Visit

Oxfordshire has just opened a 'Recovery College' where mental ill health is addressed from an 'educational' rather than a 'therapeutic' perspective. I wanted to find out more and was told that to do so I had to go on their three-hour 'Introduction to the Recovery College' course. More time than I really wanted to spare but I was interested enough in the idea to sign up. The consequence of which was that two weeks ago I had to go to a meeting to agree my individual learning goals and set some SMART objectives. (Blah-de-blah-de-blah – I went to meet them but refused to set the objectives.)

This afternoon, after exploring the labyrinth around the unclear address I was given and bumping into another lost 'student' I had to phone the organisers to rescue us. From outside the almost inaccessible Mind office we were led into the multi-storey car park, up two flights of stairs, across a concrete bridge and up more winding stairs to a large dark door. Was it deliberately so reminiscent of trying to access mental health services?

The Recovery College is a good idea, it really is, but did they have to sell it to us by pitting a hugely negative definition of 'therapy' against an unrecognisably glowing definition of 'education'? Especially given that there are so many people in mental distress as a result of having worked in our current SMART-obsessed 'education system'.