Tidal Model

The Tidal Model is a recovery model for the promotion of mental health developed by Professor Phil Barker, Poppy Buchanan-Barker and their colleagues. The Tidal Model focuses on the continuous process of change inherent in all people. It seeks to reveal the meaning of people's experiences, emphasising the importance of their own voice and wisdom through the power of metaphor. It aims to empower people to lead their own recovery rather than being directed by professionals.

The philosophy underpinning the model initially was inspired by a five year research into what people need for care in mental health carried out by Prof. Barker and Dr. Chris Stevenson at the University of Newcastle, UK. Since 2000, it has been put into practice in a number of settings in the UK and abroad.

Due to the work of Phil Barker in this area, he is frequently cited as being a prominent contemporary theorist in mental health nursing.

The tidal model is applied through six key philosophical assumptions:

In order for the practitioner to begin the process of engagement using the Tidal Model, the following needs to be accepted:

The process of engaging with the person in distress takes place in three discrete domains. With the Tidal Model, the practitioner explores these dimensions to be aware of the situation in the present time and determine what needs to happen now.

The Tidal Model uses the metaphor of water and describes how people in distress can become emotionally, physically and spiritually shipwrecked. It sees the experience of health and illness as a fluid, rather than a stable phenomenon, and life as a journey undertaken on an ocean of experience. It proposes that in mental health, the factors associated with a psychiatric crisis, or its more enduring consequences, can be diverse as well as cumulative. It states that by appreciating this metaphor, nurses or other helpers will gain a greater understanding of the person's current situation and the inevitability of change. With this, the helper may, in time, be guided to care with the person beginning their journey from the state of being washed ashore, drowning or being otherwise marooned by their life problems. Following the rescue, exploration can then begin as to what caused the storm in the first place and what needs to be done immediately to set sail again.

...
Wikipedia