‘Recovery Colleges are educational hubs offering a unique approach to enhance mental health and wellbeing by fostering inclusive learning opportunities. Co‐production, integrating lived and learned knowledge and experience, is central to Recovery Colleges.’ (Jones, Crawford and Jancey, 2025)

Based on the above, Cygnet Hospital Bierley has co-produced a ‘news, views and brews’ group which is open to all service users across the hospital. From the initial group, a hospital newsletter was devised called ‘The Cygnet Times – created by Cygnet users for Cygnet users’, which is published on a bi-weekly basis. The newsletter promotes good-quality occupational therapy by implementing the principles of the Recovery College: Co-production, Co-facilitation and Co-learning.

The newsletter was designed following feedback from service users regarding what they would like to promote. The newsletter reflects service users’ creativity, developing the name of the group, logo, themes, colour designs, layout and content. The newsletter includes recovery stories to provide focus, peer support and motivation, information regarding voluntary opportunities in the community, reflections on section 17 leave, and service user recipes. The newsletter provides the opportunity for service user feedback to support the development of service initiatives such as redesigning therapy rooms and reviewing tuck shop provision.

The newsletter also focuses on OT within the 3 main occupations:

• Self-care: highlights 3 self-care tips to implement into a weekly routine to support wellbeing, and prizes are self-care orientated, such as toiletries.
• Productivity: Discussed having roles within the production of the newsletter, such as designer and content creator.
• Leisure: Section 17 leave review, therapy trip reviews, and feedback on hospital events.

Feedback from service users has been positive:

“It inspired me”

“I like the recipes; I want to make them”

“I found it refreshing to see on the hospital boards”

“It’s good to be inspired by what other service users are doing”

“I feel the group is a really good opportunity for service users to engage whilst expressing themselves in a relaxed setting”

Reference: Jones K, Crawford G, Jancey J. Are We There Yet? Co-Production in Recovery Colleges. Health Promot J Austr. 2025 Jul;36(3):e70047. doi: 10.1002/hpja.70047. PMID: 40304167; PMCID: PMC12042252.