What is Recovery Coaching (and who needs it)?

The term ”Psychosocial Recovery Coaching” has come out of nowhere over the last few months. You may be wondering what it is, and whether you need it, and can access it.

Let’s start with what the NDIS defines a Recovery Coach as. This is from their website:

A recovery coach is an NDIS funded worker that has mental health knowledge. A recovery coach will:
 spend time with you, and people important to you, to get to know you and understand your needs
 help you to find out about different services and supports, and how these can help you
 help you get support from mental health services
 help you better understand the NDIS and support you with the NDIS

In other words, they will stand beside you, not do things for you. Like a Support Coordinator, they will help you get things done. But the difference is that it’s you that will be doing things – organising your own life and seeing to your own needs, while your coach supports, advises and encourages you, and helps you with the tools you need.

It’s an important job, and you need to have someone long term who you can work with.

All recovery coaches have to have either qualifications of life experience. The life experience can be either having suffered from a mental illness in the past, or have experience dealing with people who have a mental illness. Sometime, they can even be two or three of these.

Not everyone qualifies for Recovery coaching, it depends on the plan and the circumstances., and to what degree mental illness has been a factor for you. Ask us if you’d like to know if you do.