MEDICINE HAT, AB – The Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Recovery College is offering free, online courses to people looking for support with addiction or mental health challenges.
The Recovery College focuses on helping people to support themselves, or their loved ones, on their recovery journey, but welcomes everyone to the courses.
“The meaning of the name is to help people who are looking to be in recovery, or are looking for help in their life,” says Mark Walter, a trainer at the college. “Having said that, our motto is ‘mental health for all,’ so we want anyone to come to the courses.”
Six main courses are currently being offered, with two more launching in the fall. Topics include boundaries, communication, and friendship, taught through tasks and activities to help people better themselves.
“It is education and psychologically-based so there is evidence behind it,” Walter says. “It’s also peer supported. So peers are joining us to co-facilitate and they have lived experience.”
The peers can connect and discuss with people in the course, providing examples of how the materials covered can be applied in real life. The group settings are meant to provide collaboration and support as participants work through the activities.
“It can help people to cope and manage,” says Walter. “It also builds upon their self-worth and self-being, and building boundaries and different things that give them autonomy again, but really gives them connection and hope.”
Walter says he wants all participants to feel safe and comfortable in the group setting, adding the courses are meant to welcome them and help them get to a healthier place.
“We genuinely want to have chats with people and support them where they are at,” says Walter. “We always say this is a journey, it isn’t a destination.”
Walter wants people to know that just because the staff at the Recovery College work in mental health, doesn’t mean they are immune from the topics being addressed in the courses.
“Just because I facilitate doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced those issues and concerns myself,” says Walter. “So we genuinely offer our experience as well.”
Walter encourages anyone who is interested in the programs to reach out to CMHA to see if one might be of help and find out what to expect.
“I think most of us are scared, because we think ‘what does this look like? Am I going to be embarrassed? Is it going to hurt or harm me?’ and that adds to the struggles they’ve been going through,” explains Walter.
Walter says the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic people are looking for support as they work to get healthier, and he hopes people will ask for help if it’s needed.
“The hardest part is to call us, or to come down,” says Walter. “We’re here, we welcome anyone to reach out.”
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