Project: Living Life to the Full for students at Edinburgh College, in conjunction with Depression Alliance Scotland.
Target group: The course was advertised for young people aged 18-35. Those outside of this age group were however welcomed onto the course if they expressed an interest.
Settings: On the college campus.
Intervention:
The weekly Living Life to the Full course topics were:
- Understanding why we feel as we do
- Problem Solving
- Building Confidence and Activities
- Balanced Thinking
- Dealing with unhelpful behaviour
- Sleeping Better and Medication
- Assertiveness
- Healthy Living (Planning for the Future)
These were covered in videos, group discussions, group work and individual work.
Support offered: Depression Alliance Scotland trained support workers delivered the course and supported the students through the classes.
Outcomes:
Examples of participants feedback include:
“The staff delivering it were lively, animated and never patronising…”
“Been very helpful, want to go back through notes and implement stuff into day to day living.”
“It has helped me to get help from a therapist and it has helped me to understand here.”
“Gave me the first steps to feeling better.”
“Thanks very much for running such a super course. It’s been very helpful to us all. I’ve recommended it to a friend, so could you please let me know when you’re running the next one.”
What else?
Most of the students found group problem solving most helpful with several remarking it was helpful to explore solutions to other students’ problems as a group. Students noted that they would have liked less DVD and individual work and more group based work in the course.