Established in England in 2009 by R. Perkins and J. Repper and spread worldwide, Recovery Colleges are educational hubs providing free courses on mental health, well-being, recovery, and living well collectively. RCs propose a new way of intervening on mental health based on principles of mutual learning free from judgment and diversity of learners and trainers. The distinctive feature of the RC model is its emphasis on the complementarity of experiential, clinical and theoretical knowledge. Central to the model is the creation of a co-learning space where learners, including both people/relatives living with mental illness and practitioners, engage collaboratively in co-constructing an integrated knowledge within a transformative learning environment.

This research topic will provide an overview of the Recovery College (RC) model and its recent developments from multidisciplinary perspectives internationally. The overall goal is to present the state of the art of RC research, highlighting the crucial elements of the model, the variety of outcomes, the active ingredients and mechanisms of action, ensuring quality and fidelity to the original model, challenges and opportunities.

Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts that are aimed to fill in gaps in current RC literature.

A list of suggested topics can include (but not limited to):

• crucial elements, active ingredients, key components and mechanism of actions;
• the development of coproduced approaches to outcome evaluation;
• effectiveness evaluation including cost-effectiveness;
• multiple perspectives: learners, trainers, RC staff, service managers and partner organizations;
• training of trainers (capacity building tools and development of trainers’ competencies)
• complementarity of knowledge (experiential, clinical and theoretical) in practice;
• RC implementation in specific context, to specific target population (e.g. youth, elderly people) and cultural adaptations;
• innovative ways of providing RC (e.g., online format).

Types of articles accepted include:

• quantitative and qualitative and mixed design research;
• implementation research
• literature reviews;
• theoretical/conceptual papers.

Editors suggest to the authors to describe components, values, context and process of each recovery college to facilitate comparisons and comprehension.

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Frontiers in Psychiatry

Submit your idea

Impact