Recovery Academy provides free courses for people with mental health problems and their carers
There are currently around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and up to 1.5 million people in the UK care for someone with a mental health problem - with the highest percentage of care provision being in the North West (Office for National Statistics).
The Recovery Academy, part of Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMW), is supporting Carers Rights Day, Friday 20 November, by promoting three courses to help both family and carers as well as people living with mental health problems.
The Recovery Academy provides specialist courses for people who care for someone with a mental health problem and people affected by dementia.
The courses are also useful for any individual or organisation wanting to raise their understanding of what it is like to live with mental health problems like dementia and learn simple techniques on how to support people with mental illness.
The Recovery Academy’s Living Well with Dementia course is for people with a recent diagnosis of dementia, their carers, relatives, friends and professionals who support people with dementia.
The free course is for a full day and is held on the 6th November 2015 in Salford and 12th February in Sale.
The course will cover facts about dementia, common symptoms, treatments available, as well as technologies and techniques that will help people to cope with the effects of dementia from telecare to cognitive coping strategies.
A number of GMW staff are also Dementia Friends Champions, which is an Alzheimer’s Society initiative, and run Dementia Friends Information Sessions to help people find out more about what it’s like to live with dementia and then turn that understanding into action in their local community.
The free Information Sessions are an hour and half long and held on the 18th November 2015 in Salford and 20th January 2016 in Prestwich.
The Recovery Academy also runs a course for people who care for someone with a mental health problem to help carers in their local community focus on their own health and wellbeing, find out about their rights and how to get the support and help they need.
Health and Wellbeing for Carers is a course that lasts for four and a half hours and is held on 15th December 2015 in Salford and 7th March 2016 in Sale.
Health and Wellbeing for Carers teaches carers new skills to make their life easier and was developed in partnership with GMW’s carers, to make it specific to those who care for people with mental health and/or substance misuse problems
To book your place or find out more about upcoming courses, log on to www.gmmh.nhs.uk/recovery. Alternatively, you can email recoveryacademy@gmmh.nhs.uk or call 0161 358 1771.
