Participants Experience of Attending Devon Recovery College
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Participants Experience of Attending Devon Recovery College
IRAS ID
149179
Contact name
Paul Dieppe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Exeter University, The Innovation Centre
Research summary
The study will evaluate the impact of the Exeter Recovery College on its participants. This will be completed by conducting and analysing two focus group interviews using qualitative methods. A Recovery College is a place where students can register for an array of classes including maintaining residency and living with psychosis. The students are people who have lived experience of mental illness as well as their friends and family or staff who work with them.
Recovery has been defined as “making sense of, and finding meaning in, what has happened; becoming an expert in your own self-care; discovering your own resourcefulness and possibilities and using these, and the resources available to you, to pursue your aspirations and goals.” Recovery from mental health illness is important and fits with the outcomes from the key paper “No Health without Mental Health” (Department of Health 2011) stating that people should have “a greater ability to manage their own lives, stronger social relationships… the skills they need for living and working and improved chances in education”. It is important that Recovery Colleges are evaluated because they could be a key tool in promoting peoples’ recovery (Perkins et al 2012). The systematic review that I completed confirms Perkins et al’s (2012) view that there has been little evaluation of them directly.
The groups will be recruited by the investigators attending Recovery College courses to introduce the study and then ask if people want to take part. The focus groups will last for one hour and will contain between 8-10 people. They will take place in the offices of a charitable organisation (Workways) which is where the Recovery College courses will also take place. Each group will have different people and this will be their sole involvement with the study.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/WM/1020
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion