Mental health courses to be streamed live at Suffolk library | News and events

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) Recovery College is working in partnership with Suffolk Libraries to provide a series of live-streamed courses to help people with their mental health and wellbeing.

Ipswich County Library’s second-floor Chaucer Room will be screening free live webinars from November. They start on Wednesday 6 November, with the first two sessions covering the causes of anxiety, how it affects people and different coping and support mechanisms. The first session is for 16 to 25-year-olds, the second is open to everyone. There is lift access to the second floor.

Recovery College provides free educational workshops and courses for anyone over the age of 16 in Norfolk and Suffolk. The courses are designed to support people to invest in their own wellbeing, find empowerment on their mental health journey and become experts in their own recovery.

Daniel Brown, Partnerships Development Lead with Recovery College reached out to Suffolk Libraries to spread the word of the Recovery College and explained how webinars can be broadcast by other teams and organisations.

“One of the benefits of attending our webinars in a library setting or any other setting in a different organisation is that those who lack computer equipment will still be able to access our online courses.

“It may also be very good for those that feel anxious and would prefer to access our webinars in a setting where they feel safe.

“Another benefit is that this enables people to learn in an environment surrounded by peers or people who may be experiencing similar things and therefore receive that group support that may not necessarily be available via an online course,” he said.

The concept behind Suffolk Library broadcasting the webinars is fairly straightforward, he said. All the IT equipment will be provided, and library staff will be there to set the session up. Registration is not mandatory however registering will enable participants to receive a certificate and be updated about any other Recovery College courses.

Daniel said: “We have agreed to trial some of our webinars at Ipswich Library initially and if this is successful, we will look to expand these. The Recovery College is very much looking forward to working alongside Suffolk Libraries and we are hopeful that this will enable those who perhaps haven't had the opportunity to access us before, to do so.”

NSFT Chief Nurse Anthony Deery said it was really important to make NSFT’s services as accessible as possible. “It’s great to be able to work with our partners to extend these vital opportunities for service users and the wider community to help us become a safer, kinder and better organisation.”

See the courses available via live streaming. For more information visit the NSFT Recovery College web pages.