Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)

A Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) is a written plan you make yourself for staying well, spotting early signs that things are slipping, and knowing what to do, and who should do what, if a crisis comes. Mary Ellen Copeland developed it in the United States in 1997 with people living with mental health conditions, and it is used in peer groups and mental health services worldwide.

Also called: WRAP (the acronym people search for); a wellness plan or recovery plan. A “WRAP session” or “WRAP workshop” is a group meeting, usually led by trained peers, in which members build their own plans over several weeks.

The parts of a WRAP

A WRAP has a foundation and six parts, written in your own words and kept where you can find it.

Wellness toolbox. Simple, safe things that keep you well or help you feel better: a walk, calling a friend, prayer, music, a set bedtime. Everything else in the plan draws on this list.
Daily plan. What you are like when you are well, what you need to do every day to stay that way, and extras for particular days.
Triggers (also called stressors). Events that could knock you off course, such as an argument, an unpaid bill or the anniversary of a loss, and the tools you will use if one happens.
Early warning signs. Small changes you notice in yourself first: sleeping badly, skipping meals, avoiding people. Each sign is paired with a response.
When things are breaking down. The signs that you are getting much worse despite your efforts, and the concrete steps to take now to head off a crisis.
Crisis plan. Written while you are well, for others to use: what a crisis looks like for you, who you want involved, what helps and what does not, which hospital you prefer, and who looks after your children, work or bills. A crisis is not your fault; the plan keeps you in charge of how you are treated.
Post-crisis plan. How you want to return to your daily plan afterwards, at your own pace, and what you learned to add to the toolbox.

How it works

WRAP rests on five ideas: hope, personal responsibility, education about your condition, self-advocacy, and support. The plan is yours, and you can change it whenever you like. In the research trials, people built their plans in eight to nine weekly sessions of about two and a half hours, led by peers who had their own recovery experience and were certified to teach it.

Benefits

The main evidence is a randomised trial of 519 adults with serious mental illness in Ohio. Compared with usual care, people who did WRAP reported fewer symptoms, less depression and anxiety, more hope and a stronger sense of recovery, at the end of the course and six months later. A 2019 systematic review of five controlled studies was more cautious: WRAP gave a small but real gain in people’s own sense of recovery, little change in clinical symptoms overall, and the gains faded over time without follow-up sessions. So a WRAP works best alongside treatment, and it needs revisiting.

In Nigeria

We found no certified WRAP groups in Nigeria, so most people here build a plan with a therapist, or on their own using the parts above. The crisis plan matters most where family members make decisions in an emergency: writing down which hospital you want, who may be told, and that you do not consent to being chained or confined in a healing centre gives your family something to follow. Nigeria’s Mental Health Act requires your written consent for treatment, with narrow exceptions. On Mytherapist.ng, Circles are small therapist-led groups of up to 12 people, where a plan like this can be worked through with others; the therapist sets the price, shown before you pay.

WRAP vs a safety plan

A safety plan is a short tool a clinician makes with you when there is a risk of suicide or self-harm: your warning signs, people to call and ways to stay safe. A WRAP is wider and longer, covers everyday wellness as well as crisis, and is written by you. Many people have both. Neither replaces treatment, and reaching remission usually takes therapy, medicine prescribed by a doctor, or both.

When to get help

If you are in crisis now, call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page. To build a plan with support, you can book a licensed therapist on Mytherapist.ng for general mental health and wellbeing, and bring your draft to the first session.