[...]... Clinical and managerial colleagues at what was then called the Newcastle City Health Trust in England deserve a special mention for their original invitation to frame the idea of the Tidal Model as the basis for nursing practice in the mental health programme If they had not made this request in the first place, and had not helped support its launch into the often difficult waters of ordinary NHS practice,... Deborah Carrick 20011 Values Twentieth-century values First they came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant Then they came for. .. be healthy activities for the whole person So, if that is true, then value making will foster mental health and the Tidal Model may be described, appropriately, as an approach to mental health recovery/discovery We hope that this book can be read by anyone with an interest in mental health care, whichever discipline they belong to, or even if they have no special professional affiliation We hope that... might come to appreciate differently, and perhaps better, their own value, and the unique value of their experience Roll all this together and the Tidal Model is a paper template for engaging in value making Does this generate mental health? We are not sure, as there appears to be a multitude of definitions of mental health However, we believe that value making and the appreciation of value in our lives... of all kinds certainly set the stage and serve as assistants: ‘They do not provide the magic, although they may provide the means for mobilizing, challenging, and focusing clients’ magic’ (Hubble et al 1999:95) The person with a serious and disabling form of mental ill health experiences what the layperson has long called a mental breakdown’ In the metaphor of the Tidal Model, Tales of shipwrecks and... generated within it, as we unpack our awareness of the past, and what the story means in the present The Tidal Model constructs a narrative-based form of practice (Barker and Kerr 2001), which differs markedly from some contemporary forms of evidence-based practice The former is always about particular human instances, whereas the latter is based on the behaviour of populations, whose elements are merely... experience The Tidal Model is a philosophical approach to developing genuine mental health care (Barker 200 0a, 200 1a, 2001c) It is less about treating or managing a form of mental illness and more about following a person, in an effort to provide the kind of support that The Tidal Model 16 might help them on the way to recovery As such, it is based on a few simple ideas about ‘being human’ and ‘helping one another’... call mental health recovery This process will involve the discovery of mental health, since many people have told us that they had not previously been aware of their mental health, until they began to experience what is, euphemistically, called mental illness The Tidal Model describes various assumptions about people, their inherent value, and the value of relating to people in particular ways It also... certainly wasn’t what was happening at the time The key features of the Tidal Model that set it aside from other models are: • It is based on the personal stories of service users • It is a holistic model of care • It promotes self-management and recovery • It is based on ‘caring with’ rather than ‘caring for • It promotes the concept of ‘therapeutic experience’ rather than ‘containment’ When the Tidal. .. everything and the service user must be allowed to dictate the pace of their own recovery Above all the mental health nurse is always the bearer of hope and belief in recovery, no matter what particular path they have had to follow In that sense, the Tidal Model is truly ‘groundbreaking’ Dr Irene Whitehill Northumberland, England A view from the USA My first experience with mental illness was a breakneck . colleagues at what was then called the Newcastle City Health Trust in England deserve a special mention for their original invitation to frame the idea of the Tidal Model as the basis for nursing. then value making will foster mental health and the Tidal Model may be described, appropriately, as an approach to mental health recovery/discovery. We hope that this book can be read by anyone. record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barker, Phil, 1946– The tidal model: a guide for mental health professionals/ Phil Barker