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Recovery Colleges

Mental Health Recovery Training for Service Users & Carers

With the right support we can and do recover. Dual Diagnosis Network can help you and carers to find the right resources to recover.

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About Recovery College

Who We Are

Recovery Colleges are spread across the country and provide mental health recovery training. Our courses are aimed at service users and carers of service users. These courses are free to service users.

Quite often these courses are free to service users of the mental health system. These colleges aim to help increase awareness and understanding of recovery and self-management.

They aim to challenge stigma related to mental health. Their educational courses about mental health recovery and self-management are meant to compliment existing mental health services.

Our Ethos

Recovery Colleges are co-produced so all courses are co-developed, co-delivered and co-attended by people who have lived experience of mental health related issues.

The Recovery College content is developed by:

People with lived experience of mental health problems.
Friends & family of those with mental health related issues.
Those who work or have worked in professional caring roles.

What Do We Mean by 'Recovery'

When we use the term recovery we are meaning that;

A person with mental illness can recover even though the illness is not ‘cured’. Recovery is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with the limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness. (Anthony, 1993)

Mental illness can affect us all. In fact, around one in four people will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives. So due to this our courses are relevant to all, whether you are a service user/friend, family member, and/or health professional. When you come on our courses we do not differentiate or label people apart from with the title of ‘student’ – the Recovery College welcomes all.

Our Journey

Here’s a video that explores the journey and experience from the perspective of two trainers at the Southern Health Recovery College. Jenny Hargrave and Chris Wagg explain their roles as trainer at the college and about their philosophy, our approach, and the benefits they have gained from working at the college. Jenny and Chris V2 from Shedlight on Vimeo.

Recovery College Introductory Videos

The Southern Health Recovery College have kindly given me permission to use some of the pre-course content from their website.

They ask all of their students to watch these introductory videos before booking on their first course with us. These videos will give you basic knowledge of two of the important key concepts of Hope and Recovery that underpin the courses that they offer.