Recovery colleges and dementia courses – a scoping survey

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how dementia is represented within current UK Recovery College courses and how people with dementia are involved with such courses. Design/methodology/approach A scoping survey was developed with seven multiple choice questions. Information was collected to find out: How many Colleges are currently offering dementia courses; have previously offered courses or plan to start offering courses; how they have developed their courses; who delivers them; who can attend; and how long courses have been running. Individual Recovery Colleges could leave contact details if they were interested in collaborating on future research projects. UK Recovery Colleges were identified using a published list (Anfossi, 2017) supplemented with internet searching. 86 e-mail messages were sent to Recovery Colleges inviting Leads/Managers to complete the survey through an electronic link. Findings Of the 28 (32.6 per cent) Recovery Colleges who completed the survey, 11 reported to be currently offering dementia courses, while eight planned to start doing so. Six Recovery Colleges stated they were not currently offering dementia courses, have not done so previously and have no current plans to. Research limitations/implications The survey results indicate variability in provision of UK Recovery College courses for people with dementia, and raise further questions about the way the courses are used, their acceptability and usefulness. Originality/value This service evaluation highlights the variability in what is offered, which is an important step in understanding the current service provision.