Lifelong learning and recovery: an account from the perspective of the EMILIA project.

The paper is based upon the accounts of mental health service users, who all suffered from severe long-term mental illness. The training intervention: “Empowering people in recovery” was developed during the Emilia project (see below). The training process in recovery at Middlesex University, London, an Emilia demonstration site, was accredited, took place over twelve weeks, four hours every session. At the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, the other Emilia demonstration site, there were twelve hours of taught training programme over three days in one week. The second phase was also twelve hours but at once a week intervals. The Emilia project also developed a “personal development plan” module for the training; both London and Warsaw demonstration sites assisted their mental health service users in using it. Many students taking part in this training found it to be a very positive experience. These results need replication and further work to identify what were the preconditions for making it such a worthwhile experience and how this could be replicated on a wider basis.