The Options Recovery College (ORC) was launched in 2014 to provide free educational courses for those wishing to manage their mental health in a positive and recovery-focussed way.
Our courses are co-facilitated by staff and peer support workers to give a holistic viewpoint on the skills people need for living with, and managing, their mental health.
The range of courses we provide is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our community, courses include: ‘Managing Low Mood’; ‘Positive Well-Being’; ‘Anxiety Management’; ‘Good Sleep’; ‘Smoke Free Lives’; Mindfulness’; ‘Emotional Eating’; ‘Building Self-Esteem and Confidence’.
All our courses are free of charge, and available to everyone, whether or not they have experience of mental health challenges, and people do not have to be receiving any other NHS Trust service.
The courses are also open to our RDASH (@rdash_nhs) NHS Trust staff.
Community connections: Alongside encouraging people to come to the ORC, we have also taken the Recovery College to the community.
We have facilitated courses at TATA Steel Works, Ongo Housing Association, Blue Door (for victims of domestic abuse) and The Forge, (Centre for the homeless and vulnerable).
We have run sessions at Café Indie in Scunthorpe town centre, and at our local branches of MIND, MENCAP, Carers Centres and in the Community Hubs in local villages to support those who live outside of town.
We don’t have a budget for promotion, but have had stands at local charity events and in supermarkets, promoted our services at conferences and our prospectus can be found in local libraries, volunteer centres, GP surgeries and online: http://www.rdash.nhs.uk/storage/Summer-Term-Prospectus-2016.pdf.
We have planned sessions for our local hospice, and for the Stroke Association social club, and are looking to expand this method of taking courses to the community for delivery.
We now have an active presence on Twitter (@RdashORC) with over 350 followers, and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Optionsrecoverycollege/).
Why is this important for people: There is an obvious difficulty in overcoming stigma for those wishing to attend courses at a mental health establishment, and we view becoming a part of the community we serve as a way to overcome this.
Encouraging those who have accessed services in the past to become peer support workers has been significant in demonstrating recovery in the sessions too, another reminder that mental health is part of everyone, and that we can all learn skills to look after ourselves better.
What difference we have made: We have noted a significant increase in our referrals, in Spring semester 2015 we had 70 referrals.
In the same semester 2016 we have had 131 referrals. In our first academic year 2014/15 we had a total of 299 enrolments in the Recovery College.
In this academic year 2015/2016 the number has risen to just short of 500.
The feedback has been very positive with most students stating that they are extremely likely or likely to recommend the college to family and friends.