…but what’s that got to do with mental health and wellbeing?

So… last week Caring Together, being interested in the concept, met with Simon Burton, the Recovery College Development Manager at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, for the first Recovery College session, …and we found out.

‘Recovery Colleges deliver comprehensive, peer-led education and training courses which focus on living well, both mentally and physically. They are run like any other college, providing education as a route to recovery and not as a form of therapy. Courses are co-devised and co-delivered by people with lived experience of mental illness and by mental health professionals.

Their services can be offered to service users, professionals and families alike, with people choosing the courses they would like to attend from a prospectus. As well as offering education alongside treatment for people they also change the relationship between services and those who use them; they identify new peer workers to join the workforce; and they can replace some existing services.

The first recovery college opened its doors in 2010 and since then they have steadily grown in number and popularity. We now have over 85 across in the UK and even more worldwide.

Simon is looking for help from a range of people and organisations across Leeds to develop courses for the new college.’