Border crossings: Arts and health work in a university

This article describes and analyses a project developed at York St John University that offers courses to mental health service users taught by students and their tutors. A model is suggested that provides a means through which people who have used mental health services can access higher education (HE) experience that is both flexible and supportive. The project is a collaboration between the university and local mental health service providers. It is an innovation in line with current UK agendas with regard to widening participation and lifelong learning in the HE sector, and to social inclusion in the mental health field. It offers valuable ways for full-time students to develop the attitudes and insights needed to work with people who use mental health services, and it inevitably challenges the cultural attitudes that surround mental illness.