Two new Recovery Facilitation Programmes (RFP) designed to empower people to take greater control of their recovery and enable them to better manage their conditions have been launched.
Energise Health’s six-week programmes, Energise Recovery and Energise Recovery 4Life, equip both recently-diagnosed people and those living with long-term conditions with the knowledge and skills they need to make beneficial and lasting changes.
Energise Recovery – for those at an early stage of recovery – and Energise Recovery 4Life – for those at least six months into their recovery journey – are online programmes that offer live teaching sessions on a range of topics, alongside practical activities and guided coursework.
Energise Health has been created by Nurse Pain Specialist Dr Dee Burrows and Occupational Therapist Victoria Collins, who brought together years of expertise to develop these programmes, which they have seen, from their own experiences, are badly needed.
“The concept came from a really challenging case we were both working on, where we realised that had this particular client been given access to something like this at an early stage in their recovery, it would have prevented so many secondary complications,” says Victoria.
The programmes – devised over 18 months, in consultation with experts in the field – aim to educate participants in how to tackle and improve issues around pain, stress, depression, poor sleep and lack of confidence in daily activity. Participants are shown how to adopt a bespoke range of strategies that they can incorporate into their daily lives to help them manage.
Although the business launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike many initiatives that were taken online out of necessity, Energise Recovery and Energise Recovery 4Life were intentionally developed as online programmes.
“We designed this to be online as we wanted a facilitated group-based programme,” says Dee.
“And when you are supporting people who are living with injuries or conditions, their recovery is best facilitated if they have the energy to spend on it, rather than exhausting themselves through travel. It is also a more environmentally friendly model, which is important to both of us.
“We can have people from across the country, whether Edinburgh, Leeds, or Cornwall coming together in a way that will benefit them individually and collectively. We look forward to sharing it with more people.”
Energise Recovery and Energise Recovery 4Life introduce participants to a range of strategies from mindfulness to Tai Chi, belly breathing to sleep management, diet to exercise and connecting with others, all backed by a comprehensive handbook and activity diary.
“We are enabling people to try a range of different strategies – all of which have been carefully chosen for this purpose, determine which ones they want to pursue and learn how to integrate them into their daily routine,” says Victoria.
“We enable them to develop a personalised toolkit, with strategies to manage their conditions. Participants can develop their own script. We are empowering them to find out what works for them.”
In the six-month pilot of both programmes, engagement levels were 100 per cent in terms of both session attendance and self-reporting, with ongoing success seen in terms of individual outcomes. On average, participants started their programme with 3.75 self-management strategies, rising to 26.25 at programme completion.
“What we do is based on the principles of hope, engagement, support and self-management, and the desire to change is something we look for when accepting participants,” says Dee.
Victoria says: “The programmes are a foundation. We provide high quality resources and links for people to learn more and develop if they wish, and, through our teaching, explain key components and how they might be applied. It is bitesize and digestible.
“We are enabling people to enhance their ability to self-manage. By adopting the strategies into their lives, we have already seen how this can give individuals hope for the future and be of great benefit to their mental, social and physical wellbeing.”
Dee adds: “While the early stage Energise Recovery Programme will always give the best possible chance of recovery, Energise Recovery 4Life can be equally beneficial for those with long-term conditions, including, for instance, Long Covid
“We have noticed that some participants do better with their clinical interventions when they have completed the Programme as a foundation and have a toolkit of strategies in place. It can also, however, work well in tandem with, or after clinical interventions.”
