Anna Devlin
Recovery College Co-ordinator @ South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust
Anna is a Recovery College Co-ordinator at the SEHSCT recovery college. The college builds on the national drive to create a society where people with mental health difficulties have access to the same opportunities in life as everyone else.
Can you tell us how about your job and what you do from day to day?
My role as coordinator involves many different elements of work. Firstly, I support the co-production process within the College. This is a very exciting element of my job as it involves consideration of how we, as an Organisation, can work in different ways to embed and promote Recovery practices within Mental Health.
My role also involves good communication skills in relation to working with internal and external stakeholders to promote the Recovery College, to co-produce newsletters, to co-develop Recovery College Prospectus’s. Another important element of my role is to co-ordinate timetables and to supervise both Recovery College Trainers and Volunteers.
What experience/education is required in order to perform this role?
Experience of setting up and managing new projects and services. Third level education and experience working within mental health. Experience of working in a learning and Education environment.
What is the biggest challenge in your role?
My role includes positive risk taking. This can be a challenge making sure risks taken even though they are positive fit Trust guidelines.
What advice would you give to others looking for a job in your field?
The advice I would give to others would be to reflect on their professional and personal strengths, talents and qualities and to consider how they could apply these within this role. I believe the role of the Recovery College Co-ordinator involves a healthy balance of managerial skills and personal qualities and strengths. It is a very unique role within the health service.
What do you like best about your role and working in HSC?
My favourite part of my job is working with our team of service users, volunteers, trainers and staff (internal and community/voluntary), to plan and review the on-going development for the Recovery College.