The hospital’s Recovery Academy will take an education approach rather than a therapeutic approach and will be a collaborative partnership between the people who work in mental health services and the people who use them. The sessions are co-designed, co-produced and co-delivered to provide a range of courses, workshops and resources for service users, carers and staff.
The Recovery Academy programme includes:
- Courses provided by Newham adult education
- Training courses in a variety of subject including, Health and Safety and use of social media
- Self-care and leisure activities
- Workshops to support care givers
An important early achievement has been to recruit a service user in to the role of Recovery Academy administrator. This will ensure collaborative service planning and development from the outset.
“It’s great to be more involved. It will be nice for people to feel valued and be able to unleash their talent. With mental health it can curb your enthusiasm and you can feel like you’ve lost your skills but the recovery academy gives encouragement to do it and succeed.”Service user, Recovery Academy Administrator
The hospital team have also provided train the trainer sessions to equip service users with the skills and confidence to run activities. A further achievement has been establishing links with community agencies to provide adult education and access a peer support worker.