Community barbecue

If you've read our last post (here), you'll know the Jigsaw Project is now up and running. To celebrate, we're hosting a community barbecue on Easter Monday. Do come along if you want to try some food, perhaps some activities and have a chat! Let your friends, colleagues and family know and feel free to bring along information about any groups, activities, courses or events you're running.

 

 

The Jigsaw Project

If you've been around at MHAG meetings or on social media/e-mails, you may have heard us talking about the Jigsaw Project. The good news is it is now firmly up and running (it's been going on in the background but we're really giving it a push now!) but what is it?

 

Who's involved?

The Jigsaw Project is the brainchild of Harriet from MHAG and Fay from Yum Tum who wanted to find a way of combining their passions for mental health and food!

 

What is it?

It's a project aimed at engaging everyone in the community and promoting what's already going on and anything new which starts up. The idea behind the name is that all aspects of community and health slot together in a 'jigsaw' - so healthy eating, mental health etc. Whether it's a one-off activity, a group which meets every week or a course, share it with us and we'll share it with everyone. We're sharing what's going on through social media but any longer-term projects will also be promoted through a printed directory to be distributed across the town.

 

How do we get in touch?

E-mail us via at redditchmhag@gmail.com

Call Harriet on 07788 379389

Like 'The Jigsaw Project' on Facebook and message us or get sharing your group/activity on our wall.

 

Anything else?

There will be events associated with the Jigsaw Project going on within Redditch so keep an eye out for more details on those!

 

Thanks,

Harriet and Fay

Happy New Year!

It's traditional to wish everyone health and happiness for New Year - that may seem laughable when we're talking about mental health and some very unwell and unhappy people. So my seasonal offering to you is I wish you progress - whether that's stepping one foot outside your front in 2015, whether that's finally accepting there's something wrong and going to see your doctor about it or whether that's moving through the recovery process and 'living well with mental health'.

Happy New Year x

Functioning with a mental health illness

The more I get into the world of mental health the more I become convinced most people broadly fit into one of two categories: non-functioning or functioning.

The first group is the one which probably receives the most attention and there is the most awareness around - it's the group who may not be able to work because of their mental health issues, they may be unable to hold down a relationship or any regular commitment such as volunteering, they withdraw almost completely from society due to the impact of their illness. 

But there is also another huge group of people who are what I've come to term 'functioning' because far from withdrawing, they seem to become more involved the more impact their health has on them. I have definitely always been in this bracket and I think that makes it much harder for others to see there is a mental health issue present or to understand it once it does emerge.

When your life's so full anyway and then you take on more and more in an attempt to mask your illness, it becomes your way of living that you pile more and more into your schedule and limit the amount of time you actually have to sit down on your own and confront the fact you're poorly.

People kept telling me 'you'll make yourself ill with all this work' but they didn't realise I was actually already ill and using that to mask it. When I was eventually admitted on to the ward, it was almost a relief to grind to a complete stop and do nothing. It was also a shock to the system to do a complete 180.

I feel whilst any stigma-reducing or awareness-increasing around mental health is valuable, we need to start thinking more about both groups of people. Yes it's important to look at the 'non-functioning' group and how to get them more involved in society but we also need to be aware of the huge numbers of people who from the outside might look alright - with a job, home, stable relationships etc - but in reality are struggling under the huge weight of the burden of mental illness.

Thank you Hillcrest

It's been six months today since I was admitted into a mental health ward - I thought that milestone would be a good time to look back and actually praise some elements of the service I received. Obviously the purpose of an action group is to improve what's on offer and the very nature of the group means it's going to attract people who are dissatisfied with what's going on. But my aim is not and has never been to attack the people who work day in day out for Redditch residents, the people who really care.

The decision to be admitted voluntarily into Hillcrest in Redditch was the hardest thing I've ever done. Sitting in the Alexandra Hospital knowing I was being transferred over the road to become a mental health inpatient was nothing short of terrifying. I remember thinking I just wanted to look back in a week, a month or a year and feel like I made the right decision.

A lady came to transfer me and she was truly the most wonderful person, my mom told me she had tears in her eyes as she left me on the ward. I wish I knew her name as her actions that day truly touched both myself and my mom. From that moment for the rest of my stay at Hillcrest the staff were incredible and I wish every single one of them could know how grateful I am to them.

For the first time, I felt supported, cared about and worthy of help. Up until then it had been a fruitless six months fighting against the system. Now I could see my friends and family visibly relax knowing they were leaving me in safe hands. Now I finally felt safe. I felt I could open up and chat about my feelings to professionals for the first time - I wasn't a number or a hassle, I was a person.

There are huge flaws in the system and there is much still to campaign for - something myself and other MHAG members will not stop doing - but it's also good to stop and thank the true heroes of the system from time to time. Everyone's experience in a mental health hospital will be vastly different but mine is definitely worthy of praise.

So this is my public thank you to everyone who works at Hillcrest - you and my friends and family helped turn my life around and I hope I can repay you in some small way by making the system you work within that little bit better.

I'll end this on a piece of advice one of the student nurses told me on one of my first days which will always stick with me:

"If you have a bad day, remember it's a bad day not a bad life."

Harriet

Our jigsaw project

We are currently in the process of speaking to people about a jigsaw project we hope to launch in 2015. We're inviting all organisations in Redditch to register their interest in the project and then we'll get everyone together to start organising it.

Aim:

The aim of the project is to focus on all of the aspects which together make up a person's quality of life including their mental and physical health, by looking at three aspects: how they can keep themselves happy and well, how they can help a friend and how they can help the community. Through this project, we hope to engage as many people as possible within Redditch to take part in at least one activity which will promote not only the specific aims of the project but also those of the organisations taking part from the voluntary and community sector.

How it will work:

Participants will work towards being 'Health Smart' by collecting pieces of a jigsaw, which together will make up an entire body. The jigsaw is made up of six pieces, which each represent a part of happiness/quality of life: the head (mental health), chest (heart health ie looking after friends and family), stomach (food), left arm (community), right arm (creativity) and legs (physical health).

There will be a number of sessions and activities run from the start of 2015 right through to Wellbeing Week in October which will focus specifically on one aspect of the jigsaw – for example comedy, writing or sewing sessions for creativity, making and preparing meals for food or sport for physical health. Once a person has attended one of the sessions, they will be given the corresponding jigsaw piece and it is hoped people will work towards attending six sessions throughout the year and thus being able to complete the jigsaw.

Organisation:

The project will bring together a consortium of organisations, mostly from the voluntary and community sector, who will put forward one leader for each of the six identified health factors (mental health, heart health, food, community, creativity and physical health). Each of the six leaders will be responsible for putting together a programme of activities leading up to October next year, liaising with as many relevant other organisations as possible and in encouraging people to join in and collect the jigsaw piece which matches their factor.

As a whole, the consortium members will also be responsible for promoting the project as widely as they can through the media, existing contact lists, liaising with the public and private sectors and promoting it at any events they host or attend.

Mission statement:

To engage and unite as many different groups and individuals within Redditch in a project to celebrate all aspects of health and wellbeing incorporating mental health, heart health, food, community, creativity and physical health. By giving thanks for positive factors within their lives, encouraging them to think about how they can improve less positive aspects of their emotional or physical health and by focusing not only on self-health but also the health of other people and the community as a whole, this will spread awareness of the different aspects which come together to improve their quality of life.

What are the issues and what are the solutions we are offering?:

Lack of awareness about the meaning of words such as mental health and wellbeing

• Sessions which will specifically inform people about the meanings, solutions to work towards better mental health and wellbeing.
• A visual representation (with the jigsaw) of what exactly incorporates health.
• A chance to learn more about aspects of health which they may not be familiar with.

A perceived lack of input from statutory services surrounding lower level mental health issues (ie they don't step in until the situation has reached crisis point

• Opportunities to meet people in similar situations, engage in positive activities and form new groups.
• Information and signposting towards relevant services which could assist.
• A chance for those struggling and the people who are looking after them to 'have a break' away from the issues faced.

There are so many organisations within the voluntary sector, often they are unaware exactly what is going on with other groups

• Closer working opportunities between all of the groups within the Redditch voluntary sector.
• The chance for groups to join together to offer activities, thus increasing the time and potentially the funding available for them, as well as the number of volunteers able to help.

Often the focus with mental health is on the negative aspects, such as the problems within the statutory services

• Turning the focus around so it is on positive activities being provided in Redditch.
• Giving people the chance to talk to others about what helped them when they were facing issues.
• Giving people a wide variety of activities to take part in, for example: sport, writing, cooking etc.

MHAG mentoring launch event

 

We would like to invite you to the launch of a new project in Redditch which has been formed from the Mental Health Action Group led by Rebecca Blake and Harriet Ernstsons. The event is on

Tuesday 2nd December at Redditch Town Hall  5.30pm - 7pm

A glass of wine or tea/ coffee and light refreshments will be available on the evening.

The event is to raise awareness of the work that MHAG is doing in the community by providing regular one to one support from life coaches to residents with low level mental health issues. It will also provide you with an opportunity to network and meet other local business, statutory and third sector organisations and learn about new initiatives from RBC about promoting well- being at work.

Please join Rebecca, Harriet and the MHAG team and learn about new projects in the Borough to promote well being.

RSVP

redditchmhag@gmail.com
07788 379389

Harriet & Rebecca

MHAG Redditch

Rhyming for a good reason

This week saw us host our second ever Wellbeing Week in Redditch, something we're keen to do every October to mark World Mental Health Day. The first event was a poetry evening at the Redi Centre - we wanted to demonstrate how getting creative can boost your mental health and also show how much talent we have in this town!

 

 

A huge ten people were lined up on the bill to share either their own poems or someone else's - some were on the theme of mental health and some weren't, but the majority were actually written by a Redditch resident. Thanks to our readers: Mark, Rebecca, Ismat, Vanessa, Lyn, Andy, Natalie, Shayan and Pat (the tenth was myself in case you're keeping count!)

 

 

A few extra thanks to Pat Witherspoon, the mayor, for her support of the event, Ray and Margaret for agreeing to host the event in their building, Jan and Andy for their help with organising (Jan and Margaret also made the most delicious cakes which everyone enjoyed), Boon for compering for us, Sally for playing the dulcimer and anyone else who helped in any way.

 

 

It was a hugely enjoyable night, we had at least half a dozen extra readers in the open mic part of the evening and hopefully everyone went away as content and full of cake as I did! We also raised £150 which will go towards mental health projects in the borough.

 

Keep an eye out on Facebook/Twitter in the coming weeks as I'll be posting up some of the poems.

 

Harriet.

What we've done and what's coming up!

Fear not, things with MHAG have been carrying on with our monthly meetings continuing and many great chats about mental health. This blog however I have let slide a little due to not being very well and a brief stay in hospital. I am back on track now and more focused than ever to push MHAG as far as we can and affect change in Redditch. It is desperately needed and wanted!

So some of the things which have been going on:
- We were made the mayor's charity! Pat Witherspoon picked MHAG and Redditch Friends Together as her two charities to help highlight mental health and dementia within the town. Thanks Pat! She's in office until May so plenty of exciting events will be coming up.
- We laughed! Pat hosted a comedy night called Ship Of Fools which was absolutely brilliant. There were five comedians plus compere Ant Hill (thanks to Ant for all his work to make it a success!). Lots of money raised and lots of laughs too.
- We talked! We've spoken to Dr Tim Lee, who's the lead for mental health on Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group's governing body, about their plans for the future as well as Helen Broughton from the strategic partnership about the work their mental health committee is doing and Homestart about their services to help people with postnatal depression.
- We visited! We went to events including the Bandstand Festival and Astwood Bank Carnival. It's great to bring mental health to the masses at places like that.

Wellbeing Week:
- Our first event is a poetry evening next Tuesday (October 7) at 7.30pm at the Redi Centre. We're hoping to highlight how getting creative and either reading or creating poetry can help with your mental health. Come along and join us - it's free but donations are welcome!

- Advice shop. As with last year we'll be hosting a two-day advice shop in the Kingfisher Centre. We're outside Primark (by the escalators) all day next Friday and Saturday (October 10 and 11) and we've got plenty of activities, crafts, puzzles, food making etc! Do pop along.

There are also lots of exciting projects in the pipeline and next week with the help of the Redditch Standard (my day job!) we'll be marking World Mental Health Day with the launch of a new pledge for the town.

Harriet.

Update from the chair: February 2014

February has been a fairly busy month for MHAG, starting off on the 1st with some of the group attending the LGBT event at Redditch Library - having a table at events like this is something we are very keen to do as it enables us to speak to people who either may need to access mental health services but need pointing in the right direction or to those who might be interested in getting on board with MHAG and campaigning for better services. All in all, it was a great networking opportunity for us.

The following week we met with representatives from Redditch Borough Council and the Redditch Community Amateur Boxing Club - the former was to find out more about the events they are hosting throughout the summer. We should have a packed schedule with these events plus our own we are hoping to organise. The latter was to hear more about a new project they're hoping to launch and we have a representative coming to our meeting tomorrow to share some more information about that.

On the 7th, we held our Valentine's Ball which was a great event and saw us raising nearly £500 to add to the funds we started gathering last year. We're really hoping to hit our £5,000 target soon and hopefully the combined efforts of these fund-raising events and our Three Peaks challenge will get us much nearer that total!

We've also met with Jestaminute who have some great ideas about Wellbeing Week (to be revealed at our March MHAG) and some of our members have been busy putting together proposals for a mentoring project - the pilot of which should be ready to launch soon.

To round the month off, we have a representative of the Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group coming to talk to us tomorrow at our monthly meeting which will be followed by a talk from some people who've completed the Three Peaks challenge who'll be sharing some top tips.

Harriet.

2014 so far

This year is shaping up to be a busy one for MHAG with the potential launch of a mentoring project to provide ongoing support for residents who have already accessed more short-term help from other services (more on that soon), as well as our Valentine's Ball this Friday at Studley Castle, preparations underway for this October's Wellbeing Week and plenty of other events in between. Last year we touched on the link between wellbeing and physical exercise and some of our members will be truly testing that out when we take on the Three Peaks challenge this August. As well as providing a challenge for those climbing three mountains (Scafell Pike in England, Snowdon in Wales and Ben Nevis in Scotland) in 24 hours, it will hopefully be well supported by the public and help boost our fund-raising for the year. If you'd like to get involved in the challenge it'll be on August 1 and 2 with the option of just climbing Snowdon on the Sunday - there will be a practice of Snowdon on March 9 for those unsure about signing up or wanting to get some mountain-walking hours in early on. Join in by e-mailing redditchmhag@gmail.com or calling Harriet on 07788 379389. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, February 27, at 7pm at Redditch Town Hall when we'll be joined by a representative from the NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group to talk about commissioning mental health services in the borough.

2013 review

We spend most of our time looking forward - to the next MHAG event, making plans, sending e-mails about future meetings - but the end of the year provides a welcome opportunity to look back and see the achievements this fairly small group of committed volunteers have already got under their belt just seven months since the formation of the Mental Health Action Group.

If we roll back time to a full year ago, MHAG was simply an idea - a feeling that something more could be done to promote mental health and to help the thousands of people in Redditch alone who need support and may not be able to access it, may not know where to look or may be simply falling through the gaps.

Fast forward to May and we nervously waited at the Town Hall to see whether anyone felt the same as we did. Our first meeting exceeded all expectations, with a good number of both residents and representatives of organisations coming along to share their views - many of whom have remained dedicated MHAG members, getting involved in preparing and volunteering at events, regularly attending meetings to talk about the issues and highlighting key priorities for us going forward.

Very quickly, the need for a support group where people could go regularly to talk to people in a similar situation was highlighted - something taken up by Mary, a public governor for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust who has taken the group forward and seen it grow into weekly meetings (now held at The Space in Winyates) with good attendance. It is heartening to hear so many of the attendees having had positive experiences, both in the meetings and outside for example by beginning to volunteer.

In October, we held Redditch's first ever Wellbeing Week which saw hundreds of residents take part in various events, from a quiz, two day Advice Shop in the Kingfisher Centre and health and fitness day at the Abbey Stadium to those hosted by organisations including SureStart, Sandycroft, Bromford Support and Your Ideas. To have so many people engaging with us and so many organisations (more than 25) involved in promoting the need for conversations and action surrounding mental health was fantastic and it's something we're very keen to repeat (and improve on) in 2014.

The end of December saw us spend two days over a weekend before Christmas handing out a total of 900 leaflets to shoppers which contained information about mental health, family life, debt and various other support sources which hopefully will have proved helpful to residents struggling over the festive period. It is great to start 2014 having had such a successful 2013 and we already have a number of events in the pipeline which will enable us to have more conversations about mental health, reach more people and to hopefully improve the lives of those suffering with various issues in the borough.

This is a good time to say a heartfelt thank you to every single person involved in MHAG throughout 2013 - those people who have attended our events and engaged with what we have to say, those who have come along to our monthly meetings and those who have taken time out of their busy schedules to talk to us about what their organisation does. A huge thank you goes to our working group who attend extra meetings each month, always come with ideas to help improve MHAG and go above and beyond to keep it going.

I have said before that the main benefit in my eyes of MHAG is the willingness and ability of our members to talk openly about mental health - an issue so often swept under the carpet, stigmatised or simply overlooked. There is a long way to go until mental health is considered on the same level as physical health but by talking about it as openly as we would talk about any other ailment, illness or condition, we can help break down those barriers and make Redditch a place which doesn't discriminate against or turn its back on those who are often the most vulnerable in society. It is idealistic to think we can change the world but if we can make a difference in our town then it is more than worth it.

Thank you,
Harriet.

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.

Reminder: our November meeting

Our November meeting will take place at the same time and place as usual (7pm at Redditch Town Hall) this Thursday (November 28). We welcome members old and new - anyone can come along, whether they're an individual with an interest in mental health or someone who works or volunteers for an organisation which supports residents. We mainly focus on identifying services and potential gaps within those services, tackling stigma and fund-raising ideas.

If you're someone who's struggling with your mental health who would like a relaxed, welcoming environment to spend a couple of hours in each week, the support group runs every Thursday at 11am.

Details for both the action group and the support group are available here. (Click here for more about the support group or here for more about the action group).

MHAG, the story so far:

The idea of MHAG was first discussed by chair Harriet and vice-chair Rebecca towards the end of 2012. We had been working alongside the Make A Difference group for a few months with the aim of getting action taken on the Bromsgrove Highway bridge where two men had tragically lost their lives that summer, sadly already a location where others had previously taken their lives. We both felt, whilst we wanted to continue supporting Make A Difference, there was also a huge need in the borough for a focus on mental health as a whole. We decided to host a meeting at the end of May 2013 and invite along members of the public, as well as organisations with an interest.

To our delight we had many more people there than we expected, all of whom had their own story to tell which they were more than happy to do in such an open forum. It felt like a real step forward in terms of the stigma surrounding mental health, something we are determined to do our bit to erode. Everyone had something to say about how they felt services should be organised, where they felt there were gaps in provision and how mental health had affected their life - which made us all the more certain a group needed to be formed in order to be a voice for people with mental health issues who are some of the most vulnerable in our town.

Since then we have held monthly meetings focusing on aspects of mental health our members tell us are most important to them - for example concerns were raised about the police having to deal with those in crisis unable to access other sources of help so we invited Insp Ian Joseph from West Mercia Police to one of our meetings to answer members' questions. Through the meetings and visits to various organisations we are starting to build up a picture of what support is out there and not only where there may be gaps in services but also what could potentially be done to fill those gaps.

It is equally as important to us to get mental health at the forefront of people's minds and talked about on an equal basis to physical health. The first major event we organised was the town's first Wellbeing Week in October to coincide with World Mental Health Day. We hosted a two day Advice Shop in the Kingfisher Centre where residents could find out more about more than 25 organisations, a quiz on WMHD itself and a Feel Good Revolution event focused on the benefits of exercise and healthy living, as well as a 12-hour fund-raising bikeathon. Sandycroft Centre, SureStart, Bromford Support and Your Ideas hosted events in conjunction with Wellbeing Week and YMCA and Birchensale Middle School also got on board with creating displays for the week.

At our very first meeting it was suggested a support group should be put in place to ensure people had a place to go if they needed some help and a chat with those in similar situations. One of our members Mary agreed to run this group, which has been going since June and meets weekly.

We are now looking to progress the organisation by formalising our constitution and expanding throughout 2014, with a number of fund-raising and awareness raising events on the horizon in the very near future.

Redditch MHAG