Updates
Mental Health Forum (Andover)
On Friday the 11th of June the Service User Project will be holding its annual Mental Health Forum at the Upper Guild Hall - an annual gathering of service users, carers, members of the public, mental health and other medical proffessionals to get together and learn about issues affecting those with assorted mental health conditions. The subject for this year is recovery, which is defined as "Enabling people to live their lives to the fullest possible extent and to be part of their community and in turn be supported by the community". The forum will commence with a buffet lunch at 12.30pm, followed by talks from service users and professionals, the forum will be ending at around 4.00pm.
Funding granted for new project in New Forest and Test Valley South
We are pleased to announce that as from 1st of April 2010 we have been granted a contract extension to cover the New Forest and Test Valley South. We hope very much to build on service user involvement that is already in place and to provide a framework to allow this to develop further. We are currently in the process of meeting up with service users and service providers. If you would like us to visit you or correspond by e-mail please contact us. Our aim is to develop a new service user involvement project encompassing service user groups, patient councils, attendance at statutory meetings, visits to conferences, training and selection and recruitment. We will apply the same model we have used successfully in Mid Hants and Eastleigh. To this end, we will be recruiting a Project Worker, and Service User Representatives (paid and voluntary) in the next month or so (April/May). We intend to visit the local resource centres and to link up with service users already working in this area. We will be holding a launch event at some time in the near future and will post details of this event on this site.
TTS Drop In at Eastleigh
The Friendship Club in Eastleigh has been renamed the TTS Drop In (it stands for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). There is a new committee which includes Service Users and Professionals. They are looking at applying for a grant to enable the continued running of the Saturday part of the project. In the meantime they recently held their first charity sale and auction. Hopefuly this is the start of a successful fund raising campaign which will enable a valued resource to continue in existence. See the picture below for a flavour of the event itself.
Eastleigh Launch Event
Thursday 24th July 08 saw the formal launch of the Eastleigh part of the project. 40 or so service users, carers and health professionals attended to hear short presentations on CMHT, Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment, Assertive Outreach Team, Together, MindIT and the project. We had many interesting and varied questions from the floor and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.Quite a few attendees left their contact details so we have been able to add these to our Database so that we can inform them of future events. Paul O'Neill is the acting Project Worker for Eastleigh and he put a lot of hard work into the event, for which we are grateful.
Melbury Lodge Visiting Times
New Opening times for the Kingsley Unit are 1pm - 2:30pm, 4pm - 5:30pm, 6:30pm - 8pm and Weekends 10am-8pm.
Melbury Lodge out of hours service
All service users open to CMHT and/or a psychiatrist may phone the out of hours service when in crisis. Opening hours are from 5pm til 9am weekdays and 24 hours on weekends and bank holidays. The phone number is 0765 917 2074.
Fit4Life
All staff are now in place, the team consists of Nick Daniels, Claire Tuson, Adam Hatcher and Mandy Moore. Weekly activities include Tuesday morning Health Walk, afternoon Badminton and mixed Swimming group, Wednesday Fun and Games at the Depot, and Horse Riding in the Evening (seasonal), Thursday Allotment and Yoga and Friday Positive stress and guided relaxation group.
Mental Health Forums
Our forums this year take the theme of "A Day In The Life" looking at the work of local mental health professionals. Andover's forum is first up on Friday the 20th of June from 1pm til 4pm in the upper Guild Hall, on Andover High Street. Eastleigh launch event is on Thursday the 24th of July, again from 1pm til 4pm in the Nightingale Room at Wells Place Conference Centre in Eastleigh - we will also be launching our first service user directory for this area. The Winchester Forum is being held on World Mental Health Day, Friday the 10th of October at the Winchester Guild Hall. More details on speakers as soon as we have them. Each forum will also have a Question and Answer session with local service providers, where interested service users can submit questions before the event to the panel.
Fit4Life
Andover Mind, our hosting organisation, has been successful in securing funding for 3 years from the Lottery to set up and develop a physical health project for service users. This has been given the name of Fit4Life. The project will start on 1st October and recruitment for 3 STR (Support Time and Recovery) workers is already underway. Activities scheduled include exercise classes, gym attendance, individual coaching and organised activities such as walks and rambling. For more details watch this space. We will let you have more information as soon as we have it.
Awarded new contract in Eastleigh
The Project continues to expand, with the award of a new contract in Eastleigh, Hants starting on the
first of October 2007.
This means that we now cover the whole of the Mid-Hants Locality, having also been awarded the contract for service user involvement in Winchester in May 2006.
The project has successfully applied the same model which was trialled in Andover to Winchester and we have therefore been rewarded for our efforts with the new contract. We have carried out some preparatory work in Eastleigh, consisting of a Engagement event in January bringing together service users, carers and professionals to explore how service user involvement can be applied in Eastleigh. We have also been holding regular service user groups in which we have provided information on mental health services in the area, and have tried to ensure that service users are involved in the delivery of their own services.
We will be recruiting a new Project Worker, to be based in Eastleigh. This post will be for 15 hours per week (flexible). The post holder will be expected to recruit 3 or 4 service user representatives, from amongst our pool of Service Users- 2 of these posts will be paid, and 2 will be voluntary.Both will enable service users to continue to claim benefits.
For more information, contact the project co-ordinator, Barbara Allen, on (01264) 333833.