Time - Together

Transcription

Time - Together

0347 TWFW TimeTogether Issue 5:Layout 1
3/6/10
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Page 1
time
Issue 5
2010
Crusading for
change
Female offenders
and mental health
Together Our
Stories exhibition
Recovery stars
Celebs
speak out
www.together-uk.org
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Contents
CONTENTS
4
Regulars
4 News in brief
12 First person: your life stories
22 Involvement update: service user action
at Together
24 Share together: a celebration of survivor
history
28 The notice board: your pictures and news
2
6 Crusading for change
10 Female offenders and mental
health
14 Together Our Stories
exhibition
16 Recovery stars
18 Cover story: Celebs speak out
10
6
18
Features
14
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Cover photo courtesy of Time to Change
timetogether ISSUE 05
Thank you
CHIEF EXECUTIVE - LIZ FELTON
We are over six months into the essential changes
we need to make in order to stand the best
chance of achieving our strategic goals.
I am so grateful that during this
initial period people have
managed to retain their focus on
what we are all ultimately striving
for - a better deal in life for the
people we support.
That means providing the very best
in modern, high quality housing
environments and flexible services. It
also means adapting our services so
that people can use their personal
budgets to buy what type of support
they want from us directly.
Because where people live is just so
important to their overall quality of
life, the work being driven forward by
our Director of Housing, John Brennan,
is particularly exciting.
John is currently working on a
project to transform an old residential
home in Croydon, which has not been
in use for some years, into a place
where 38 people with mental health
issues can have their own homes.
There is also some exciting work
being led by Elina Stamou, Peer
Support Development Manager, in
preparation for our plans to pilot four
peer-led services. You can read more
about that on page 9.
And within our services too we see
dedicated people working hard to
achieve our strategic goals. For
example, at St. Helen’s Community
Support Service on Merseyside, the
Project Co-ordinator Michelle Durrant
and her team have been working hard
to ensure that people in receipt of
individual budgets can buy the support
they want from them directly.
But perhaps what has been most
heartening in this initial period is to
see different departments and services
working so well together, for example,
the members of the Strategy
Implementation Group. We also see
our plans to increase the levels of
service user involvement across
projects and departments going well,
with a new working group made up of
people in different staff roles plus
service users now meeting regularly.
Only by taking a wholeorganisation approach, with everyone
playing their part, can positive steps
towards making life better for the
4,000 adults a month we support
happen.
Indeed the benefit of being part of
a national organisation, as opposed to
being part of a small local group, is
that we can draw strength from one
another. Which is why the
development of a new online portal,
where marketing materials with a
consistent message about who we are
and what we do can be ordered, was
treated as a priority. These materials
will help everybody market their
service more professionally at a local
level, and are part of our wider plans to
raise the profile of Together. Raising
our profile will in turn strengthen our
position as a service provider, as well
as our fundraising case.
We realise that we are asking a lot
of staff at the moment and that there
are still many uncertainties. But please
believe that the changes we are
making are necessary. I would like to
thank everyone for the work they are
doing to secure Together’s future.
>
FEEDBACK
We always welcome feedback
about timetogether from our
readers. So if you'd like to contact
the team to get your point across
or would like to contribute an
article, photo or letter, you can
contact us at:
[email protected]
Editor:
Claire Monger
Together
12 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BE
0207 780 7366
[email protected]
Proofreaders:
Rosie Shelley and Sarah Fuggle
Design and Production: John Myers
[email protected]
timetogether and its contents are the sole © of
Together: working for wellbeing. No part of
this magazine may be reproduced in any form
without the prior written permission of
Together: working for wellbeing, registered
charity no: 211091.
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Top marks for
Norfolk Road
Walk this bay
Clients, staff and supporters of
Lancaster Community Support
Service (CSS) organised a nine mile
sponsored walk across the sands of
Morcambe Bay in May, to raise
money for its social activities fund.
The sponsorship money is still
coming in, but the team fully expect
to beat last year’s total of £700.
Paul Harrison, Deputy Director of
Operations and Development, who
raised over £200 himself says, “It was
an absolutely brilliant day, the sun was
shining and we all had a fun time,
especially the dogs some of us brought
along! We’ll definitely be doing it
again next year.”
Read more about our fundraising
successes on page 8.
Anne Beales MBE
representing Together
Anne Beales MBE, Director of Service User Involvement at
Together, has been appointed to the newly established
Ministerial Advisory Group on Equalities and Mental
Health. The group aims to ensure equality in services is a
top priority as the New Horizons mental health strategy is
implemented. Well done Anne!
Anne Beales
Together likes... Florid.org.uk
Florid is a website run by mental
health service users for people who
have also experienced mental health
difficulties. It brings together
information relating to mental health
in a way that is user-friendly and
simple. This includes vital
information about medication, the
Mental Health Act, and legal rights.
It aims to provide a place where
anyone who has ever been affected by
mental health issues can feel safe, and
can share experiences and opinions
without fear of judgment or criticism. It
hosts a number of message boards
where you can post your experiences,
thoughts and ideas.
4
Florid is funded by NHS East London
Foundation Trust. Through this
connection with the NHS many mental
health professionals have served as
guest speakers to the site, allowing
people to ask direct questions in a
relaxed environment.
Mesha Mcneil of Florid says, “Many
people who use the site have
commented that our social approach to
mental health has been, in many cases,
more therapeutic than clinical
treatments. A further benefit is that the
service users and carers that help to run
the project receive training to help them
do that, and many of our ‘graduates’
have found paid work either with the
NHS or elsewhere as a result.”
Fantastic news for the team at Norfolk
Road residential service in Sheffield,
who have just found out they will retain
their 3-star ‘Excellent’ Care Quality
Commission rating. “The inspector was
really positive about what we’re doing
here, and as you can see from this
photograph, we’re absolutely thrilled to
be keeping our top rating,” says Jo Gibson,
Project Co-ordinator.
Daring
good deeds
Two years ago a group of people
accessing Together’s Thurrock
Personal Development Service (PDS)
set up their own group called Drug
and Alcohol Rehabilitation
Extension (DARE).
“We felt that
after treatment,
sometimes people
would be left more
or less on their own
to get on with
things, and that this
could be really
difficult, so we set up
DARE to offer
support on a longer
basis,” says Mike Prentice, one of its
founding members.
Together supported Mike and the
DARE members to get the group off the
ground, and to apply for charitable status.
That application was successful and
earlier this year, it became an
independent charity in its own right.
“We’re just starting out and there’s a lot
of work to do, but there’s a real need for
this type of service in the area, and we’re
looking forward to making it a real
success,” says Mike.
Read more about the service user
involvement and action that’s happening
at Together on page 22.
0347 TWFW TimeTogether Issue 5 AMENDED:Layout 1
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Voices of
experience
Thanks to a National Lottery
Awards for All grant, nine people
with experience of mental health
issues have received top quality
training, and are now Together’s
first ‘Voices of Experience’
media spokespeople.
After putting their new skills to good
use during our annual awareness-raising
week in March, the group have been
hobnobbing with top BBC reporters,
taking part in documentaries, and
supporting student journalists at City
Bridge University.
“The trainer normally media trains
celebrities, royalty and MP’s so the course
design was absolutely top-notch,” says
Claire Monger, Project Manager. “The
best bit about the training was that
Jagadish Jha,
one of the trainees
although everyone was nervous, they just
threw themselves into it. By day two,
without exception, they were fielding the
most awkward of questions on camera,
getting their points across, and generally
being brilliant.”
The Service User Involvement
Directorate has decided to re-fund the
Voices of Experience training. If you are
interested in taking part, please call Claire
on 0207 780 7366.
Sporting life
Congratulations to Reading
Resource’s Table Tennis Club, which
scooped the Mayor of Reading
Special Award at the Local Sports
Personality of the Year Awards in
February.
Andrew Syed, the team’s coach says,
“To win the award was an extraordinary
achievement for the entire club, and the
presentation ceremony was absolutely
fantastic.”
Andrew also received an
individual award in the Loyalty to
Sport category. A former England
international, he was described as
‘one of the most devoted coaches in
the UK’, and has been praised for
his work to raise standards in the
team to such a degree that they
are now an established side in the
Reading and District League.
Every little
helps
Sittingbourne Resource Centre in
Kent is getting a helping hand from
Sue Percival, a Community
Champion employed by Tesco.
Under the supermarket’s scheme,
employees like Sue are given time
off to support local community
groups.
In April this year she joined
Sittingbourne’s Good Food Group,
which encourages healthier eating.
Tesco kindly supplied the food for a
session where Sue taught some willing
trainees how to cook a shepherd’s pie
and apple crumble from scratch.
Tracey Bridger at the Centre says
“Sue’s going to be doing some talks on
confidence building next, and Tesco is
going to be donating gifts for the next
fundraising raffle, I think it’s a really
great initiative.”
Visit www.tesco.co.uk for more
information about the Community
Champions scheme.
Do you have a
story for
timetogether?
W
e need your st
ories, news an
d
features for th
e next edition,
which will be
published in
December 20
10. If you ha
ve an
idea that you’
d like to put
forward, please
em
claire-monger@ ail
together-uk.or
g or
call her on 02
07 780 7366
by
22nd October
.
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“It’s quite a political
piece. I wanted to show
the audience that
people in mental
distress need things
other than medication.
They need calm, they
need conversation, they
need care.”
Crusading
for change
Clare Summerkskill is the playwright and performer behind Hearing Voices, a critically
acclaimed production inspired by her own experience of being on a secure psychiatric
ward. She received assistance from Together and funding from The Arts Council to
support a 14 date tour of the play, which took place earlier this year. Jessica Pike reports.
C
lare Summerskill is crusading for
change. Not one to shy away
from saying it like it is, the
London-based actress turned
comedienne (who was once described
as a lesbian Victoria Wood), has been
busy promoting and acting in her play
Hearing Voices, which looks at the
treatment or rather, in her opinion,
mistreatment, of the mentally ill in
hospital.
6
Drawing directly from her own
experiences of life in a secure psychiatric
unit following a long period of feeling
suicidal, the play exposes the bleak
realities of life on a mental health ward
and subverts any fluffy preconceptions
the audience might have.
This isn’t one for the faint-hearted –
Clare has a message to get across and
there would be no point in sugar-coating
it; the world she evokes has made
audiences wince in both horror and
empathy. “We were incarcerated and
medicated and not properly looked after.
It was a horrid place to be ill in,” she says,
with disarming honesty.
She describes the ward as devoid of
any warmth, a lonely place where
patients had no contact with the outside
world. Clare has met people who would
actually choose to kill themselves rather
than go back and spend time on a
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psychiatric ward. She says, “I left after
two months and pretended I wasn’t
suicidal just so I could get out.”
She describes the nurses as
particularly awful, like unforgiving prison
guards, “They looked at the patients as
‘other’”, explains Clare, “And they were
punitive towards self-harmers. They only
really seemed to get up and move when
they thought someone was going to try
and kill themselves. There was no caring
involved at all.”
The picture Clare paints becomes
even darker – she talks about drugs on the
ward, men on crack cocaine, people
smoking skunk in the toilets, as well as
violence between patients. The level of
malpractice that went on seems
extraordinary. “The nurses just turned a
blind eye,” she says.
Hearing Voices represents, for Clare,
an uncomfortable journey back into her
past. In December 2006 after a
breakdown she took an overdose and was
committed to a secure psychiatric unit . It
was a tough time, made even harder by
how she was treated whilst trying to
recover.
As research for the play she
interviewed a number of her fellow
patients and used their situations and
conversations to form the script (this is
known as verbatim theatre). The
characters therefore reflect a rich mix of
people with different histories and
backgrounds, suffering from a range of
mental health problems. One character
hears voices, another is bipolar, someone
else self-harms.
Putting on Hearing Voices was Clare’s
way of campaigning to alter public
perception of the mentally ill and
encourage a review of mental health
facilities. Clare describes the play as like
“coming out”, in that in being so open
about her mental health problems she
sadly risks incurring prejudice from others.
The mentally ill continue to be
stigmatised by society, she believes, and
this must be addressed.
“It’s quite a political piece,” she says,
of the play, “I wanted to show the
audience that people in mental distress
need things other than medication. They
need calm, they need conversation, they
need care.”
The images that Clare conjures up –
of stony-faced nurses turning away from
their distressed patients and men
smoking drugs are startling and
upsetting. “It is shocking,” she agrees,
“It’s appalling and controversial – and
“One contributor told me she felt like a bad person
for being mentally ill and therefore deserved the
poor treatment that she received from the nurses,
but seeing the play made her challenge this feeling.
That was really quite moving.”
well hidden. People don’t want to admit
that these problems exist.”
With mental health patients
experiencing such terrible treatment in
some psychiatric wards, Clare believes
that things need to urgently change, and
has an idea of how this could happen.
“It’s not about money,” she tells me, “The
problem is that as a society we’re buying
into psychiatry – into drugging and
medicating. I think that more talking
therapy is needed. Drugs alone won’t
heal people in the long term.”
Therapy was not something that was
readily available to Clare on the ward.
Surprising as it may seem, in order for her
to speak to a counsellor whilst in hospital,
she had to put herself down on a year
and a half long waiting list. Even then,
each patient would only be assigned a
therapist for six weeks.
“We were incarcerated
and medicated and
not properly looked
after. It was a horrid
place to be ill in.”
“You get no talking therapy in
hospital,” she says. “You’re confined and
medicated, and that’s all.”
It took Clare months to recover from
her experiences on the ward, and
subsequently years to recover from her
breakdown. Like many people, she still has
down days. Putting on Hearing Voices
was not then an easy decision, because it
meant confronting some upsetting and
traumatic memories. “It has been
difficult,” she admits, “I had to explain
what it was like to all to the actors, and
then perform it, sometimes twice a day.
At one point, there was demand for a
‘Q&A’ session after each performance,
but I didn’t feel I could do that. It would
have just been too draining.”
But Clare has undoubtedly succeeded
in her aim of changing peoples’
perception of the mentally ill. Hearing
Voices has had hugely positive reactions
from audiences and received glowing
praise from mental health service users.
“The feedback has been amazing,” she
says, “I invited the people I had
interviewed for the play– fellow patients –
to come to see it. I met some amazing
people in hospital, and their response to it
was really positive. I think they hopefully
felt moved and empowered by it. One
contributor told me she felt like a bad
person for being mentally ill and therefore
deserved the poor treatment that she
received from the nurses but seeing the
play made her challenge this feeling. That
was really quite moving.”
With such a fantastic response, it’s
clear that Clare’s crusade is going well; in
raising these issues, she stands up for a
group of people who continue to be
sidelined in our society. “I hope things will
change as a result,” she says, before
heading off for another performance.
With someone so honest and upfront as
the driving force behind it, this crusade is
sure to make changes happen.
For more information please visit:
www.hearingvoicesplay.co.uk
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FUNDRAISING
Fun fundraising ideas
#1
Fundraising
BY SARAH FUGGLE, Fundraising Executive
It’s been a busy and successful six months for fundraising
at Together, and with a new plan in place for the future,
things can only get even better!
Breaking
the cycle
Too many people with mental
health issues find themselves in
contact with the criminal justice
system. Sadly, many end up
receiving short term prison
sentences for relatively minor
offences, when what they actually
need is treatment and care. As
their mental health needs are not
addressed in prison, they are likely
to re-offend when released, and this
pitiful cycle continues.
That is why the work that
Together’s Forensic Mental Health
Practitioner Service (FMHP) does to
break this cycle is so important. With a
professional background in mental
health, the team work across London in
magistrates’ courts and probation
settings to help support or divert, where
appropriate, offenders with mental
health issues into treatment.
For these reasons, the Fundraising
Team has been focusing its efforts on
supporting the FMHP Service Manager,
Linda Bryant, with funding applications
that will help it maintain and expand its
programme of work. So far we’ve
secured donations from the John Paul
Getty Jnr Charitable Trust, Bromley
Trust and the Westminster Foundation.
Supporters
going the
extra mile
We are incredibly lucky to have the
support of people like Jane Hoyle
(pictured) who test themselves to
the limit in order to raise
money to support the work
that we do.
Jane decided to run the
Virgin London Marathon on our
behalf as she has a number of
friends and loved ones affected by
mental health issues. She got in
touch afterwards to let us
know that she enjoyed
the event from start
to finish, “I had a
brilliant time,” says
Jane. “The
atmosphere was
great and it was
hilarious being
overtaken by
runners in
gingerbread
man, apples
and ice cream
cone outfits!”
And if
Jane’s
achievement
Challenging sporting eve
nts aren’t for
everyone, but most peo
ple enjoy a
good dinner with friends
. So why not
raise money for Togeth
er by hosting
your own ‘Come Dine
With Me’
event? Just cook a spl
endid meal for
your friends and loved
ones, but
charge them for the pri
vilege.
What’s even better is tha
t the
website www.dinner4goo
d.com can
guide you through the wh
ole process
from start to finish. From
sending out
the invites, to making sur
e that you
raise as much money as
possible from
your event.
wasn’t impressive enough, in May, a trio
of mental health professionals from
Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
cycled the length of mainland Britain to
raise money for Together.
Colin Dugdale from Morecambe, Alain
Choofon from Hest Bank and Tony
Dugdale also from Morecambe set
off from Lands End and arrived at
John O’Groats just 15 days later.
All the sponsorship money
they raised will go to our
Lancashire Community Support
Service, to support the work it
does to improve the lives of those
caring for loved ones with
mental health problems.
Colin Dugdale,
cyclist and Acting
Deputy Director of
Nursing says,
“Mental health
issues affect not
just individuals,
but the families
who care for
them. We hope
that the money we
raised will improve
the quality of life
for the both the
carer and cared
for person.”
Get in touch
We rely on people to keep us up to date with news about
interesting activities or events, so we can share the success
stories. With every application for funding that I make, I
send off a copy of timetogether, to show in detail the range of
work we do. It makes us stand out against other
organisations who are asking for money. So please don’t
8
forget to send us your fundraising stories and news.
Everything is of interest!
Let us know what you’re doing to fundraise for your project or
service. Email your fundraising achievements, news and
pictures to [email protected]
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Peer Support
Peer Support Workers are people who have experienced emotional difficulties and
are interested in helping others with similar difficulties.
Together has some ambitious plans to
develop peer-led services over the
coming years, and the wheels have
been set in motion to make those a
reality. Elina Stamou, Peer Support
Manager, and Anne Beales MBE,
Director of Service User Involvement
at Together, explain.
We firmly believe that to date, the
value of people with experience of mental
distress helping others in distress in a
mutually beneficial arrangement, based
around principles of understanding, trust
and respect, has been undervalued and
under-researched. But there are some
brilliant examples of best practice that we
can learn from as we develop our own
work in this area, which is why we’ve
established a new working group called
Peer2Peer.
The Peer2Peer group is made up
primarily of service user organisations,
and we meet quarterly to discuss
developments, identify areas where we
can work together towards a common
cause and to share expertise. It’s going
really well. So far we’ve met four times
and have already started on a joint
research project that will help us better
evaluate peer-led services. This
evaluation is incredibly important to
attract more support and funding to this
area of work.
In addition to the group, we’ve
established an extended network of
statutory and academic ‘friends’ that
works with us to build on each other’s
expertise, develop innovative peer
support models, share resources, access
funding and build valuable strong
partnerships with key stakeholders to
support the delivery
of services.
One of the Peer2Peer group’s
members is well known for its innovative
peer-led work. Leeds Survivor Led Crisis
Service was set up in 1999 by a group of
service users who campaigned for five
long years to create a local alternative to
hospital admission for those in acute
mental crisis - or in need of other
statutory services.
10 years later and it has helped
change the lives of hundreds of people,
won countless awards, and continues to
be governed and managed by people
with direct experience of mental health
problems.
The whole service is based on the peer
support principle that people are expert in
knowing their own situations and with the
right kind of attention and support can
find their own solutions. You can see from
Leeds just how effective this approach
can be when it’s managed well.
And the good
news is that
Together is best
placed to develop
this type of
service, due to its
investment over the past five years in
service user involvement and training.
We’re so lucky to have a skilled and
motivated service user team that really
want to make a difference, but we need
the support of everyone at Together to
make our vision a reality, and to get
involved themselves. By working together
we’ll be able to make the four pilot peerled services we’re trialling over the next
year a real success.
If you are a service user who would
like to get involved in the Service User
Involvement Directorate or member of
project staff who would like to find out
more about peer support and how it
could benefit your service, please call Elina
Stamou, Peer Support Development
Manager, on 0207 780 7358 or email
[email protected]
To read more about service
involvement opportunities and training
see pages 22 and 23.
9
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Page 10
Female offenders
and mental health
Amanda Williamson meets a woman with mental health issues who, with the
support of Together, is getting her life back on track after a life of short-term
prison sentences.
A
melia is an elegant woman in her
50s. She’s intelligent, funny and
gets so worried about the planet
that she often can’t sleep. She has also
battled for years with a crack cocaine
addiction, lived in and out of drug dens
and hostels, and been so many times in
prison she’s literally lost
count.
10
As a bright, feisty kid who thrived at
school, and was part of a household
with loving, responsible parents, life
looked promising.
But undercutting this was a crippling
lack of self-worth which led to periods of
depression and loneliness
which, Amelia says,
have blighted her
all her life. She
has never
been
properly
diagnosed, or received support for her
mental health issues. And she now
admits that if she had, it might have
saved her from years of chaos.
“It definitely affects your decisions
because you have such a lack of hope,
trust in people and self-esteem that it
makes you withdraw from the world. I
find myself caught in this emptiness
between not wanting to actually die,
but not wanting to live the life I have,
but not having the confidence to do
anything about it. So you blot it out
with drugs.”
Amelia was 14 years old when she
felt ‘the hand on my shoulder’ which
changed her life. Falsely accused, she
claims, of shoplifting, she was sent to
Holloway Prison and initiated into what
she calls the “University of Crime”.
She was introduced to crack cocaine
by a violent ex-boyfriend and quickly
got trapped in the vortex of needing to
commit crime to feed the addiction - a
syndrome amongst many women
offenders that is familiar to all
those who work in the criminal
justice system.
“It was the classic vicious
circle,” she says. “All I could
think about was where to
get the next high. You’re
a slave to it. I lost
everything –
properties,
possessions, and my
children.”
She took the
‘punishment’ that
came with her
numerous prison
sentences with
increasing
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13:15
Page 11
stoicism; a pragmatic indifference to
being incarcerated which suggests that
any attempts at deterrence or
‘rehabilitation’ in her case were
ultimately fruitless – except, she says
without a trace of irony, “I developed a
talent for ceramics.”
In fact, prison, she says, was often a
welcome respite from the chaos and
darkness of her existence on the
outside.
“It was a place where I would get
my sanity back and it has a structure.
When you come out you have hopes
and dreams; you really don’t want to go
back to the life you had before. But if
you don’t have a place to live, and the
support to help you start again, you are
going right back to hell.”
Together is helping many women
like Amelia to break out of the ‘season
ticket syndrome’ that defines many
women offenders.
With the support of Matina
Marougka, who runs Together’s Women
Court Outreach and Pathway Project,
Amelia is determined to carve a new life.
She has a good chance of permanent
housing for the first time in years, and is
considering enrolling on an evening
class. She wants eventually to mentor
other young women who are trapped
like she was.
Amelia is a compelling argument to
the case for diverting vulnerable women
offenders away from the criminal justice
system, which gathered momentum
after the publication of the groundbreaking report by Baroness Corston in
2007. A searing portrayal of the futility
of prison sentences for many women
offenders, it questioned why so many
more women were imprisoned for minor
offences than men, and called for a
concerted effort to tackle the root
causes of their criminal behaviour, as
well as more imaginative alternatives to
prison.
Through Together’s project, based at
Thames Magistrates Court in East
London, Matina’s job is to provide
instant interventions for women
defendants in court who she spots as
having mental health problems. Using
her professional expertise and her
background in forensic psychology, she
is able make assessments which are
then used to help the sitting
magistrates or District Judge decide
whether an alternative to custody is
possible.
It’s a task that requires working at
Matina Marougka
SPOTLIGHT ON...
speed, with clients who are at their most
anxious and vulnerable, and the
building of a relationship of trust and
professional integrity with court officials.
“Sometimes it feels like working on the
set of CSI!” she laughs.
The other part of Matina’s role is to
act as a bridge between women and
support services, to ensure they don’t
slip through the net, and can eventually
break the cycle of offending
“It’s small steps, one step at a time,”
she says. “Many of these women have
been stuck in the system for so long, and
lots have no external infrastructure
apart from negative influences. They’ve
lost faith in the system, but also in
themselves. Most I speak to don’t want
to be living the lives they lead, they
want to get out, but just don’t see how.”
Amelia testifies to the difference it
has made: “Matina has been fantastic.
I had made the decision to change for
me, but Matina helps me keep on track,
like helping me make appointments and
checking in afterwards. It gives you an
added incentive, it means someone
believes in me. She’s my soundingboard.”
Examples like that sustain Matina
through the difficult moments: “My
motivation is helping to make women
stronger, seeing them motivated and
engaged with the support services,
believing that there are alternatives.”
For Amelia it’s the classic one-dayat-a-time struggle, but she is clinging
onto the dream of finally having a place
of her own, and rebuilding her
relationship with her children:
“I don’t make myself any promises,
or goals that I don’t know I can reach.
But, is it worth going back to prison and
losing everything now for a pair of
shoes? No, girl.”
11
3/6/10
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FirstPerson
One of the most powerful ways to fight the stigma and prejudice that surrounds mental health is for
people to describe their real life experiences. First Person is a regular spot in timetogether where we
encourage our readers to do just that.
Eric Davis’ experiences
of being bullied have
had a dramatic impact
on his life, but after
working though those
difficult times, he’s now
helping other people
with mental health
issues at a Together
project in Berkshire.
Beating bulling
BY ERIC DAVIS
I’m writing this article because I’ve
suffered from depression and anxiety
from the age of 14 and want to share
with you how I cope, and how I’ve
overcome the difficulties and
challenges I’ve faced in life.
I’m currently a Support Officer at
Reading Resource, a day service. But I
started out my working life in the civil
service, before working in the wine trade
and in retail management.
I suppose my problems started at
secondary school. The first two years
were okay; I had some older friends to
hang out with. But when they left, I was
on my own. Then when my class was
split up, it really affected me. I hated it
and my work suffered. I was about to
have my first breakdown, but not before
things got even worse.
I started getting bullied really badly
and I began to avoid lessons or going to
school; I would pretend to go to then hide
away. Things came to a head when my
parents took me to school to meet the
Head. I was a wreck. The Head told me I
would be fine and I should report to my
class – I couldn’t do it – I ran out of
school and didn’t stop until I got home. I
fell into my dad’s arms and broke down.
12
This was 1974. My doctor prescribed
anti-depressants and I saw a psychiatrist.
He claimed I wasn’t “normal” as I
wouldn’t go to school. My parents
wouldn’t allow me to be taken into care,
so I stayed home until I could return to
mainstream education and then into
employment.
For the most part, I enjoyed the job. I
was working with colleagues I knew and
trusted. But there was one individual who
made my life hell and triggered another
breakdown. Again, it was bullying that
proved the cause. He tormented me
relentlessly. The mind games he played
were cruel.
I asked for a move from the
department, which worked for a little
while. But I didn’t bargain on the
influence the person bullying me would
have on colleagues I regarded as friends.
I became isolated and fearful, but I was
determined not to fall again. I made a
complaint against my old manager and
my bosses eventually conceded that it
might help if I was to move to another
work area. I was at the end of my tether.
I took the move – this was the final straw.
The new job was a non-job; I had no
work to do and was resented because of
that. On top of this, my wife was taken ill.
I called her every day to make sure she
was okay. The day before I had my
breakdown, I telephoned but there was
no reply. Instinct kicked in - something
was wrong. I had to get home, but there
was no-one to tell. I left a note on my
manager’s desk. It transpired that my
wife had been taken to hospital.
When I got to work the next day, I
was called into see my senior manager
who accused me of going AWOL. I
protested my innocence but she was not
prepared to listen. I collapsed in front of
her and was sent home.
During my time off, I was prescribed a
range of anti-depressants and underwent
counselling. I tried to find another job but
no-one was keen on employing a
mentally ill person who was already off
sick. I returned to the civil service but I’d
been scarred, so I resigned and found
employment elsewhere.
I stayed in the wine trade for three
years. Work was fine, but I wanted to try
retail management and the opportunity
presented itself. It was okay for a year
but then a colleague physically attacked
me. The attack was ferocious and left me
a broken man. I was absolutely finished.
I felt suicidal. I made an appointment,
more in desperation than anything else,
to see my GP. He gave me hope. I spoke
to him about the work incident and he
asked why I was beating myself up over
it. He said that the way I reacted to the
assault was normal and I felt better. I
looked for employment again and found
it with Reading Resource Centre.
I joined in June 2006, and I’d like to
think that I’ve got some insight into how
mental health sufferers see life and
understand the challenges they face. I
know that life can be difficult, but now
I’ve got my coping techniques and I am
stable, I’m okay. Yes, sometimes I
struggle, but there is help available, you
just have to ask.
3/6/10
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FIRST PERSON
Gareth and his partner
Sian have faced their
mental health problems
together. It hasn’t
been easy, but with the
support of Jackie
Carpenter, and others
at our St. Helen’s
Community Service,
they’ve managed to
turn their lives around.
Husband and wife team
BY GARETH AND SIAN
Gareth:
When I was 17, back in 1996, I joined
the army. I was a fit and healthy
young man and the world was my
oyster. It was a great life and I served
all over the world - from Cyprus to
Qatar.
Three years into army life my mother
passed away and I became incredibly
depressed. To deal with the feelings I was
having I started drinking heavily. It felt
like there was no-one in the army I could
turn to, and nobody seemed to notice
how low I was. I did ask my Captain if I
could speak to someone; unfortunately he
said our regiment was too busy and there
was no-one available. So I continued to
struggle through.
Two years to the day of my mother’s
death, I took my first overdose (one of
fifteen since then). I started to cut myself
and I was admitted to the army’s
psychiatric hospital. I was seen by a
psychiatrist and received four sessions of
psychology before being discharged. But
then my brother committed suicide and
my depression deepened. I was
medically discharged in April 2002 but
not referred on to, or seen by, anyone
after that.
I went downhill from then on. I was
drinking a lot, cutting myself and I took
several overdoses. I was referred to a
Community Mental Health Team later on
that year by my GP and admitted to a
psychiatric unit in my local area. The
next two years were a blur, numerous
admissions, overdoses, cutting, heavy
drinking. At one point I was admitted to
HM Prison in the hospital wing. They
could not help me and I was locked up 23
hours a day, doped up on medication.
During this time I met my wife – my
saviour.
My wife was the first one to get in
touch with Together when she was visited
by a carer support worker, Jackie
Carpenter, who helped her to fill in forms
for housing, gave us information on
benefits and assisted us to complete
application forms. Jackie also gave us
information about local groups and
activities for us both, and gave my wife
emotional and practical support.
In 2008, I started to receive support
from another Together worker, Jon
Finney. Jon introduced me to the
Together Oasis drop-in group, which runs
every Monday. I went along and met
people who had been, or were going
through, what I was going through.
Now Jon and I play squash, go for
walks with my dog and play chess - all
things I thought I would never do again.
A simple chat, encouragement, having
someone who understands, has empathy
and listens, has made all the difference in
slowly but surely increasing my
confidence and independence.
It is a pity I did not receive the help
sooner, perhaps when I first started to
become ill – maybe it would have not got
to this!
Sian:
I met Gareth in 2003. By the summer
of 2004 I felt I was living in a
nightmare. Gareth was extremely ill
and I was struggling to cope. My
whole world revolved around him and
his needs.
I suffered from depression and severe
anxiety. It was when I was visiting him in
hospital in 2004 that a nurse suggested I
get in touch with Together. That’s when I
met Jackie Carpenter. She was amazing.
She was so sympathetic, understanding
and caring, and helped me out so much
just when I needed it as I thought I was
going to have a nervous breakdown. She
gave me information on benefits and
housing and helped me through
particularly difficult times. Jackie also
referred me on to other groups that have
put me in touch with other people who
are going through similar experiences to
me.
A few years later I needed help again
and Helen Sinnot at Together became my
carer support worker. Again, she was
fantastic. She helped not only by
understanding what I was going through
but also with practical advice like finding a
new home. Both Helen and Jackie are
down to earth, empathic and they will do
anything for you. They are warm and
funny and instantly put you at ease
making you feel better. Together, as an
organisation, is invaluable to both mental
health carers and service users. I, for one,
don’t know where I would be without
their help and support.
Gareth really looks forward to his
sessions with Jon. They get on really well
and Jon encourages Gareth to get out of
the flat and be more active. Gareth has
changed for the better since he started
going to the Together drop-in and seeing
Jon. He is more open with his feelings and
less dependent on me. I feel Together has
helped ease the inevitable strain that
mental illness put on our marriage.
Gareth and I talk openly and work
through problems together but know that
we have outside support to turn to if
needs be.
When I first got involved with
Together I was unemployed, depressed
and didn’t know how to care for myself,
as well as being a carer for my husband.
Now, I have a part time job that I love, I
think about myself as well as Gareth and I
have more confidence and self esteem. I
feel we are lucky to have Together in our
lives and I would recommend them to
anyone in a similar situation to myself or
Gareth.
What’s your
story?
Would you like to write an article
based on your own life that offers
hope and support to others? Or
perhaps you’d like to express your
views on a topic that directly
affects or concerns you? To find
out more about contributing to
this part of the magazine please
call Claire on 0207 780 7366.
13
3/6/10
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Page 14
Kevin by Tom Medwell
Our
Stories
The lives of people supported by Together were the focus of the Our Stories
exhibition, which ran at the Together Our Space Gallery from March to April 2010.
BY ROGER MACLINE
Billed as a sound and photographic
exhibition into understanding mental
health issues through the voices and
images of people affected, eight
residents at Together projects in
London, alongside five people involved
in our service user steering groups,
volunteered to take part.
The idea for Our Stories came from
Claire Monger in the Communications
Team, with the concept for the
exhibition then being developed and
produced by Christina Millare, the
gallery's new curator.
"I speak to so many service users
14
who have the most amazing stories to
tell, but very often they are just not
going to appeal to mainstream media,
and that’s where the idea for the
exhibition came from," says Claire. “This
exhibition was about trying to overcome
that barrier to people speaking out and
having a say in a creative way, and not
letting the power of those stories go to
waste."
To produce the content for the
exhibition, Christina arranged to meet
with each volunteer to talk about their
lives, mental health experiences, and
hopes for the future, which she then
recorded using sound equipment.
"I didn't just rock up and start to ask
personal questions!” says Christina, who
has worked as a support worker herself.
“I spent a few hours getting to know
each person taking part before we
started to do the recording to try and
build up more of a rapport, so that the
interviews would be more genuine."
It was important to Christina to
make sure people from residential
homes were included in the exhibition
as she feels these are often the people
that, as a society, we hear from least.
“I met some really inspiring people
3/6/10
13:15
Page 15
OUR SPACE GALLERY
at Southbury Road, service users and the with things. So my work was inspired by
the feelings of isolation you feel when
support workers too. There was a real
depressed, no matter how much support
sense of ‘family’ and unconditional
you get."
support at all of the project houses I
After meeting with all the volunteers
visited, which is so important in ensuring
and reviewing the
people living in supported living receive
work of each
the right care, and the encouragement
photographer,
to live independently.”
"Getting my
Christina then
Accompanying Christina on these
confidence back,
structured the
visits were Carmen Luvian, Tom
getting my trust
stories of people
Medwell, Julia Sasse and Frida
taking part into an
Bengtsson, four professional
back, that was tricky
inspiring, stigmaphotographers with backgrounds in
but I managed it.
busting exhibition,
documentary and band photography.
Don’t just keep
with the portraits
Christina persuaded them to give their
yourself to yourself
accompanied by
time, free of charge, to take portraits of
audio interviews
the volunteers taking part.
because that just
playing into the
Carmen Luvian was able to bring her
makes it worse."
gallery, giving
own experience of mental ill-health to
Christina found the
Jayanta
context
the portraits
whole process a real
and
she took.
learning curve. “Listening to
insight
Having
people’s experiences
“I bottled a lot of
into the lives of the people
experienced
completely overturned many
involved.
a breakdown
things up, drank a
preconceived ideas I had on the issue of
The launch event in March
mental health and the people living with
lot, got myself
attracted over 200 guests,
the issues surrounding it. A lot of people
into big problems
including the volunteers who
would like to absolve themselves from
and I didn’t really
took part, journalists from The
prejudice, myself included. And even as
Daily Telegraph and Guardian
talk to the right
someone who has worked within the
newspapers, as well as respected
care environment, I openly admit I
people. Things
arts magazine The Playground,
walked into this project with
just got worse
which gave it a four out of five
preconceived ideas.
and worse.”
star review.
I realised more than anything how
"I was pleased that by taking
Adam
much I had to learn about the issues of
a different approach, finally some
mental illness and how this affects the
of the most disadvantaged
people living with distress. Hearing
people we support got a chance to get
after moving back
everyone talk so openly highlighted for
Adam by Carmen Luvian
their stories heard by the national
to the UK from
me how living with a mental health
media as well as the visitors to the
abroad, she decided to include a selfillness affects many aspects of
exhibition," says Claire. “I was especially
portrait amongst her selection. "I was
someone’s life, aspects which I have
proud of the way Hilary and Adam, who
really eager to get involved in this
taken for granted. Learning from
featured in the exhibition, handled their
project, as mental illness affects so
everyone involved in Our Stories’
interviews for the video about the
many of us, yet still has such a stigma
inspiring experiences was an emotional
exhibition on the Daily Telegraph's
attached to it,” says Carmen. “When I
rollercoaster, and one that I felt so
website. Hearing from them and the
had my own problems I saw a therapist
privileged to be a part of.”
other people who took part just
and my family thought I was being silly
normalised the issue, taking the 'issue'
and self-indulgent. There is this sort of
bit out of it altogether really."
stiff upper lip British mentality that
makes us feel like we need to just get on
Jayanta by Julia Sasse
"My mother died very suddenly and two weeks later I
took off for outer space and landed in the local
psychiatric hospital.
I’d like us to keep a bit of humour in the topic. Let’s
not get too serious about ourselves, because that in
itself can cause mental health problems, when people
take themselves too bloomin’ seriously.” Hilary
Hillary by Carmen Luvian
15
3/6/10
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Page 16
Recovery
stars
As part of a pilot that took place in the summer of 2008, Together introduced the
Mental Health Recovery Star to key working sessions between service users and staff
members. David Cankett, Head of Learning and Development, explains how it works,
and how it’s helping to improve outcomes for the people and services involved.
Many people find it helpful to think of
recovery from a period of distress as a
journey with different steps along the
way. The Recovery Star tool, which
was developed by the Mental Health
Providers Forum (MHPF), helps people
along that journey.
MHPF, a body representing service
providers in England (including Together),
developed the star having identified a real
need for a tool to better measure the
progress and outcomes for adults
accessing mental health services. Being
able to evaluate what you are doing is
incredibly important in the development
and running of a quality service. And it
helps to demonstrate that what you are
doing is making a difference, which keeps
16
funders and commissioners happy!
The star (opposite) takes a wholeperson holistic view, with the service user
at its centre. It addresses ten different
areas of life, such as living skills or social
networks, which are important to overall
wellbeing. The journey to the edges of
the star are numbered one to ten. People
are asked at key working sessions to rate
where they think they are in each of the
ten areas of life on that scale.
For example, if you were really happy
with the way you had managed to handle
an addictive behaviour, e.g. reducing the
amount of alcohol you drink, you might
score yourself an eight in the addictive
behaviours section. Whereas, if you’ve
been avoiding leaving the house due to
anxiety, you’d probably give yourself a
lower score in the social networks area.
The idea is that it helps to open up a
dialogue between the key worker and the
client where both people are speaking in
the same language. Another obvious
benefit is that, from session to session,
you can measure progress and
achievement in different areas of life, as
well as identifying and focusing support
on those areas where more work might
be needed.
As part of the pilot, the Learning and
Development Team trained a number of
service users and staff to use the star
themselves, as well as delivering training
to others.
3/6/10
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Page 17
Mike Prentice, a Together service user
and trainer, found using the star helped
him focus on the areas in life he wanted
to improve, “For the first six months of
using the star, the numbers were very
useful as it gave me an idea of where I
was in my recovery,” says Mike.
“But when I started to use the star on
my own, I found it more helpful to just
look at the areas where I want to make
improvements, without focusing on the
numbers from the previous time I
completed it - that worked for me, and is
still helping me today.”
Another service user trainer, Nigel
Moyes, was in 24 hour supported
accommodation for 11 years before he
got involved with Together’s Service User
Involvement Directorate and through
that, the pilot for the Recovery Star
training. Just over a year later he moved
into his own place and he credits the star
as being key to making that important
development.
“The Recovery Star is my passion, and
of all the training I am involved with, this
is the one I enjoy delivering the most. I
think that the Care Plan Approach (CPA)
system is very regimented; whereas the
star gives you more freedom,” says Nigel.
“Although it is called the mental
health Recovery Star, it actually applies to
everybody; all ten points of the star can
apply. It’s about a personal journey, and
you have more say in how it is done, and
who you involve.”
For others, the Recovery Star has been
a call to action. Saira Walker, part of
Together’s National Service User Steering
Group, says, “When the Recovery Star was
introduced to me over two years ago I
was instantly impressed and wanted to
know more. Before I knew it I was
learning not only how to train other
service users to use the star, but also
health care professionals too! But for me
it’s been about more than ‘spreading the
word’. I have been part of a Therapeutic
Community for over a year now and
included the star as a large part of my
Care Planning Approach, which helped
me pinpoint exactly what I needed to
work on. It’s been great and it really
works.”
The star is now being used by a
number of projects around the country,
including Barnsley Community Support
Service (CSS), which took part in the
original pilot. Kim Fairhurst, Project Coordinator, is pleased that using the star
has impressed the commissioners of the
service.
“We currently have 48 service users
using a model of the star to measure the
outcomes of our support service delivery.
It is also used to monitor progress made
over a period of time. The work done so
far highlights the areas that need further
support in a person’s life. When that’s
been identified, the staff and service user
work together towards a set goal or
target. Commissioners in Barnsley
definitely like the star as an outcomes
model within Together and are
encouraging us to continue using it.”
Barnsley CSS has also developed a
computer programme that helps service
users track their progress. It allows people
to reflect on progress over a longer period
and means that the system can produce
a report to look at outcomes of the
service as a whole.
Kim continues, “We’ve found that
most service users have responded in a
very positive way, and found the process
useful in monitoring their wellbeing.”
Like all approaches to measuring
outcomes, the use of the Recovery Star
must be seen as part of a bigger picture.
Just as Mike Prentice has indicated in his
approach to implementing the star in his
life, some feel that there is too much
emphasis on the numbers involved. While
the statistics gained from those numbers
will almost certainly be popular with
commissioners, it needs to be balanced
with an understanding that people’s lives
can have ups and downs, and that there
are factors which affect outcomes beyond
the control of the services offering
support. However, what is clear from the
pilot is that the service users taking part
found it really useful in their lives and
work, which is why the training is now
open to everyone at Together.
Details of forthcoming Recovery Star
training sessions, all of which will be cofacilitated by service users, are included in
Together’s current Learning and
Development Programme.
If you would like further information
about the Recovery Star, please contact
[email protected]
17
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Page 18
Celebs
speak out
Celebrities discussing their mental
health issues through the media is by
and large beneficial in raising public
understanding and awareness. But the
famous do not live in the same world
as us ‘normal folks’ and the real
difficulties and issues around mental
health problems are in danger of
being distorted.
Walk past the magazine stand at
any newsagent and you will often see
celebrity faces peering out at you with
headlines regarding their ‘mental illness
hell’. It can sometimes seem like these
confessional interviews are everywhere.
The ability to speak out on the issue
highlights a massive sea change that
has happened within the past decade.
Suddenly mental health is not
something that needs to be hidden, a
shameful secret that the public must
not see.
Some celebrities, such as the exchatshow host Trisha Goddard, do a
fantastic job campaigning for positive
mental health reform on a long-term
basis, and have an impressive track
record of supporting multiple charities
and organisations with their work.
Perhaps what makes Goddard such a
great spokesperson is that she herself
has spent time in a psychiatric hospital,
and was also affected by the suicide of
her sister, who was schizophrenic. She is
currently playing an active role in the
second wave of the ‘Time to Change’
£18million anti-stigma campaign, which
aims to ‘end mental health
discrimination’.
Claire Monger in the
Communication’s Team at Together
comments, “It’s difficult to place an
18
Beverley Callard
Mike Yeoman, Together volunteer, shares his views on the growing trend towards
celebrities discussing their mental health experiences more publicly.
interview in the national media with a
normal person, unless they have an
incredibly unique story. So celebrities
definitely have a role to play in raising
awareness.
I think the second wave of the Time
to Change campaign is achieving a
good balance. On the one hand they
had celebrity spokespeople, like Trisha
Goddard and Frank Bruno, but on the
other made sure that they had a troop
of service user spokespeople too.
Inevitably, the media were more
interested in the celebrity stories, so
they did a sponsorship deal with the
Daily Mirror, where they paid them to
print the service user stories, just like an
advert. It’s certainly an effective and
low-risk way to ensure more everyday
people get the chance to have their
say.”
However, paying for advertising is
expensive, and rarely possible. For that
reason celebrity interviews about
mental health tend to dominate in the
public eye, and we are now starting to
see a number of problems arising from
the promotion of mental health issues
from such a narrow range of viewpoints.
The first is a question of
representation. Celebrities simply do not
represent the harsh reality of what
mental health can be like if you are on a
low income and have very little access
to support, as many people with
complex and enduring issues do.
From the people I spoke to when
researching this article I found that the
general impression for those with
mental health difficulties is that those in
the world of celebrity, and therefore
money, can get the best support and
private treatment to be found.
Simon Hepworth, whose wife is
bipolar says, “Money [is the main
difference]. They can afford more
support whereas a normal person still
has to struggle along and can’t just take
off to refresh and cool down. I know for
a fact that getting away from it all
sometimes would help my wife 100%.”
Hilary Egan, one of Together’s
Voices of Experience Spokespeople also
raised the issue that a celebrity’s mental
health can often be perceived more
forgivingly, “You can be as odd, eccentric
and off the wall as you like when you
have pots of money, but I have found in
my experience for most non- celebrity
people with a known diagnosis it is a
totally different ball game.”
When the actor Stephen Fry
confessed to bing bipolar it was to
‘fight the public stigma’ of the
condition. However, an unintentional
3/6/10
13:16
Page 19
side effect of his celebrity status and
others is that it creates, for some, an
almost aspirational desire to be
diagnosed with bipolar. Worryingly,
some doctors have reported an increase
in patients who have self-diagnosed
themselves with the condition, as
reflected in a recent UK study published
by Dr Diana Chan and Dr Lester Sireling
called ‘I want to be bipolar’.
History has shown us past
‘celebrities’ who probably would have
been diagnosed as bipolar today such
as Beethoven, Isaac Newton and
Vincent Van Gogh so it is perhaps
forgivable, if not commendable, that
people might wish to be associated with
the condition and the perceived status
that comes with it.
The real danger is two-fold. If people
desire to be diagnosed as bipolar they
may be misdiagnosed and put onto
drugs that are dangerous to them.
Secondly, if people with normal mood
swings are asking to be diagnosed as
bipolar then this suggests that there is a
gross underestimation of the impact it
has on the lives of people who actually
live with it. This might be because
people’s only experience of mental
health is the successful, the famous and
(seen through the filter of TV)
apparently happy.
Another issue can arise from ‘The
Fame Game’. Celeb careers can often
depend on the public’s perception of
them and the need to stay constantly in
the limelight. Mental health issues,
whether genuine or not, might be used
as a tool to excuse bad behaviour, to
gain public sympathy or to promote a
book launch (or DVD, new album etc).
This spring, Beverly Callard of
Coronation Street spoke about her
experience of clinical depression to the
News Of The World. This was part of a
publicity campaign for her new
autobiography ‘Unbroken’. The
headline to the article was ‘Frankenstein
Op Saved Me from Suicide’, a reference
to the Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT)
she was prescribed as an inpatient.
As terrible as Beverly Callard’s
experiences may have been, and no
doubt she did a lot to help people in
similar experiences by sharing what
happened to her, there are moral
questions that need to be raised when
the disclosure of mental health problem
happens to be linked to the launch of a
new book, album or film.
However, it is not so much an issue
that mental health is in danger of
becoming another arrow in the celebrity
promotional bow; that it is a tool agents
use to keep their client on the front
pages of the newspaper, a teaser to
read a new autobiography. It is a given
fact in today’s celebrity focused media
that some celebs will do or say whatever
it takes to stay in the public’s mind.
The real danger is in mental health
being trivialised. The experiences of
everyday people who experience mental
health issues are vastly different from
those of a celebrity. And these are the
stories that need to be highlighted
more, however difficult and expensive
that might be, in order for the public to
be truly educated about the realities of
mental health.
Trisha Goddard
Photo courtesy of Time to Change
19
3/6/10
13:16
Page 20
Life Support
BY GRACE MILERNO
People with complex and recurring mental health issues
can have their lives rudely interrupted by sporadic periods
of illness, which in turn can cause all sorts of problems
with finances, housing, work and relationships.
Together’s Rochdale Community Support Service (CSS)
runs a number of initiatives that aim to reduce the
impact of these on the lives of its clients.
Last year the service was awarded funding for a brand
new post aimed at helping people make a smoother
transition from in-patient care, back to life in the
community. One year on, they are seeing some extremely
positive results.
“When you see somebody sorted out, and
they give you a call to let you know how
they are getting on, it makes all the hard
work worthwhile,” says Stephanie Dawson,
who was appointed to the new role at
Rochdale in August 2009.
The funding for Stephanie’s post was
awarded after the local Together team
submitted a proposal detailing how the
post would address a problem they saw
affecting people in the area - a lack of
immediate support for people with mental
health problems after they had been
discharged from in-patient care.
“People were being discharged and
finding themselves in all kinds of crisis
situations. Real problems with housing,
finances and other things, like sorting out
utilities, which obviously you just don’t
need if you’re trying to stay well. The
absolute last thing you want is your
landlord on your back, your electric cut off,
or even finding yourself homeless,” says
Julie Radcliffe, CSS Project Co-ordinator.
20
Stephanie was originally appointed as
a ‘Crisis Worker’ with a remit to work for
six-week periods with individuals facing
practical problems like these. However, it
soon became clear that it would be more
sensible, and possible, for Stephanie to
start working with clients before these
types of issues reached crisis point, and
her role evolved. She is now Together’s
first ever ‘Link Worker’ and works with
people while they are in-patients, before
they are discharged.
“All of the people I work with are
considered in-patients or under the crisis
resolution team, and my clients tend to
have more severe and enduring mental
illnesses, like bi-polar disorder or
schizophrenia. Most are fairly young, in
their 20s and 30s,” Stephanie says. “I
suppose, in short, my role is to provide a
link between primary services and
secondary services in the community
which can help my clients get back to
living their lives and stay well.”
On a typical day Stephanie tends to
see around three to four patients.
“Most of the problems I deal with are
related to housing, especially for people
on the ward,” she says. “For example, not
having anywhere secure to live once
clients are discharged, or finding their
tenancy under threat due to non-payment
of rent. Having somewhere safe to live is
incredibly important to somebody’s
mental health, and that’s where I come
in.”
Problems with housing can lead to
people staying on the ward longer than
they need to.
“While patients are on the ward, they
are treated entirely medically. The staff
don’t have the time to help them look at
the wider world, to help them prepare for
life outside. If they don’t have any family
or a care co-ordinator to help sort out
practical things there can be a long wait
for help from Community Mental Health
Teams or social workers. There can be a lot
of wasted time for people.”
Stephanie has had fantastic results
preparing patients that have been on the
ward for longer periods to be discharged.
“I started working on the ward in
February and met a guy who had been an
in-patient for three years. Within three
months I found him somewhere to live
and he’s doing fine now.
Because I have more time, I can
provide support more intensively. I am
able to help view a flat and sort out all the
bits and bobs they need to move in. This
can be a massive deal for somebody after
having so much help to do everything for
so long.
Often they need that sort of intensive
support. A social worker might think that
if a person has the capacity to sort
themselves out, they should. But the
reality is, when people have had a crisis,
they can’t always do it on their own.”
It can cost hundreds of pounds a day
to keep people on a ward, plus it’s not a
great place if you don’t need to be there.
So it makes good sense to make sure
3/6/10
13:16
Page 21
“When you see
somebody sorted out,
and they give you a call
to let you know how they
are getting on, it makes
all the hard work
worthwhile.”
Brian’s view
“I had a breakdown and a heart attack in 2009 and ended
up in hospital for a year. When I came out, they put me in
the Salvation Army for seven months. I was scared and I had
no help and I got picked on by residents in there. Things got
worse and I could not cope anymore. My health deteriorated
and I was hearing voices day in and day out.
I have a mild learning disability and I went back into the
people can get back to living
independently as soon as possible.”
Stephanie’s job isn’t just about
housing, she also helps people increase
confidence in other practical skills they
might need to live more comfortably after
their discharge.
“When there is a wait for housing, it’s
about encouraging people within that
period to want to get off the ward in the
meantime. I encourage them to look
forward to being independent again and
increase their confidence in their ability to
cope. So I might take people out to
socialise, or shopping, or anything else
they want to feel more comfortable
doing.”
psychiatric hospital because I could not cope anymore. I
stayed there for five months. In that time Stephanie at
Together helped me keep myself going because I was
getting lots of help and support, going to Rochdale CSS
Activity Centre learning how to cook and Stephanie found
me a supported accommodation house. I say thank you to
Stephanie and the Together staff that helped. There are
days when I’m down and days when I’m up but I’m happy
now.” Brian Bannister, pictured with Stephanie.
Local knowledge, local
impact
get together and discuss how things can
be further improved.
Stephanie is local to Rochdale and
believes that local knowledge is incredibly
important to her role.
“I’ve lived in Rochdale all my life, and
worked in mental health for years, so I
know what’s available for people in our
community, plus I’ve got good
relationships with the local agencies that
can help out.
Sometimes when social workers go off
sick, people get locums (temps), and they
are not necessarily from the area so are
less likely to know what’s available.”
The whole project has helped to
identify gaps in services in Rochdale, and
Stephanie is now attending monthly
mental health and housing steering
groups where lots of different agencies
Rewarding
Stephanie is extremely proud of her
achievements to date.
“It’s just common sense and listening
to people really. And a whole lot of form
filling! Making sure that people who have
had a really tough time are OK and happy
is really rewarding, and I’m pleased to
play a part in that. Plus it’s saving money
for the NHS that can be better spent
elsewhere.”
21
3/6/10
13:17
Page 22
Involvement update
Together’s mission is to become trusted for our expertise in service user
involvement. This means we aim to ensure that service users contribute to every
aspect of our work, in the belief that this approach leads to greater wellbeing.
Established in 2004, the Service User Involvement Directorate (SUID) is our
unique department tasked with improving levels of involvement within Together,
as well as promoting service user involvement and leadership externally.
Describing the Wellbeing
Approach to Involvement
Over the past five years the SUID has
developed and refined a programme
called the Wellbeing Approach to
Involvement (WAI), which ensures
involvement of service users is effective,
and adds to their wellbeing.
The long term aim of running the WAI
across all of our services will improve the
lives of the people we support, and it is of
central importance to our business plan. So
it’s incredibly important that everybody
understands what it is and how it works.
We are currently working with the
Communications Team and an external
agency to improve how we describe the
WAI to people. By the end of the process
we’ll be able to communicate its benefits in
a way that will be clearer and more
understandable to service users, staff,
mental health commissioners, external
organisations and agencies.
New Working Group
The Wellbeing Approach to Involvement
Working Group has been established to
lead on service user involvement and
the WAI internally.
The group has a supportive role, with
a remit to advance involvement of service
users across all projects and departments.
It will also have a role in developing future
peer-led services.
We met for the first time in March,
bringing together staff and service users
who are leading on this work. It was
great to see a range of staff teams at
Together working alongside service users
who have already been through the WAI
programme.
Paul Harrison, Deputy Director of
Operations and Development says, “The
22
amount of energy and commitment from
everyone at the first meeting was
fantastic. There was a real sense of ‘we
are in this together and we can do it’.”
The next meetings for this working
group will take place on Wednesday 29th
September and Wednesday 15th
December. We’re always happy to
welcome new members, so if you are
interested in coming along, please email
[email protected]
Good Practice in Service User
Involvement Training
Good Practice in Service User
Involvement training is open to
everyone at Together and every staff
member is expected to complete the
course within the next year.
This training, which is taking place in
projects and departments across the
country, has been developed to ensure
first-class involvement of service users in
all that we do. It is delivered jointly by
staff and service users and helps
participants to explore what involvement
is, the benefits it brings to projects and
individuals, as well as the challenges that
arise and how these can be overcome.
Additionally, it helps staff think about
what they’re already doing, and what
they can do more of in the future to
ensure that involvement is meaningful
and a reality for everybody.
Linda Bryant and her Forensic Mental
Health Practitioner (FMHP) Service team
accessed the training in February. Linda
says, “The training got us motivated to
think about how we might engage and
support service users to become more
involved with the FMHP Service.
We were given ‘top tips’ and some
great ideas, particularly as to how we
might go about developing a realistic and
achievable action plan to put the learning
into practice. I would really encourage all
Together’s services to take advantage of
this fantastic resource and have a good
time whilst you’re about it!”
In Control Event
Together attended the biggest
international event about
personalisation in March, which was
hosted by the charity, In Control.
Entitled ‘The BIG Event’, it was held in
Liverpool, and had over 2,000 delegates,
100 exhibitors and 50 different
workshops to learn from.
The SUID was pleased to be asked to
facilitate a workshop about the Wellbeing
Approach to Involvement, exploring how
it can be used to help with the challenges
of the personalisation agenda. It was run
by a team of staff and service users and
took an interactive approach.
Rowland Urey, a service user
volunteer, helped develop the session and
used his experiences to demonstrate how
people experiencing distress can exert
more power in a creative way. He says,
“At first it all sounded very formal but on
the day it all just seemed to fall into place,
I went with the flow and just drew from
my lived experience. I opened up a
natural dialogue with the group and the
interaction was emotional, moving and
stimulating.”
When asked what top tips he would
give to other service users who’d like to
get involved with Together and share
their views through presentations and
workshops his response was simple, “just
be yourself.”
3/6/10
13:18
Page 23
A matter or trust
BY ANNE BEALES MBE, Director of Service User Involvement
It’s been a busy six months for the Service User
Involvement Directorate, especially since it was confirmed
that Together’s mission is to become trusted leaders for
our expertise in this area.
As well as increasing the level of
involvement for service users within
Together, we also seek to strengthen
the service user voice externally, and
encourage greater involvement of
service users at other organisations by
raising awareness of our unique
approach. So as a team, we make the
time to speak at external events and
to sit on external groups and
committees that will help us to further
those aims.
This also helps to raise the profile of
Together generally, and often leads to
new opportunities and partnership
working. I thought I’d use my regular
spot in this edition to give a few examples
of how we’ve been doing that recently.
In February our new Deputy Director
of Service User Involvement, Dominic
Walker and Funmi Eddo, Service Manager,
met with The Samaritans. They wanted
to ask our advice about getting a service
user perspective on what it’s like to live
with suicidal thoughts, which is obviously
incredibly useful given the type of work
that they do. We put forward a proposal
and The Samaritans then commissioned
us to run a bespoke service user focus
group to gather a range of experiences,
just one example of the work that we do
to help other organisations.
And although Together is not a
‘campaigning’ charity and does not have
a public affairs department to lobby
parliament, we do a lot of work to make
sure the service user perspective is
included in decision making at the
highest levels. In the run up to the
election I was invited to a number of
parliamentary events.
The first was a reception to celebrate
the work of the Social Work Taskforce
(SWT). The SWT was commissioned by
government in 2008 to conduct a ‘nuts
Involvement
in action
and bolts’ review of the social work
CASE STUDY
profession, and to advise on the shape
and content of a comprehensive reform
programme. As a service user as well as
an ex-social worker, I was invited to be a
member of this group, and after a lot of
Together’s Reading Re
source
hard work we reported back our findings
Centre has developed
a
Peer
in December 2009.
Support Worker course
,
wh
ich 11
There were some influential people at
clients have completed
so
far
.
the reception, so it was great that I was
Cath Cooper, Employm
en
t
Co
able to allocate my guest spaces to
ordinator explains how
it
wo
rks
.
people with direct experience of distress.
The eight week course is
a
The Ministerial receptions continued
mixture of practical and
written work.
in March and I attended another
We’re running it in partn
ership with
reception hosted by the Office for
our local Further Education
provider
Disability Issues to launch the ‘Trail
and college, New Direction
s.
One of
Blazer’ pilot sites for its Right to Control
our managers and a local
programme, which is being hailed as a
Community Psychiatric Nu
rse
major step towards achieving disability
developed the original cou
rse
equality.
materials, which were refi
ned by the
For too long people with ‘mental
tutors there.
health’ issues have not seen themselves
The college provides furthe
r
as part of the larger successes of the
support via their internal
verifier and
‘disability rights’ movement. The Right to
liason with the National
Open
Control work has so many positive
College Network (NOCN
),
which gives
implications (particularly around support
accreditation of 2 credit
s
at
level 2
to return to work) that this celebration
for completion of the cou
rse
.
was really important. If you’d like to find
Those that wish to can the
n put
out more about it visit their website
these credits towards an
other
(www.officefordisability.gov.uk).
qualification, or use them
to show a
The above may all sounds exciting,
prospective employer in
the
social
and it is. But it’s also important that
care field that they have
use
ful
skills
more people at Together involve
and knowledge.
themselves in this type of work. Which
One of our trainees has
since
is why some SUID staff who are keen to
been offered employmen
t
as
a
play a more active role are planning to
Physiotherapy Assistant
by a local
‘shadow’ me for a week.
NHS Trust, and many of
the others
It is so important to make sure
will apply to become ses
sio
nal Peer
others have their sights set on playing
Support Workers within ou
r
service, as
a more strategic role, and central to
a step towards employm
en
t
that is the ability of others at Together
elsewhere. Next time we
run it we
being able to communicate our
hope to train up a couple
of our
mission to be ‘trusted leaders in
current Post Study Worke
rs
to coservice user involvement’.
facilitate the course.
#1
23
3/6/10
13:22
Page 24
SHARE TOGETHER
A celebration
of survivor history
WORDS BY ANDREW ROBERTS WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATHALIE FONNESU.
Phillip Morgan
A unique event celebrating
the lives and achievements of
people affected by mental
health problems from the
18th - 21st century took place
earlier this year. Entitled ‘A
Pageant of Survivor History’ it
was organised by independent
survivor-led group Friends of
East End Loonies (FEEL).
FEEL was inspired to organise the
event by historical research conducted
into the lives of survivors by Tower
Hamlets African and Carribbean Mental
Health Organisation (THACMHO), and
the Survivors History Group, which
meets at Together from time to time.
At the pageant, which took place in
London in March, the lives and voices of
survivors throughout history were
celebrated and brought to life through
readings, poetry, music and song.
An African prince
Seeking to restore strength through
history THACMHO researched and
published ‘Writers and the Struggle
Against Slavery - Celebrating five African
writers who came to the East End of
London in the 18th century’. One of the
writers profiled in the book, Ukawsaw
Gronniosaw, was remembered at the
pageant.
Ukawsaw, born a prince in West
Africa about 1705, was considered
foolish or insane by his community
because he imagined a God who
created the sun and the stars. Because
of that belief he was sold into slavery,
crossed the Atlantic, and became a
domestic slave in New York. Eventually
he was granted freedom and came to
England.
Perfomer Phillip Morgan gave voice
to Ukawsaw’s own story at the pageant,
telling how in spite of the many
problems he faced after arriving in
England, he married Betty, an East
London silk weaver, settled in Essex, and
brought up a family, before dying aged
70 in October 1775.
Asylum voices
throughout history
The nineteenth century confined
increasing numbers of people in
lunatic asylums. One of these
was John Clare, a man described
as ‘the greatest labouring-class
poet that England has ever
produced’.
One of Clare’s best-known
sonnets The Nightingale was
written at Northampton
Asylum where he was confined
from 1842 to his death in
1864. The last line of verse,
which was read at the
pageant, ends at evening
when "the fields lose all
their paths in dusk" as the
Nightingale sings “her soft
melodious song.”
Eric Irwin drawn by Colin Hombrook
24
3/6/10
13:27
Page 25
SHARE TOGETHER
Speaking out and
challenging the system
The audience at Kingsley Hall then
heard how in July 1924 six patients in
"The Royal Albert Institution for the
Feeble minded of the Northern
Counties" bravely wrote and signed a
statement that they had witnessed an
attendant kicking a patient and injuring
him.
The work of Peter Whitehead, who
was put into solitary confinement at
Rampton Hospital and campaigned
tirelessly in the 1950s for his freedom,
as well as the civil liberties of other
patients, was next. Working through the
National Council for Civil Liberties large
numbers of patients, including Peter,
won their liberty in the 1950s.
Peter advised other patients at that
time to: "Write letters. Get people
outside interested in you. Tell them
you've been wrongly shut away. If you
stay quiet, nobody will lift a finger to
help you, however long
you stay here."
Civil liberties
In July 1971 the "Petition for the
Redress of Grievances" was signed by
patients in Hartwood Hospital in
Lanarkshire, and the signatories became
the founders of the Scottish Union of
Mental Patients. Two of them were
among the founders of the Mental
Patients Union, formed at a packed
meeting in London in March 1973.
The London meeting was in
response to a pamphlet called The Case
for a Mental Patients Union. The
pamphlet was published by, among
others, Eric Irwin. Eric was born in
Belfast in 1924. During his life he was
detained in 17 psychiatric institutions in
Ireland, Australia and England.
In July 1974, Hackney Hospital
Mental Patients Union won the right to
meet on hospital premises, becoming
the first United Kingdom patients’ union
known to have been recognised by the
hospital authorities.
Battle for survival
In the 1980s, Eric Irwin came to
think that the word "patient" was too
passive. He helped to form a group
called Campaign Against Psychiatric
Oppression.
Another group of people who had
been in psychiatric hospitals produced a
television documentary called "We're
Not Mad - We're Angry". Out of this
ferment of activity a new name was
born - mental patients became
"survivors".
Survivors Speak Out (SSO) was
founded early in 1986, and for more
than ten years it was an important
networking organisation for the growing
"survivor movement". The pageant
audience burst into spontaneous
applause when Peter Campbell, a
founding member of SSO, performed
the poem "The Mental Marching
Band", which he wrote in support of
its work.
Sophie Mirrell
Creative routes
In the early 1990s the life of old
Hackney Hospital in London was
drawing to a close and the emptying
buildings became the site of artistic
activities. Artist Paul Monks made his
studio in a vacant ward, and patients
seeking refuge from the monotony of
life on the psychiatric wards immersed
themselves in a world of paint and
colour. Out of this, Core Arts was born in
1994, an organisation with a mission to
promote the creative abilities of people
with mental health problems.
One of the artists who now works
through Core Arts is the gospel singer,
Sophie Mirrell, who sang her own
creation "Loneliness is not the will of
God!" at the pageant.
Frank Bangay, a poet who often
works with Sophie, was one of Eric
Irwin's closest friends. His struggle for
the dignity of people who suffer from
mental distress goes back many
decades, and he concluded the pageant
with a poem that sums up all our
struggles: "...memories haunt in the
deep of the night - Leaving a longing to
open up and cry - But a proud rhythm
beats inside, A proud rhythm beats
inside, Yes we will be strong this time.”
Pageant: http://studymore.org.uk/Pageant.htm
Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organisation:
c/o Social Action for Health, The Brady Centre, 192 Hanbury Street,
London, E1 5HU. http://thacmho.wetpaint.com
Survivors History Group,
177 Glenarm Road, London, E50NB http://studymore.org.uk
Friends of East End Loonies
Meets at the LARC Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, London, E1 1ES
on the third Monday of every month at 6.30 pm.
Email: [email protected]
25
3/6/10
13:27
Page 26
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
An update from the
NVQ Assesment Centre
Training matters
BY JACKIE MACINTYRE, NVQ Assessment Centre Manager
The NVQ Assessment Centre team has been extremely busy recently. Especially
since the introduction of the Level 4 Leadership and Management for Care Services
award, and new Advocacy award.
Since the last edition of timetogether there have been a number of staff at Together
who have worked incredibly hard to earn new NVQ qualifications, and I’d like to
use my regular slot in this particular edition to say well done!
Congratulations to....
Jane Gregory at Sittingbourne
Resource Centre, Gabriella Loades at
Kirtling House, and Mavis Bowerbank at
York Road. All three Project Co-ordinators
have now completed their NVQ Level 4,
Health and Social Care (H&SC) awards.
NVQ Level 3 H&SC achievers are
Joseph Arayathel at Lawn Court, Jane
Savage at Winchester CSS, Lydia Nyaga
at Gloucester Road, Helen Townsend at
Barnsley Community Support Service, and
Cornelia Mpofu and Tina Broadhurst,
who both work at Ravenhill Way.
More good news is that our Advocacy
award candidates are already starting to
complete their first units. So far,
Jonathan Burke and Dave Leigh at
Ashworth, Jayne Reynolds at Lincoln,
and Jayne Osbiston at Darlington, have
made a brilliant start.
Workshops to cover the core units for
the advocacy award are currently being
run for the advocacy staff at Southend.
Other core workshops are being arranged
to meet the needs of candidates
registered at the assessment centre in our
other advocacy services.
Together’s assessment centre is one
of the very few providers of the Advocacy
award in the country. There have been a
considerable number of external enquiries
about it and plans are in place to
advertise it more widely, with a view to
26
generating income for the organisation.
Finally, congratulations are also due
to Judy Pearson and Hazel Ducker in
the Peripatetic Assessor/Internal Verifier
team), and Anna Robertson, Assessment
Centre Administrator, for recently
completing Preparing to Teach in the
Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) awards.
Hazel has already taken the next step
towards teaching, achieving a suite of
teaching qualifications by starting the
Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong
Learning Sector (CTLLS).
Learning and Development
Programme 2010 / 2011
This programme includes information
on courses available to employees,
people who access our services, as
well as those involved with Together
as service user volunteers. It provides
easy to read course summaries to
help you make the best learning
choices for you.
You can access the
programme via the Together
intranet, and you can now book
yourself spaces on courses online.
Simply go to www.together-uk.org
and log-in.
3/6/10
13:27
Page 27
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