Two weeks gone in a flash

Two weeks gone in a flash. Two Recovery champions courses finished, two very different groups of participants, one outcome though, 42 people have gone away energised, reflective and enthusiastic about going back to work. I love this work, I love the power of the recovery process, and I love the way we can generate love for each other restoring faith in humanness with all its frailty

First week was mainly people from the NGO sector, mainly from organisations that have embraced recovery as a way forward, half of the group were relatively new to mental health work & are joining new programs, the other half were already engaging with recovery in their workplace. The second week, the staff were nearly all health sector staff with many years experience. What was beautiful to see was watching them being energised & revitalised as the week went on yes they were physically & emotionally tired and even though we were working very long hours by the end of the week they were all ready to go back to work & implement what they had learned, Ron & I were both exhausted by yesterday & Ron was particularly emotional as he had grown very close to this group as had I too, being an ex nurse, it is special when we have a group of nurses to work with.

Perth was very wet, Tasmania has been sunshine, showers, rainbows, wind & cold just like home. We hope to return here again it’s a lovely place much greener than the main land. Richmond fellowship Tasmania, announced this week that they will auspice the setting up of the Tasmanian hearing voices network, which is fabulous news too.

Today we had a well earnt rest, walked to the famous Salamanca markets & bought winter boots, gloves & hats ready for the cold of Canberra next week, spent the rest of the day chilling, dosing & watching TV-heaven!

Tomorrow we fly to Canberra where we will work for 4 days with old friends and new.

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.