Two of our Recovery College leads have described what our Recovery Colleges offer and the positive impact they have on our service users.
The college initiative has been developed in co-production with service users. Currently, 12 Cygnet Health Care services have a Recovery College and courses on offer range from mental health awareness, mindfulness, healthy living, interview skills, maths, English, music, film production and more.
Courses are run on site by service users or staff members for their peers and are designed to suit all skill levels and abilities.
Zoe Collins, Recovery College Lead at Cygnet Hospital Godden Green explained: “Service users are empowered to become experts in their own wellbeing and recovery.
“Each of our Recovery Colleges within Cygnet Health Care is unique. The service users are very much involved in telling us what it is they want to learn that will support them when they’re discharged. We try and harness their skills and interests.
“I’ve worked with people that have never really stepped out of their comfort zone in life before, they never thought they could do anything. Our Recovery Colleges have been stepping stones to a far brighter future than one they envisaged for themselves. It really increases their confidence and self-belief.”
Although accredited courses are on offer, the Recovery College is not a substitute for general education and opportunities offered by local educational establishments.
It can, however, provide a route on to mainstream education via, for example, ‘return to study’ courses or provide people with an opportunity to build self-confidence to progress if they choose.
“It’s not all about just achieving an AQA or other accreditations,” Zoe clarified. “It reduces the barriers which had existed previously due to their conditions and it opens the door to a brighter future. It gives them options and the confidence to dream big after discharge.
“Some people haven’t had an education before and it surprises them what we can offer. Some feedback I’ve had previously is that the service feels like a college rather than a hospital and that’s fantastic.
“Recovery Colleges hopefully stop the revolving door patients. It heightens the changes that they live a happy, fulfilled life after discharge, reducing the chances of re-admission.”
Nicola Sevenoaks is the Recovery College Lead at Cygnet Hospital Maidstone. She describes the impact it had on one particular service user.
“One of our service users, Neil, had aspirations of being a writer or studying psychology and criminology, and so we looked at the pathway to getting onto a degree and how to maximise his options,” she explained.
“Although his secondary education ended early at 13, a diagnostic test showed he would easily pass English GCSE.
“Instead of focusing on this, he decided to tackle his weakness – Maths. Like a lot of people, it was never about an inability to do Maths, more about how much had been going on in his life at the age of 13 and the way Maths was taught in his school just didn’t work for him. If you don’t get the foundations installed, you simply can’t build on it. So we needed to go back and cover the basics and move on from there.”
Like many Cygnet hospitals, Maidstone’s Recovery College is approved to deliver the AQA Unit Award scheme (UAS). The UAS modules are linked to the formal examinations, making the transition to external education providers at or close to discharge, fairly seamless.
Neil worked his way through all the AQA Unit Award Scheme Maths Entry Level 3 modules – of which there are eight. He started in June 2023 and by the November he had completed them all.
“He would come to Recovery College and we’d cover a new concept, then he would do homework at the weekend,” Nicola explained.
In January 2024, after some discussion with the local adult education provider, Neil enrolled on an online Functional Maths course. He passed his exam and will be sitting his Maths GCSE in September.
“We are all so proud of him, and many others, who have really used the Recovery College to better themselves and to set, and reach, realistic goals. It really does work and Neil is just one example of many who has benefitted hugely.”
The following adult mental health services currently offer a Recovery College: