ago - and it remains to be seen how or whether WRAPs, or elements of WRAPs, will be accepted and/or interwork with these - but it will give them all something to think about - I'm all for that!