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South eastern trust recovery college

Posted By Powerless

"South eastern trust recovery college"

About: South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust / Wellness Recovery Network

(as a staff member posting for a patient/service user),

Attended 3 day course on "train the trainer".

Approach by 2 co-facilitators seemed to be positive...always positive, almost to the point of being patronizing.

Halfway through the course, it became apparent that 2 of the attendees (out of I think total 16) were fulltime staff specialising in communications skills and declared mental health problems. This in itself seemed fine. What felt concerning was that they had not attended any previous recovery college courses, which was a clearly stipulated criterion in the college prospectus to be accepted onto the course. All other 14 atendees had declared mental health problems and had previously attended minimum 3 courses.

So, one was leaft with a feeling that there is an advertised ethos when in reality the recovery college does not treat service users as equals to "professional" staff...only when it privately suits the recovery college fulltime staff.

I did politely point this anomaly out to the co-facilitators in front of the whole class when it did become apparent. The co-facilitators politely responded in a positive re-inforcing manner so as to smoothly change the subject without admitting that there was any inherent issue.

Skills were learnt during the course. Positive reinforcements were consistently offered to participants. Fun was had at times.

Unfortunately the bad taste about underlying inequality meant I never engaged with the recovery college after this.

Previously I had attended several 2 hour or one day courses which ranged from very average to quite interesting.

Quite possibly my experience on this course was a one-off, never to be repeated. But I'll never know. It's 30 months later now. Maybe the recovery college has changed its approach. 

But I am put off for life. The college had 3 clear principles: hope, opportunity, control. My negative connotation in the above experience is that there I had no hope of equal treatment; I did not have equal opportunity; when I feel betrayed by the discrepancy between stated and actual criteria depending on my background, then I don't feel in control.

On a cursory level, the Recovery College speaks a good speak. Unfortunately, under the microscope, I question its motives.

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Responses

Response from Christine Graham, Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Christine Graham
Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

I work as part of the service imporvement team for mental health services in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 14/06/2021 at 17:35
Published on Care Opinion on 15/06/2021 at 09:39

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and for bringing this matter to my attention.

The Recovery College welcomes feedback as a means of consistently learning and improving the service and care we provide. Your feedback will be logged and used as part of continuous learning and improvement process.

I am saddened to hear that that you felt a sense of inequality whilst attending a Recovery College course. As you quite rightly pointed out, this is not fitting within the Recovery College ethos or the South Eastern Trust as a whole. Please be assured that I will be sharing your feedback with the senior manager responsible for this service who will provide further feedback.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your story.

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Response from Fiona Dagg, Mental Health Manager, Mental Health, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 2 years ago
We have made a change
Fiona Dagg
Mental Health Manager, Mental Health,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Submitted on 23/06/2021 at 12:54
Published on Care Opinion on 24/06/2021 at 09:54

Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to engage with Care Opinion and telling us about your experience with the Recovery College.

We are grateful to hear that you enjoyed some elements of the Recovery College but also welcome the other points you have made. As a service we encourage trainers from both lived and learned experience to engage in Recovery College courses prior to attending T4T and in most cases this has been adhered to. In the case of the course you attended this must not have happened and we are sorry.

We have put checks in place for future courses for the 3-day face-to-face accredited course. There are some occasions we need to be more flexible with prior training requirements for both staff and non-staff students equally e.g. so as to be able to have enough students to run a course, where people commence positions in which they are required to link in with the Recovery College training as part of their role. We will ensure the course information is updated to reflect this.

We are sorry to hear that our service did not meet your expectations and would be happy to discuss this with you further. Please feel free to contact the Recovery College Team at: Recovery.College@setrust.hscni.net

Yours Sincerely

Fiona Dagg

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Update posted by Powerless (a staff member posting for a patient/service user)

Dear Mrs Dagg,

Thankyou for taking the time out of your management schedule to compose your reply to my observations.

It seems kind of you to declare an adjustment to your future prospectus based on my contribution to care opinion. I am sure if you had known about my observation 30 months ago at time of the course, you would have made similar adjustments.

Perhaps you could also ask your course facilitators to review any observations after future courses end? Given that they were the most senior members of college staff, it is doubtful if there was anyone better placed to review feedback with you.

Just as long as you are not offering to make changes now due to the observations being repeated on this forum, then I would have no suspicions that the 2 course facilitators had priorities other than my concerns.

I am sure that future students will enjoy immensely what the college advertises.

In conclusion, I have no intention of discussing this with you directly as going through Care Opinion seems to achieve being taken seriously. Best wishes in all your mental health management.

Response from Fiona Dagg, Mental Health Manager, Mental Health, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Fiona Dagg
Mental Health Manager, Mental Health,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Submitted on 25/06/2021 at 16:40
Published on Care Opinion at 16:44

Thank you for taking the time to come back to me. I recall talking with the Recovery College Manager about this quite some time ago, so am pleased to let you know your concerns were heard and taken seriously.

We really do appreciate all feedback, as it helps us improve and develop as a service. The changes will be reflected in our new prospectus and we are having conversations with students as they register until the changes can be made in the prospectus.

Thank you again.

Kind Regards, Fiona

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