News

Recovery College Camden and Islington welcomed colleagues from the department of community mental health and law at the National Institute of Mental Health, National Centre of Neurology and Psychiatry in Tokyo as part of a project focused on public and patient involvement in research.

The visit was led by Fumie Hisanaga, accompanied by Takayuki Kawaguchi, principal investigator of the project, and Momoka Igarashi, a member of the project team. The delegation visited to learn more about approaches in the UK to involving people with lived experience in research and recovery-focused education.

The visit builds on existing international connections formed when Ksenija Kadic previously presented the Recovery College model and its way of working for the University of Tokyo's network. 

The programme included a visit to University College London (UCL), where discussions took place with Dr Fran Zanatta and colleagues. Peer researchers Lorraine Bell and Nicky Lambert shared insights into peer research and how lived experience informs mental health research and service development.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited the Recovery College offices in the West Wing at St Pancras Hospital. The team shared practice in co-production, peer tutoring and peer research, demonstrating how lived experience is embedded across the service.

During the visit, Joanne Scott, service user and carer involvement and engagement lead, presented how service users and carers are engaged and supported to contribute to quality improvement across Trust services.

Dany Dubard, peer tutor, introduced the Recovery College education model and explained how peer-led learning supports recovery while Adam Szczubukowski, Recovery College administrator, demonstrated the administrative and booking systems that support smooth and accessible engagement for students.

Rina Deams, peer support coordinator at Southwest London and St George’s NHS Mental Health Trust and former peer tutor and learning support worker at Wandsworth Integrated Recovery Hub, joined the group for dinner following the visit. This provided further opportunity to strengthen relationships and reinforced the importance of connection, co-production and working together across organisations to share knowledge.

Fumie Hisanaga said: 

"We are truly grateful to you for coordinating such a full and enriching day for us. It was a wonderful opportunity for our project to meet and learn from Fran, Lorraine, Nicola, Joanne, Dany, Adam, Rina, and of course, you.

We were also deeply touched by how warmly everyone welcomed us and by the chance to get to know each of you as individuals. One day was simply not enough!"

For more information on The Recovery College visit their website or contact them on 020 3317 6904 and nlft.recoverycollege@nhs.net.