The Recovery Focused Care Transfer (ReFleCT) pathway: Fostering optimism and hope with clients prior to their discharge from secondary care

Recovery focused care in mental health services is now part of NHS England’s plan to personalise care that empowers service users to sustain a meaningful life. This service evaluation validates how service users with systemic dependency and enduring mental health problems (N = 10) experience the shift from clinical recovery to personal recovery on completion of a Recovery Focused Care Transfer pathway (ReFleCT) which was led by a senior counselling psychologist and a member of the multidisciplinary team (MDT). A mixed model design was adopted and quantitative results using a Paired t-test demonstrated significantly higher post-discharge QPR (process of recovery questionnaire) scores (t (6) = –2.931, p=. 026) for all service users attending the ReFleCT programme indicative of recovery, where 87 per cent of items showed improvements. Staff questionnaire responses also validated the benefit of the programme in terms of service user involvement, compassion, risk to resilience and support of others. Qualitative feedback from staff, service users, their families, carers and external agencies did confirm that post attendance on the programme offered sustained improvements.This pathway proved a valuable resource in the current economic climate with promising results which highlight its strengths prior to/at the point of and post-discharge. Participants with a mean average of ten years in secondary care became empowered in their shift from dependent to independent care in a client led timely, responsive and informed manner.