"Fantastic service from Kingston Recovery College"

I'm a parent of 3 children. My eldest daughter is 16. 5 and is living with early onset psychosis, I have 14 year old twins, my daughter has complex learning difficulties, dyslexia and acute anxiety and her twin brother has just been diagnosed with combined type ADHD. I have been on the triple P course at the recovery college at Springfield hospital in Wandsworth a 7 week course of which I found very informative and helpful with strategies to deal with troubled teens. To be able to share experiences with other parents and healthcare professionals that work on the Aquarius ward gave me an invaluable insight and a different perspective of how to deal with the complex issues myself and my husband face on a daily basis.

I am also attending a course at Kingston Recovery College run by Helen and Stella at the King Charles centre in Surbiton a 7 week course about living with Psycosis and Schizophrenia we are 5 weeks In and I am so grateful that these sessions are available. To be able to attend as a carer and listen and share and be listened to and be able to talk to others in the same position my daughter is in, is a huge support and an insight that I couldn't obtain from any book or website. Since attending these sessions I have learnt so much and also been able to share my own angle as a parent/carer has also given the people that are living with the condition, the course facilitaters and also the peer mentors a different perspective of living with these conditions. I have found the experience validating, informative, educational and given my strength and skills as a parent to cope and move forward positively. Stella and Helen at King Charles centre and Caitlin and the Aquarius nurses at Springfield are doing a fantastic job and I can't thank them enough for holding these groups and feel that it's really important that they carry on as for carers/parents and people in recovery and the people that have come through recovery and are now peer mentors this service is a necessity and should be carried on as it has helped me immensely...parent/carer.... thank you everyone.. keep up the great work.