Mental Health Concern’s values base is expressed in the Organisation’s clinical mission statement:

‘Continually working towards ordinary lives for people affected by severe mental health problems’

The concept of ‘ordinary lives’ is taken from normalisation theory and is taken to mean a life which is generally accepted by society at large as being highly valued and of high quality.

In practice an ‘ordinary life’ is believed to be one in which people experience:

Independence

Citizenship

Choice

Fulfilment

Privacy

Dignity

Rights

 

This framework has been developed from the principles initially identified by the DoH publication ‘Homes are for Living In’ as being essential to a good quality of life.

We are also influenced by the values inherent in the concept of ‘recovery’. In particular these include:

Recognition

Value

Risk taking

Acceptance

Relationships

Hope

Social Inclusion

We believe that people with mental health problems should be encouraged and supported in the pursuit of the above. This means that mental health workers should work with people to minimise the impact of their mental health problems on their capacity to lead an ordinary life.