Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on recovery colleges: multi-site qualitative study.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems increased as access to mental health services reduced. Recovery colleges are recovery-focused adult education initiatives delivered by people with professional and lived mental health expertise. Designed to be collaborative and inclusive, they were uniquely positioned to support people experiencing mental health problems during the pandemic.

Evidence-based Recovery Colleges: developing a typology based on organisational characteristics, fidelity and funding.

Purpose: Recovery Colleges (RCs) have been implemented across England with wide variation in organisational characteristics. The purpose of this study is to describe RCs across England in terms of organisational and student characteristics, fidelity and annual spending, to generate a RC typology based on characteristics and to explore the relationship between characteristics and fidelity.

Methods: All RC in England meeting criteria on recovery orientation, coproduction and adult learning were included.