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Health and Social Care students visit the Belfast Recovery College official launch
Gerry Skelton (Belfast Met lecturer), Martin Daly, Mary O’Brien and Health and Social Care students (pictured above) attended the Belfast Recovery College official launch. Commenting on the event, Gerry said: “I and the students (and other staff) were honoured to attend this seminal event and have been a supporter of the work initially carried out by my esteemed Belfast Trust colleagues Martin Daly and Mary O’Brien in establishing (and now sustaining) the Belfast Recovery College. It is great to see it get this profile and wider support. Credit must also be given to the Coordinator, Helen Anderson, who is now leading the Belfast Recovery College forward, with the continued support of Mary, Marty and other colleagues and students. This is a good model of PPI in action and centralising the meaningful involvement of service users, carers, survivors, thrivors, professionals and others”.
Helen Anderson stated: “I thank you, Gerry, for your ongoing support at our launch of the Belfast Recovery College. It was just lovely to see both you and the students accompanying you. The buzz of the day was fantastic and contributed to our core message of education through both learned and lived experience, co-production and co-delivery; which was alive with passion and from the heart yesterday! We hope you and your students enjoyed the event. Helen”.
Reflecting on the event, Tiarnaigh Webb (HNC student) commented: “On behalf of our HNC student group, we want to thank our course Coordinator, Gerry Skelton for introducing us to the Belfast Recovery college and invite to their launch. It was amazing to see the drama, with aspects of how mental health affects each individual played out on stage, and to learn how the Recovery College may help them; which was all deeply moving and inspiring. It is great to see a service finally dedicated to not only education about mental illness for the individuals, families, carers and professionals, but also the enablement of individuals to take control of their recovery path. I am excited to see how the Recovery College will progress in the coming years and I am hopeful of attending a few classes myself”