[Ailist] Ai and Mental Health

[Helen Spector]

There is a movement in Mental Health Treatment circles known as the  
Recovery Model, which does not function on the medical diagnostic  
model of what is wrong or the underlying Pathology, but rather focuses  
on what the client (not patient) is capable of doing and what would  
enable them to live their life more fully within the scope of their  
capacity.

Last year, I worked on the initial stages of a project which is  
looking at the power of AI to help existing, medical-model based  
practices move in the direction of Recovery.  This has particular  
importance, since many US State Departments of Mental Health are  
requiring public clinics to shift tot he Recovery Model.

This might also provide an interesting element in the full  
consideration of how we frame what mental health consists of...

Helen Spector
Spector & Associates, LLC
Consulting and Coaching for
    Meetings that work
        Teams that perform, and
            Change that lasts!
voice 503.296.7248
cell    510.701.4035
fax     503.296.7243



On Apr 16, 2009, at 1:05 PM, Mike Sands wrote:

Nick

I will be writing you more - I believe that a core power of AI is to  
share, nourish, inculcate feelings of capability, energy, optimism,  
relatabilkity etc etc etc - not PERFECT harmony but towards it.

To the extent that these ideas are efficacious, engaging in discovery  
conversations, inquiring together etc etc are bound to make moments  
marvelous---- and as the percentage of my (or anyone's) moments that  
are marvelous goes up indications that I have some mental or emotional  
problem must go down.

Now I suppose there are some conditions where no amount of salubrious  
conversation will be helpful - but I choose to think about the vast  
amount of anxiety, loneliness, inactivity, behaviour problems,  
overweight, eating problems  that will be ameliorated by friendly  
interest, admiration and connection  -a nd even more so by helping  
victims come to comfortable knowledge that they can be highly  
effectiive resources for other people.

This is all a basic FORCE behind the program I run called Winning  
Words - Using Conversations to Excite Life.

What English poet said, "Words are the most powerful drugs used by  
mankind" (and that was in 1923, before we learned how to "farm" a  
persons own words so they could multiply their benefit.)


Well,  I've said it before - that was fun - thanks for opening the  
subject

Mike




----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Heap" <nick at nickheap.co.uk>
To: "Appreciative Inquiry" <ailist at lists.business.utah.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 7:04 AM
Subject: [Ailist] Ai and Mental Health


> Dear All
>
> I was wondering if you know of any appreciative work in the area of  
> mental
> health?
>
> I could imagine appreciative interviews of the most mentally healthy  
> people
> you could find would be very illuminating. It would be interesting  
> to try
> and define mental health too. Positive psychology is a counterweight  
> to the
> current deficit thinking on mental illness, but I think this might go
> further
>
> At the moment this is just the germ of an idea, so any thoughts,
> connections, resources or ideas would be very welcome. If you wanted  
> to do
> something, how might you go about it?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nick Heap
>
> Web: www.nickheap.co.uk
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