MEDIA RELEASE
HelpingMinds® awarded the contract to open Western Australia’s first funded Recovery College
On Monday 2 December 2019, the Deputy Premier, Minister for Health and Mental Health, the Hon. Roger Cook, announced that HelpingMinds® has been awarded the contract to open Western Australia’s first funded Recovery College.
Debbie Childs, CEO of HelpingMinds, said that the Recovery College is designed to educate and deliver courses that will provide an opportunity for personal recovery and building confidence, to allow people to return to full citizenship in the community through managing one’s own mental health, addictions and wellbeing.
It will be a state-wide college, aiming to give everyone in WA the opportunity to use and benefit from the service. Recovery Colleges are a community resource, made by the community through co-design, for the community.
The Deputy Premier said that the Mental Health Commission has appointed HelpingMinds® to lead the project, partnered with a group of organisations to roll out the Recovery College across Western Australia, meaning it will be accessible to people in regional areas.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for HelpingMinds® and we look forward to continue working with our Consortium partners and the WA community to deliver a Recovery College that meets the needs of our WA communities,” said Ms Childs.
The Recovery College will put people first, and their recovery at the centre of their learning. The Recovery College will be open to the whole community to come together to learn and share knowledge about mental health or addiction to alcohol and other drugs, including consumers, carers, families, clinicians and interested community members.
“The focus of the Recovery College is education: participants will be students, not clients or patients. It is for people to have a say in what recovery is and means to them,” said Pam Gardner, Chair of The Recovery College Board.
Students will be an active participant in their own recovery and will help to design courses to assist this. This is a totally new approach to recovery for mental health challenges or addiction in WA.
Phoebe Kingston, mental health service user and lived-experience educator, explained “I was offered an incredible opportunity to advise on both the WA Recovery College Model and the expert panel. This is an immensely exciting time for Western Australia, and we are now on the uptake of the educational approach to wellbeing that has proven so beneficial in other parts of Australia and the world.”
The Recovery College aims to be person-centred and recovery focused. By doing this, people are more likely to feel safe, and accepted, knowing they are driving their recovery. Everyone in the community, whether they have a mental health challenge or know someone who has a mental health challenge, or anyone else who wishes to learn more about a particular topic – will be able to enrol in the courses.
The Consortium partners
We plan to operate a very collaborative approach with currently twelve (12) Consortium partners including Recovery College WA Ltd; Women’s Health and Family Services; Alcohol and Other Drug Consumer and Community Coalition; Curtin University; Rise Inc; Hope Community Services; MIND Australia; The Salvation Army Homelessness Services; Richmond Wellbeing; COMHWA; Bay of Isles Community Outreach Inc; Palmerston Association Inc
For more information, quotes and interviews
- Debbie Childs, Chief Executive Officer, HelpingMinds, (08) 9427 7100
- Nienke Rozendaal, Marketing Manager, HelpingMinds, 0438 538 149
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