What is WSM? Wellness Self-Management is a curriculum-based clinical practice designed to assist adults to effectively manage serious mental health problems. The topics covered include a number of research-informed approaches that are organized into a comprehensive and coordinated set of practices.
The WSM program is based on Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), a nationally recognized evidence-based practice for adults with serious mental health problems. In addition to IMR-related topics such as recovery, mental health wellness, and relapse prevention, the WSM approach includes lessons emphasizing the connection between physical and mental health.
It may be helpful to think of WSM as a comprehensive curriculum that covers many topics providing information, knowledge, and skills that help people to make decisions that support recovery. The curriculum is organized into a 57-lesson personal workbook that includes topics such as:
- Understanding what helps and what hinders recovery
- Understanding how having goals helps recovery
- Understanding how your cultural and family background affects decisions about mental health services
- Practical facts about mental health symptoms, treatment, and causes
- How social support and using community resources help recovery
- How family and friends can support your work in WSM
- Developing and using a relapse prevention plan
- Knowing and using your strengths to support recovery
- Finding and using coping strategies that work
- Understanding the connection between physical and mental health
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Why is WSM important?
Benefit for Participants: WSM is important because it provides consumers with research-informed knowledge and tools to better manage mental and physical health problems. This enables individuals to spend less time managing illness and more time pursuing goals and enjoying life. WSM is also designed to reinforce principles of recovery including shared decision-making, informed choice, involvement, and hope.
What people who have completed a WSM group program have to say
- “I was very angry, I wasn’t dealing with it. I wasn’t taking my illness seriously. Now I decided to start taking my meds on time and not skip it.”
- “I thought I could never handle a job but now I’m looking forward to getting a job.”
- “It helps pinpoint symptoms. I can feel the storm coming and prevent it from happening.”
- “I asked my mom to help me with the WSM book. I told her about the program … it gives me a push to keep going.”
- “It’s so upfront, right in your face … it’s like having a parent with no penalties.”
- “This group gives me tools I can use … different from other groups.”
- “I like the cultural background part. It doesn’t violate your cultural background.”
Benefit for mental health staff providing WSM programs:
The WSM curriculum, materials, consumer workbook, and corresponding training integrate a number of core clinical skills. These include motivation enhancing strategies, basic cognitive-behavioral approaches, teaching techniques, and practical group leadership skills. WSM is designed to support clinical staff in providing WSM services in group and individual modalities.
What staff members who facilitated a WSM group program have to say.
- “At first I was skeptical about this group because we start lots of groups. … I noticed that the consumers were really listening to this and using the stuff they say in the group. … More and more clients are telling their friends about it, and they want to join. Even the psychiatrists want to see the workbooks.”
- “Running the group has affected me. I have been able to step out of my position for a moment and understand what they have been going through. … I am learning from them and they are learning from me, we are both growing.”
- “Clients actually have something to look forward to. People are alive and alert … up and active.”
- “It’s really helpful because until now, they didn’t have anything they could take home. People have the book now. Consumers talk about how they were able to sit down with the psychiatrist and therapist and ask questions.”
Benefit for mental health agencies: WSM provides a comprehensive, structured, systematic, and cost effective individual and group curriculum that can be implemented, sustained, and spread in a practical and efficient manner.
What administrators have to say:
- “The WSM initiative is a terrific, engaging, and empowering intervention for mental health consumers. Giving staff a set of clear guidelines on how to involve consumers in the management of their own illnesses, this intervention helps our consumers take more responsibility for their recovery. Staff and clients love it!!”
Amy Dorin, Senior Vice President, FEGS, New York City.
- "The timing of the wellness self management program perfectly married with SUS's organizational transformation efforts. For staff and consumers, it is the bridge between our values and ethics work and practical strategies to support individuals toward their recovery. The program's success demonstrates the power of collaboration."
Donna Colonna, Executive Director,
Services for the Underserved (SUS) New York City
- "The WSM program has added an important new dimension to the way person-centered planning, rehabilitation, and recovery services are provided at ICL. ... Consumers and staff have been equally enthusiastic about the positive results they have seen and the satisfaction they have experienced putting WSM into practice."
Michael Blady, LCSW-R, Associate Executive V. P., Institute for Community Living
- "WSM has been an extraordinary success for both clients and staff. For clients, it gave them the opportunity to acquire concrete skills while giving them an unprecedented feeling of accomplishment and hope. The program invigorated the staff's belief in recovery. WSM has become an essential foundational service for our recovery oriented agency."
Peter D. Beitchman, DSW, Executive Director, The Bridge, Inc.
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Frequently asked questions:
Who provides WSM services?
How long will WSM last?
Can family members or friends play a role in supporting a person involved in WSM?
What principles guide WSM?
Are WSM Services Mandatory?
Can a person end his or her involvement at anytime?
Has the WSM workbook been translated into other languages?
Can the WSM program be helpful to people from various cultures and religions?
Does a participant need to read well to participate?
Is the WSM program right for someone who didn’t like school or doing homework?
How does a person get a copy of the WSM workbook?
How does a mental health agency or program interested in providing WSM programs get involved?
Who provides WSM services?
WSM can be provided by mental health staff and peer specialists who have received WSM training.
How long will WSM last?
The length of time varies based on a number of factors including the treatment setting, the length of stay of people in the treatment program, individual or group modality, use of the entire or selected parts of the curriculum, and frequency and pace of meetings. In general, it takes about a year to complete the entire curriculum in groups that meet weekly for about an hour. Some programs may offer WSM more than once a week. It is important to remember that there is not a correct length for the program.
Can family members or friends play a role in supporting a person involved in WSM?
Yes. The person involved in the WSM program is offered an opportunity to identify friends or family members he/she might want involved. Family or friends may help by providing encouragement, discussing topics of interest with the consumer, providing assistance with reading the material, and completing action steps.
What principles guide WSM?
- Belief that recovery is possible
- Emphasis on personal strengths and health
- Emphasis on informed decision-making, self determination, choice, and growth
- Cultural respect
- Consistency with research-informed approaches
Are WSM Services Mandatory?
No! Participation in WSM is voluntary.
Can a person end his or her involvement at anytime?
Yes! The decision to continue to participate in WSM is left up to the individual.
Has the WSM workbook been translated into other languages?
The workbooks are currently available in English (including large-print version), Spanish, and Chinese.
Can the WSM program be helpful to people from various cultures and religions?
Yes. The WSM program respects each participant's values and beliefs. It does not criticize or judge a person’s cultural or religious points of view. Rather, the WSM workbook provides participants with opportunities to better understand how their religious or cultural background affects their decisions about mental and physical health services. In this way, a person is in a better position to make informed health care decisions that work.
Does a participant need to read well to participate?
No. If someone finds it difficult to read, he or she can attend, listen, and share ideas in the WSM group. People who have difficulty reading have successfully participated in WSM groups. This has been accomplished by the person:
- Meeting with his/her group leader before the group to review the lesson
- Meeting with a family member or friend before or after the group to read or reread the lesson
- Working with another member of the group who can help with the material
If working in a group program is not preferred, WSM can be provided in individual meetings.
Is the WSM program right for someone who didn’t like school or doing homework?
Yes. Getting involved in the WSM program is a person’s choice. It's not the same as school that insists on homework or gives a grade. Participants are given opportunities to continue their learning outside the group, but that decision is left to the individual.
Participants are not given a grade but, rather, invited to set some goals on aspects of their lives they would like to improve as they participate in the WSM program. WSM is something people freely choose because they have decided to explore opportunities to support their mental and physical health.
How does a person get a copy of the WSM workbook?
A copy of the workbook is available through the Center. To order a copy, click here. You will need to register to the Center's site. Once you have registered, you will be taken to the Store Front window. Please select either "Within New York State" or "Outside New York State." You are now able to see all of the Wellness Self Management materials available for ordering.
How does a mental health agency or program interested in providing WSM programs get involved?
Mental health programs in NYS have the opportunity to join a Practice Improvement Network (PIN). This network of providers is offered educational and training resources to support agencies in providing high quality WSM programs. We request that agencies that are considering providing WSM programs do so as part of a PIN. We also request that agencies NOT make copies of the workbook and implement the program without collaborating with the Center. Please send an email to hindsma@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu to learn more about how to join a Practice Improvement Network.
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