Mentoring evening success

Jan and Andy Higgitt from Jestaminute, Neil Ordish from Headgym, Elaine Grant from Early Help, Andrea Maddocks from MentorLink, Danielle Campbell from Hayward Wright, Beth Haining from Global Harmony and MHAG vice-chair Rebecca Blake

A massive thank you from MHAG to all of the people who attended our meeting on Tuesday (December 2) which was aimed at informing residents and organisations about what we do but more specifically around letting people know about the mentoring project.

The pilot launched almost six months ago now – co-ordinated by Neil Ordish of Headgym, Beth Haining of Global Harmony, Elaine Grant from Early Help and Mentor Link’s Andrea Maddocks. The aim is to provide long-term support for people who may have accessed statutory services but need extra support once that NHS input has come to an end. It’s a long-recognised problem mental health isn’t fixable in six weeks – some people may need months or even years to get back to a point where they’re feeling more positive about their life.

Currently the mentoring project helps 20 people – each of them get a slot once a fortnight either over the phone, on Skype or face to face with mentors Neil and Beth – and it’s all goals-focused so each time they are working towards achieving a measurable goal. It’s been fantastically successful and the feedback the team are getting is great – people really making changes in their lives due to the input of Beth and Neil who are supported with all the management of the project by Elaine and Andrea.

The team are now putting together funding bids to enable the project to continue long-term and fingers crossed it’ll be something we see happening in Redditch for a long time to come!

Once again, thanks to all who attended on Tuesday – getting over 40 people including representatives from the police, borough council, health and care trust and many other organisations to come together on a cold evening in December is great and is testament to the real focus on mental health which is being led from the ground upward.

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

Visit by shadow minister for mental health

Rebecca Blake, Mary Jones and Luciana Berger.

Last week Luciana Berger, who's the shadow minister for public health which includes mental health, was invited down by our vice chair Rebecca to meet Neil Ordish from Headgym, one of the leaders on the mentoring project, and Mary Jones and the support group down at The Space in Winyates.

We also had the chance to talk to Luciana about how MHAG started and the kinds of things we've been doing in the last 18 months. Although Rebecca is obviously a politician, MHAG is not a political group and we welcome support from anyone! However it's great to be able to highlight the work we do and the great community we have in Redditch on a national platform and to have interest from people outside the area.

I've written a story about the visit for the Standard so to save repeating myself on here, click here to read more.