Pathways to Recovery: Course 1. Week 1. Day 1. All the planning, preparation, team discussions (oh so many!) have all paid off. Our first day delivering our brand new Pathways to Recovery course has been a great success. The facilitators enthusiastically fed back their accounts of the day, starting with the delight of welcoming back […]
I love and have most, but not all of her music. I have even had the good fortune to see her perform at the Roundhouse in Camden recently. Beth Hart is an artist heralded and admired by me and my immediate family. It’s a rare thing for the three of us to agree on something!
On the 8th December, The Independent wrote an article about Beth and her Bipolar
“The Grammy-nominated singer writes about the darker side of her creativity”
Good article. No, it was a damn good article! If I’m disappointed, it was by the too few comments (2 at the last count) that appeared below the article. With one in four of us experiencing some form of mental ill health and so many organisations with and without celebrities doing their bit to challenge stigma, raise awareness and promote healthy discussions, I was a tad saddened that this frank and honest insight into Beth’s world did not cause a ‘bigger’ conversation ripple…
However, just like her songs, Beth gives it her all, sparing no ‘twisted’ detail on the impact of bipolar on her work and in her life. The truth, straight up from a straight up kind a lady. I admired Beth for her skills in singing and song writing; Now? I am totally inspired by Beth as a person.
We are happy to report the programmes have provided us with very positive outcomes regarding the benefits to those attending our programmes. As such, it has been agreed to revert the two-day programme back into its original form of six-weeks, at one day a week.
Using the model of intentional peer support, the Impact team will help you identify well-being challenges, find techniques to overcome pressures and barriers and create plans to improve your health & well-being with a clear focus on your strengths to help build recovery plans for the future.
If you would like to know more about The You Programme, click here …
Many of us know of and understand the challenges our youth are facing and the often devastating effects these can have on their mental wellbeing. So, we are somewhat surprised that we have to wait until 2018 for the government to complete the research of nearly 10,000 people aged from two to 19 and their families who will be interviewed to assess the prevalence of mental health issues, providing the first commissioned survey of young people’s mental health since 2004.
In the mean time, what support in addition to ‘YMHH’ is there? The charity Young Minds offers a wealth of information, all of which is useful and importantly, meaningful in its purpose and delivery. Their services feel fresh and to the point, with snappy, punchy titles too! We particularly like the title “HeadMeds” – that’s just so “on point”!
There are pockets of good practice, services and support up and down the country but with too few joined up practices, how can this be raised to support the three children in every classroom experience mental health problems ranging from self-harming to eating disorders, according to The Time to Change charity?
Personal Health Social and Economic (PSHE) education, has in various forms been part of the National Curriculum for schools in UK since 2000 but not is seems, has this been compulsory. Perhaps now is the time. Not only should we be making this compulsory, schools should have the opportunity to work with agencies to provide a range of topics within PSHE and importantly, these topics should be determined by our students.
The more we engage and genuinely consult, the more we have a greater chance of changing the educational landscape to reflect the needs of our students, not just academically but in a way that will provide them with the life skills they might need to keep them well; emotionally, physically, spiritually, socially, professional and mentally.
PSHE is vital but we need to adapt to the changing needs of our youth. Perhaps then, as a thought, PSHE ought to stand for… Peer Support for Health and Emotions?
…and a few words from the College
Bedford College was delighted to have Impact join us at our staff conference this year. Carol and Deanne held lively and open discussions about mental health and shared their personal experiences. The discussions around peer support helped staff recognise potential mental distress in themselves and in others. All three sessions were fully booked and received very positive feedback from staff from across all areas of the college. We look forward to working with Impact again.
Claire Issacs
In addition to enjoying her time in Brussels and sampling rather too much delicious Belgian chocolate – the Advisory Group provided Déanne with exciting and thought provoking discussions on how to tackle this debilitating and avoidable illness in the work place.
Within the comprehensive attendee pack, Déanne found information and introductions to a wide variety of topical issues relating to the Advisory Group’s current and future plans. Importantly, she was delighted to read some real ‘down-to-earth’ facts about this employee epidemic and in particular Bill’s source document Why Depression, Why Business, Why Now.
The ‘Target’ pilot projects are ambitious and inspiring and to be among the people and companies from around the world such as those that make up the group and who have willingly come together to face, challenge and succeed against an illness that can only be described as a ‘mind bully’, was, to say the least for Déanne, humbling, and she admits she came away inspired, enlightened and slightly overwhelmed – in a positive way!
The group’s interest in the Impact Mental Health model of peer support was encouraging, and the interest and the questions about mental health peer support were testament to the work still to be done and the people still to be reached.
In work, out of work, peer support works; Déanne believes our services can play a vital part in complementing other support services, to help shape and create peer-active and supportive work place environments, and she looks forward to continuing the relationship with Bill and the trailblazing advisory group, Target Depression in the Workplace.
Sadly, it’s not surprising to read the claim from General secretary Dr Mary Bousted that school staff have had to “plug the gaps in social care as best they can”. Blaming “poverty, poor housing, unemployment and financial insecurity” as the obvious targets – targets that are easier to address because frankly, we all know the pressures on our children today run much deeper than these headings, surely?
Proposer Bella Hewes, a special needs teacher from Oxford, said the expertise to support pupils’ mental health was “just not there”.
So, what impact is this having on our teachers and lecturers, many of whom are unprepared, untrained and are grappling daily with the funding and resource cuts in addition to supporting a worrying increase of children presenting with mental ill health?
The BBC reports that only 9% felt they had been given enough training to help them spot the signs of mental illness in pupils, 45% said training had been inadequate and 32% said they had received no training at all.
We all need to play a part in safeguarding the mental well-being of our nation’s children. Expecting Child and Adolescent Mental Health services to pick up the tab as we turn a blind eye is not good enough and no amount of funding from the government for children’s mental health services will rid this illness from our schools. We need to start at the start! Investing in the long-term training of our educational staff in a significant and sustainable way could help to lessen the necessity of clinical intervention for our children later on.
Mental ill health can affect any child and it does not discriminate on age, gender, race or religion and it certainly does not care about stigma, or the cost to our mental health services. It’s here, right now and it’s growing – let’s stop looking the other way and expecting our mental health services to ‘make it all better’. Training our teaching staff to recognise the signs and symptoms of suffering children and introducing new ways to help children help each other in creating positive Mental Health Peer Support Training should be as important as teaching Pythagoras and Punctuation.
However, this shouldn’t steer our attention away from the frightening reality that thousands of suffering adults are still not receiving the support they are entitled to because of relentless cuts to adult mental health services, critically impacting on access, quality and care.
Worryingly, the number of new cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2013/14 was 244,000 (HSE Stress-related and psychological disorders in Great Britain 2014). Add this to those already suffering in and out of work and we are heading for a national epidemic.
Mental ill health related illness is not going away – in fact it is gathering speed because of the cuts to our services and because of the growing stresses and demands from trying to balance work and life pressures.
Pouring £1.25 billion into children’s mental health services is a good start but frankly it has the feel of the Titanic about it. Addressing the needs of over 110,000 children, is simply the tip of a terrifying Iceberg.
