Christmas and New Year support and services

Early Help

Families with children under 19 can call 0800 085 8106 free for help and advice. There will be an answering machine on the number from December 24th to 27th but on any other weekday the phone will be manned from 9am to 4pm.

Children's Centres opening times:

Cherry Trees, Batchley First school (01527 592675) - 23rd 1pm to 3pm SALT, 27th 9am to 1pm antenatal, 30th 1pm to 3.30pm My Time, 31st 9am to 1pm antenatal, 2nd 9am to 1pm antenatal.

Holly Trees, St Stephen's First School (01527 61360) - 23rd 9am to 1pm paediatric clinic 1pm to 4.30pm antenatal, 30th 9am to 1pm antenatal, 31st 9am to 1pm My Time, 2nd 9am to 1pm antenatal, 3rd 12.30pm to 2.30pm quit smoking drop-in.

Maple Trees, Roman Way First School (01527 503200) - 24th 9am to 1pm antenatal, 31st 9am to 1pm antenatal, 2nd 1pm to 3pm My Time.

Oak Trees, Oak Hill First School (01527 517185) - 23rd 9am to 1pm antenatal, 30th morning baby bistro and antenatal clinic, 2nd morning My Time.

Willow Trees, Church Hill Community Centre (01527 65668) - 23rd 12.30pm to 2.30pm quit smoking drop-in, 30th 12.30pm to 2.30pm quit smoking drop-in, 31st afternoon My Time, 2nd 10am to 12pm CHC, 1pm to 5pm antenatal.

Woodlands at Woodrow First School (01527 517935) - 23rd 9am to 1pm antenatal 11am to 1pm contact 1.30pm to 3pm CHC, 31st 9am to 12.30pm antenatal, 9am to 11pm My Time, 1.30 to 3 CHC, 2nd 9am to 2pm antenatal, 3rd afternoon quit smoking drop-in.

Headgym

The festive season can be a challenging time. If you are suffering with anxiety, stress, depression, addiction issues, weight problems, relationship difficulties, low self esteem or lacking in confidence, call 07768 920752 or e-mail info@headgym.co.uk for a free consultation 24hr call back.

Headgym use up to date NLP and hypnotherapy techniques to help you overcome issues and make the changes you want.

Nightstop

Nightstop and Churches Together in Redditch will be offering a daytime shelter to those in our community who are lonely and isolated, have no family of their own and no one to share Christmas with. We will offer a welcoming place where they will receive warmth and kindness, recreation and refreshment, care and compassion. We would like to stress that those eligible to attend the day centre need to be clients who ‘are most in need’ – those that are alone and isolated at a time when other services close down.

The provision is for individual adults only and we do not have any facilities for families with children. Any individual under the age of 18 who might turn up at the day centre will be referred to children’s services. The day centre will be located at The Ecumenical Centre, 6 Evesham Walk, Redditch B97 4EX and will open at 10 am on Monday 23rd December through to and including Thursday 2nd January 2014.

The centre will operate from 10 am to 6 pm and will provide guests with refreshments throughout the day, a hot lunch and activities to participate in. The centre will be managed by a day centre manager with the support of a team of volunteers. For more information please contact Ben on 0788 7777 692.

Oasis Christian Centre

Redditch Food Bank will be open at Oasis Christian Centre on Monday 23rd 10am to 2pm, Friday 27th 1pm to 4pm and Monday 30th 10am to 2pm.

Redditch Borough Council

Redditch Town Hall is open on the 23rd and 30th and then back open as normal (9am to 5pm) from January 2nd.

Batchley, Woodrow and Winyates One Stop Shops are closed from 5pm on the 23rd and reopen on the 2nd.

For emergency action including homelessness, call 01527 67666.

Redditch MHAG

Christmas meeting – Thursday 19^th December

7pm Redditch Town Hall

Come along and find out more about the group, our plans for 2014 and meet organisations who support residents in the borough.

Redditch Mental Health Action Group is a voluntary group made up of residents with personal experiences of mental health issues and organisations which support residents within the borough. We meet on the last Thursday of each month at Redditch Town Hall at 7pm.

We are planning to host a number of fund-raising and awareness raising activities during 2014 including the town's second ever Wellbeing Week following on from the success of the first held in October this year.

Samaritans 

08457 909090
jo@samaritans.org

Sandycroft

Sandycroft will be holding their mental health support group from 12pm to 2pm on Friday, December 27th. All are welcome.

Support Group

Mary Jones is available to speak to residents needing support over the holidays - call 07989 154258.

Two Pennies

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust is the main provider of NHS mental health services within the county. In order to meet the needs of those people with mental health difficulties in Worcestershire, the trust provides a range of services from inpatient care and intensive home support to primary care mental health services working closely with GPs and, where appropriate, helps people back into employment. Services are available for both adults and children, mainly via referral from a GP. Visit www.hacw.nhs.uk for more information about the trust and the services it provides.

Sharing information about services and support

Our event over the weekend saw us handing out 900 leaflets to shoppers in Redditch town centre to let them know about a whole host of services and support available to them over the festive period. As ever, it was concerning to hear there are people suffering who don't know what support is out there - and that's something we're hoping to rectify in 2014 as we plan even more events and hopefully reach out to as many residents as possible.

Thank you to all of the people who took the time to stop and speak to us - especially those who told us they came into the town centre just to find out about us. And a massive thank you as ever to all of our volunteers - including a total of seven helpers from Redditch Early Help over the two days, Rob and Sue from Samaritans, support group leader Mary, Neil from Headgym and Brian and Rhiannon Warwick.

 Don't forget, our last meeting of the year starts art 7pm on Thursday (December 19) at the Town Hall. All are welcome.

We'll be sharing the information about services and support on here in the next couple of days so do look out for it or e-mail us on redditchmhag@gmail.com for more information.

Busy times ahead of Christmas

Here at MHAG we're not quite ready to wind down for Christmas yet and instead have a very busy week ahead raising funds and awareness. Our own event runs from 10am to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday (December 14th and 15th) where we'll have information and representatives of borough organisations on hand in the town centre (Church Green area) to let people know about what services and support are available over Christmas. If you'd like any more information and are around in the town centre at the weekend make sure to pop over and have a chat - we'll be wearing our new MHAG t-shirts for the first time so we should be easy to spot!

Our final MHAG meeting of the year will take place on Thursday, December 19th. It'll be much more light-hearted than our normal meetings and we'll be using it as an opportunity to look back over the year's events and enjoy a mince pie or two. Existing and potential members are all invited to join us at the Town Hall at 7pm.

Update from the chair: November 2013.

November may have looked very quiet compared to the buzz surrounding October and Wellbeing Week in particular, but rest assured we have been very busy behind the scenes progressing MHAG and trying to ensure we start 2014 in the best possible position to further the aims of the group.

One of the things we're increasingly keen to do is formalise the group's structure, which would see us have a constitution and eventually applying to become a charitable organisation. We think that will put us in a much stronger position in terms of being able to fund-raise for projects in the town and also as a pressure group. So lots of the work this month has been about researching what the best way forward would be, thinking about how we can raise the money required to take on charity status and putting together a constitution.

However, we want to keep taking action whilst all that work is ongoing - MHAG definitely isn't about sitting round discussing options and never getting anything done - so we've been putting together an event in December which will see us going out into the town centre letting residents know what extra support is available to them if they encounter issues over Christmas. It's one of the key times of the year where people can feel especially vulnerable so hopefully we will be able to point a few people in the direction of a service they might need. Myself and vice-chair Rebecca did a similar thing last December with Samaritans which was well received so hopefully this year with a whole host of organisations on board it will be even more of a positive event. If you'd like to volunteer to help us out for an hour or so on either Saturday 14th or Sunday 15th please do let us know.

There's also lots of planning going on for our 2014 events, we're keeping them under wraps at the moment while the details are decided on but we should be able to start letting you know soon! It's exciting to know we have nearly a whole year of events before we even get to Wellbeing Week 2014 - we've got a range of things going on so there should be something for everyone, fingers crossed!

Key dates for December:
14th and 15th - Town centre leaflet hand out, highlighting services available for residents over Christmas.
19th - Our last MHAG meeting of the year, this will be an informal one so mince pies, a chat and a chance to reflect on 2013 and look forward to 2014!

Harriet.