To date, 12 courses have been offered in
north and south Wales, and a total of 157
participants have completed the course.
Groups are set at a maximum of 15 people
to encourage participation, although the
average group attendance is 8-10.
Participants hear about the course via
clinicians giving them leaflets, through
mailouts in the newsletters of Bipolar UK
or the Bipolar Disorder Research Network
(www.bdrn.org), or by word of mouth
from past participants.
The course organisers telephone participants
before they are accepted onto the
course to ensure they understand its
nature and that it is suitable and appropriate
for them. Not everyone responds or
functions well in group settings, and some
people may not be able to commit to the
full 10 weeks; these people are offered the
internet-based Beating Bipolar programme
(Smith et al, 2011), which has a
similar content to the BEP-C course but
without the face-to-face contact.