Give your views on vital education service

August 5, 2018 by Southend Borough Council,

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council – in partnership with Southend Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Castle Point and Rochford CCG – have launched a survey to research residents’ views on a college for people living with mental health conditions.

Recovery Empowerment Achievement Community Hope (REACH) is a local group who provide educational services for individuals living with mental health conditions in Southend and Castle Point. The service aims to enable people to self-manage their own mental health by building up their own ‘toolkit’ and strategies to facilitate their own personal recovery pathway. These events are held at different locations, as the college offers courses across Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.

Moving on from the current pilot, the college is looking to set up a longer term offer, to start in April 2019, with the survey looking for views from current students and stakeholders of the service as to what is currently on offer. 

Cllr Lesley Salter, cabinet member for healthy communities and wellbeing, said: “The REACH College offers an invaluable service to those living with mental health conditions throughout Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.

“We are urging users and non-users of the facility to leave comments on the survey so that we can take an in-depth look at what is currently available and how we can improve the service. All views will be taken in to account when moving forward.”

The survey is now live, with the deadline being Friday 7 September.

The student survey can be found at: www.southend.gov.uk/reachstudentsurvey

The stakeholder survey can be found at: www.southend.gov.uk/reachstakeholdersurvey

Background

An independent evaluation by Anglia Ruskin University found that the results showed significant improvements in mental wellbeing and social inclusion and ‘reports of increased confidence, reduced anxiety, and increased social inclusion/reduced social isolation. Furthermore, at final follow-up 87%  of students said they would recommend the Recovery College to a friend, 96% enjoyed attending, 91% said their skills had developed, 83% said their confidence had increased, 87% said that they felt more positive about things and 87% said their relationships with others had improved as a result of attending.