Last week, 7 September Recovery Camp held its second graduation ceremony for our online course at iAccelerate, Innovation Campus. “Being Self Determined” is a series of workshops teaching life skills to positively impact wellbeing and quality of life contributing to the recovery of people living with mental health conditions.

Devised by Directors of Recovery Camp and UOW academics Professor Lorna Moxham, Chris Patterson, and Dr. Dana Perlman, the course is based on Self Determination Theory and delivered via Zoom over five weeks. With the cancellation of most camps this year due to COVID-19, Recovery Camp developed the course to stay connected and provide services to members of the community.

“Everyone we work with benefits from the empowerment focus and community of Recovery Camp but many people experience barriers to traditional online learning. We use video conferencing to teach content through dialog and encourage self-reflection through journaling,” explains Lorna Moxham.

Topics covered in the course include self and group explorations of relatedness in isolation, empowering decision making, ability to be assertive and self-advocate, goal setting, a sense of control, and more.

For many participants “Being Self Determined” has been their first experience of study and the first course they’ve completed or attempted. With the relaxed restrictions, we were able to hold a socially distanced, face-to-face graduation which was a momentous day signaling success and pride as graduates were handed their trophies and certificates.

One of the course graduates Lissy when asked what her favorite thing was said,

“Achieving what I set out to do, getting out of my comfort zone, dealing with life’s pressures. Thank you Recovery Camp“.

Recovery Camp is an innovative and award-winning provider of evidence-based, experiential learning of mental health recovery for future health staff and people with a lived experience of mental illness since 2013.

“We have had overwhelming feedback about to the program from participants; they want to do more. It has been amazing to see the different outcomes for each individual in this course, the group bonds formed and confidence gained” says Chris Patterson.

Recovery Camp is developing opportunities to offer this course to more clients and creating a scaffolded second course for the quickly climbing number of Lived Experience Alumni. We are also working with UOW Makerspace to design a program of hands on activities.

Check out their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or get in touch via the Recovery Camp website for more information.

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