Co-Production Journey to Wellness Guide

As rates of substance use and mental disorders continue to rise, individuals with mental health and substance use challenges and their supporters could benefit from practical, accessible, cost-effective, wellness-focused tools outlining simple daily strategies to promote long-term recovery. The current article describes such a tool, the Journey to Wellness Guide, based on the Wellness Model, and developed through a co-production process. Co-production refers to a process of research, service design, and educational materials development where people with lived experience of mental health and/or substance use challenges share decision-making power throughout all stages of production, including the sharing of results. The co-production process resulted in a well-received wellness tool and tip guides for personal use, supporting others, and use in a group context. The value of this tool for psychosocial nursing and behavioral health care worker self-care and practice is outlined.