WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Planning)

We found about WRAP several years ago and we are really pleased to have had the opportunity for several members of the group to take part in training to become WRAP facilitators. Our WRAP group meet at Scunthorpe and District Mind, Printer's Yard on Fenton Street on Wednesday afternoons from 1-3pm . If you want to know more here is some information to give you an idea of what WRAP is all about and how it can help you, or if you would like to start your own WRAP you can download a blank WRAP plan here. You can also have a look on our Useful Links page for websites with lots of information about WRAP and Recovery.

WRAP is a way of taking more control over your wellbeing and make positive changes in the way that you feel. It gives you a framework to develop ways of helping to feel better and to manage your symptoms.  A lot of the things in WRAP are things that you probably do already in some way or another but WRAP pulls everything together and helps you to develop ways of working towards wellness. WRAP works by helping you to think about how you feel, the things that make you feel better and the things that make you feel worse. It gives you a way of looking at the things you can do the feel well and a plan to put it into action.

Anyone can do a WRAP; you can do it on your own or in a group. It’s something that may take time and will almost certainly change over time. It helps you to learn about yourself and take more control of your life. As your wellbeing improves, you will probably want to change your WRAP.  Your WRAP is a personal guide to supporting you to feel better; you can refer to it daily for reminders and also use it when things are difficult. The WRAP is divided into different parts and you can do as many or as few as you want. It’s up to you if you share it with others but if you decide to use the Crisis Plan then we advise that you make it known to your workers so that your plan can be put into practice if you are in crisis.

Taking part in a WRAP group gives you the chance to talk to other people about their experiences and to share ideas of ways that you can improve your wellbeing and cope with symptoms. In WRAP these things are called ‘wellness tools’ and we all have quite a few that we probably use on a daily basis. Some of these wellness tools may be very helpful, some may help but not be good for us in the long term (smoking, drinking, drugs  etc) and some may not help at all but are things we do out of habit. Talking with others gives us the chance to share ideas and look at trying some new wellness tools. One of the big advantages of a WRAP group is that you have the chance to talk with other people who are keen to take more control of their own mental health and as a group you can support each other. We all know what is good for us but sometimes, especially if we are not feeling too good it isn’t always easy to put things into practice or even take time to look at your WRAP. Going to a group gives you chance to talk to others when things are difficult and group members can support each other to use their wellness tools or other parts of their WRAP.

WRAP is divided in to several parts:

• Wellness tools: these are things that you like doing, things you enjoy and that make you feel good. Examples include: going for a walk, taking part in a hobby or sport, listening to music, having a massage etc etc.  Although wellness tools are things that make you feel good, they may have a negative side – wellness tools such as smoking, taking drugs, alcohol or self harm may make you feel good at the time but can have an adverse effect. Traditionally services would encourage people not to use ‘negative’ wellness tools but WRAP accepts that sometimes you need to do things like this to cope in the short term. The idea is that as your wellbeing improves and you look at other wellness tools, any negative wellness tools will become ‘worn out’ and be replaced by more positive ways of feeling good. In this part of the WRAP you can also list things that have a special sense of meaning for you or things that inspire you and remind you of your values. It can also be helpful to write down any wellness tools you would like to try.
• What you are like when you are well: in this part of WRAP you can describe yourself when you are well, you can do this by thinking how you feel when you are doing a wellness tool. This acts as a baseline or a benchmark.
• Daily maintenance plan:  here you can put down all the things you need to do every day to keep yourself feeling as well as possible. You can also note any thing you need to do occasionally to stay well (such as a trip out with friends every month or a visit to the hairdressers every 6 weeks). You can also include things you know you should do to stay well but for some reason you don’t do them.
• Triggers: this part of the WRAP can be quite distressing as it means thinking about when you’ve been ill in the past, perhaps looking at difficult times in life and identifying things that happen which set of a series of unpleasant or unhelpful feelings, thought and behaviour. For example triggers can include anniversaries, a song or a smell, certain places or people. Once you have identified things that can act as triggers, your WRAP involves thinking about how you can cope with them, can you avoid them or are there thing s you can do to prevent feeling worse if you are triggered, this is the time to really use your wellness tools.
• Early warning signs: this part involves thinking about the things that tell you (and other people) that you are not feeling well. People close to you may notice things that you do not. E.g. not sleeping well, feeling down, smoking more. Then you look at ways of coping for each of the early warning signs, when you have been triggered you may need to use more/different wellness tools. It’s useful to do this when you are well because it’s so difficult to think of things that make you feel good if you aren’t feeling well; if you have a guide in your WRAP you can use to try and improve your wellbeing when you first notice some of the early warning signs.
• Decline, things are getting worse: this part of your WRAP is where you can note down the signs that you are feeling worse, this may include things like how you feel, and behave when the situation is getting serious or even dangerous.  Your wellness tools may not be helping much at this point so you may need to think of other ways that you can cope with these signs. Again it is easier to think of coping methods while you are well than when things are breaking down.
• Crisis Plan – this part of the WRAP is like an advance directive. Even though WRAP will help you to stay well, there may be times of crisis when you need extra support or even admission to hospital. Your crisis plan is to help others to care for you and to keep you in control at a time when it may be hard to make decisions. This is the only part of your WRAP that you need to share with others – there may be things you need to negotiate with family or friends and you may want your worker or psychiatrist to be aware of your wishes.

If you would like more information about WRAP or would like support to complete your own WRAP plan please contact us on 01724 858343 or email voicesum@yahoo.co.uk