According to the Mental Health Foundation, “Refocus on Recovery is the largest regular scientific conference on recovery in the world…The conference is all about recovery for people with mental health problems, and presents world-leading research about how people can live well with illness.”
The team, led by Dr Kelly Elsegood (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) and Dr Rachel Newton (Clinical Psychologist) told the conference how the group connected service users with stories of people with lived experiences of mental health problems and adversity. For practical reasons these inspiring stories were sourced from online videos and blogs.
A qualitative evaluation of the group, undertaken by MSc student Lucinda Anderson, indicated that service users felt empowered, inspired, validated and hopeful after hearing the stories from experts by experience. These outcomes were presented by Kelly and Lucinda on 18 – 20 September at Nottingham Conference Centre. The presentation was highly praised and many delegates expressed an interest in adopting the intervention in their own respective services within the UK and oversees.
The original group was offered to service users within Bierley’s personality disorder service, Bowling Ward. Plans are now underway to offer the intervention to service users across the hospital in the form of a Recovery College course. For further information please contact Dr Kelly Elsegood, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Head of Psychology at Cygnet Hospital Bierley, at [email protected].