A MAINTENANCE PHASE phase suggests that teams offer longer term follow-up of cases to encourage the young person to maintain whatever gains have been achieved and is consistent with an attachment model of intervention by maintaining interest in the young person after active intervention is completed.

Such a phase will continue to work towards Scaffolding existing relationships, inviting the young person to continue the work of building their own equivalent "team around the worker" as though they are increasingly taking on the role of a KeyWorker with responsibilities for their self - and recognising (just as their AMBIT KeyWorker will have demonstrated) the need for an active 'back-up' team that can offer accessible support for times when their own capacity for Mentalization is diminished. Although there may be a continuing role for professionals to play a part in that team, FamilyWork and Social-Ecological Work may help to widen the membership of such a network.

Equally, a maintenance phase might be seen as fitting a "chronic illness model" of difficulties - i.e. addressing the reality of the fact that some conditions are unlikely to be fixed (as in "clinical recovery") in the short or medium term, but that with the right longer-term support it is still right to aim for the "recovery of a life worth living" - as this is defined by the clients themselves.

This is related to the "Recovery-focused" approach to care, which AMBIT fully supports: