Making Recovery Real

A new conversation series from Scottish Recovery Network. With a different guest each episode these podcasts bring you insights, ideas and inspiration from people using their lived experience to support others and develop peer approaches.

Our guest this episode is Rai Waddingham who will be sharing her experiences of participating in and facilitating peer support groups. Rai hears voices, sees visions and has a whole range of experiences many label as ‘unusual’. At times these have overwhelmed her, leading to a range of diagnoses she no longer identifies with. Having managed the London Hearing Voices Project for many years, working with people who hear voices or have unusual beliefs across youth, adult and prison settings, she’s now Chair of the English Hearing Voices Network. Rai is an independent trainer, a writer and an Open Dialogue Practitioner. She’s also studying for a PhD in Survivor Knowledge.’

Want to know more about peer support? Interested in developing peer roles and approaches? Tune in.

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A podcast transcript is available on the Scottish Recovery Network website: www.scottishrecovery.net

This podcast is also available in film version with BSL interpretation and subtitles on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottishRecoveryNetwork

Peer Chat With Rai Waddingham was recorded at the What makes peer support unique? online discussion event.

Siobhan Hossack, a Project Manager at a mental health awareness and suicide prevention organisation, tells us what peer support means to her.

"Peer support was one of the main things that helped me out of this very difficult time."

A written version of this podcast is available to read on the Scottish Recovery Network website.

To celebrate Co-production Week Scotland, our Director Louise Christie speaks to Ruth Brown, Manager for Mental Health and Substance Use at Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action (DVVA), as they reflect on the positive impact of Making Recovery Real in Dundee.

Launched in 2015 this initiative continues to use a co-production approach that puts people with lived experience at the centre of decision making, service design and practice development.

Transcript of the podcast

Making Recovery Real resources and more available at www.scottishrecovery.net

“Peer Support has given me many gifts, the greatest one being it has helped me to heal my relationship with myself.”

Lauren, a Peer Support Worker with Bipolar Scotland, tells us what peer support means to her.

A written version of this podcast is available to read on the Scottish Recovery Network website.

Trish O'Brien, Mental Health Network Peer Support Coordinator with Fife Voluntary Action, tells us what peer support means to her.

"Just hearing that someone else was going through something similar to me helped me be more kind to myself."

You can access a written version of this contribution on the Scottish Recovery Network website

In this podcast for the ALLIANCE Live series, we explore peer support in digital spaces and the capacity for kindness and empowerment.

Our Network Officer, Lesley Smith, is joined by two participants involved in our Meaningful connections research project: Hayley Chandler, Development Worker for Edinburgh's Peer Community, and Emma Morrow, Peer Support Lead at Bipolar Scotland.

During the conversation Lesley, Hayley and Emma speak about peer support in digital spaces. They explore the importance of personal connection within peer support and how that correlates to speaking to each other through our screens. The conversation also touches on some key tips and ideas for digital peer support and directs listeners to a range of free resources to learn more. 

Meaningful connections research report | Empowering connections - running online peer support groups

Recorded on the banks of Loch Lomond, Emily tells us what peer support means to her. Emily was a participant in the pilot that took the Peer2Peer course online. *This audio references suicide.

"The peer support ethos of empowering people in recovery has helped me accomplish a lot"

The written version of this contribution is available at www.scottishrecovery.net

Photograph by Arianna Petrovan.

As part of our Peer support and me series, Joanna, a Development Worker with HUG / SPIRIT Advocacy explores the themes of peer and collective advocacy. A written version of this episode is available on the Scottish Recovery Network website

If you would be interested in contributing to our Peer support and me series contact Christine Muir, Senior Communications Officer: [email protected]

Join Robyn, Steve, Fiona, Holly and Lesley as they chat about their experiences as facilitators and participants involved in the pilot of the online Peer2Peer course.

"It’s just been such a transformative experience. Like, this year I will be helping to facilitate a Peer2Peer course at a mental health charity in Glasgow and I’m super excited about it". - Robyn

Peer2Peer is a free-to-access course for groups, services and organisations interested in developing peer support opportunities (face-to-face or online). Find out more and download a range of resources at www.scottishrecovery.net

Podcast transcript available (scroll down page).

We were delighted to be asked to be part of the ALLIANCE Live series. This 30 minute podcast, using audio from the webinar, explores how the Making Recovery Real approach offers a different way of working together. It does not replace the traditional NHS treatment route but invites formal services to walk alongside local people, organisations and initiatives to design and deliver sustainable mental health support.  

With contributions from various people involved in the successful Making Recovery Real in Dundee partnership, Scottish Recovery Network’s Acting Director, Louise Christie chairs the podcast and Q&A.  

Find out more and download free resources at: www.scottishrecovery.net