Hero’s Journey part 1: Integrating Community Programs into Home-based Services & Windhorse Clinical Practice

There is strong research pointing to the effectiveness of meaningful activity, employment and social involvement in the recovery process of people with mental health challenges, and these aspects can be addressed and fostered within the Home-based services at Windhorse Community Services (WCS)as part of the Recovery Plan. In recent years, and in response to the wishes of families and clients, Community Programs (CP) was created to offer structured programs that enhance social opportunities amongst the Windhorse larger community and provide more formalized supported employment and educational services… Community Programs, with its philosophy and practices evolving from Psychiatric Rehabilitation, was initially seen as a deviation from the traditional Home-based services at the core of the Windhorse Model of treatment. In exploring the relationship between Home-based services and CP,one gains a deeper understanding and appreciation of the similarities in their theoretical foundations within their diverse therapeutic environments and approaches (see Diagram #2) . Over the years, CP has evolved into a hybrid, more fluid program, fusing together elements of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (PR), the Windhorse therapeutic approach—which has its foundations in the research and writings of Dr. Ed Podvoll and Chogyam Trungpa—and the personal supportive counseling styles of each CP staff member.