We will be delivering the following courses as part of our Recovery College at Burgess Hill:

Women’s wellness

A six-week women’s wellness course, underpinned by the Department of Health’s ‘Five ways to mental wellbeing’ strategy (2008). This strategy is based on evidence which suggests that a small improvement in wellbeing can help to decrease some mental health problems and also help people to flourish. The five actions to improve personal wellbeing are:

• Connect
• Be active
• Take notice
• Keep learning
• Give

This course also includes education within the following areas:

• Exercise, including a walking challenge to last the duration of the course, with prizes/certificates to be presented at the end
• Nutrition
• Alcohol and drug awareness
• Sexual health
• Hair and beauty
• Stress management techniques
• Building resilience

We will encourage patients to assist in delivering various aspects of this course, and one patient has already volunteered to teach the lesson that focuses on exercise.

Based on previous service user feedback, this course will be interactive and practical.

Therapeutic media

We will also be delivering a six-week course, which focuses on therapeutic media. This course consists of:

• Music appreciation – exploring various styles and genres of music and encouraging patients to present their preferred style
• Listening to music and exploring emotions that arise as a result of different pieces of music
• Music history
• Film and advert music
• Writing music
• Musical theatre
• Music production
• Musical performance, ending with a concert if services users wish to perform

Again, these sessions will be practical and interactive to promote service user motivation and engagement with the Recovery College.