Monthly Archives: July 2024

National ethnic mental health carer forum update July 2024

Been a while since I have done a blog to update the carer forums and groups that I run. I thought to avoid the summer heat and stay inside in order to provide a brief update of the National ethnic mental health carers group for July.

The agenda for July was support from Carers UK who are a national charity fighting for the voice of unpaid carers in the UK. There are millions of carers providing care and support for someone with long term illness. This includes minority carers.

  • Carers UK presents on the Impact of caring.

Carers UK examined the latest Office of National Statistics and how those figures showed the impact of caring. It is good to get an overall picture of caring through the country.

For the ONS census of 2021 – The Office for National Statistics showed

  • There are an estimated 5.7 million carers in the UK
  • 1.8 million care for 9 hours a week or less
  • 1.5 million care for 50 hours a week or more
  • Every day 12,000 people in the UK become carers

Carers UK provided some information aimed at those caring for someone with mental illness. This was that not everyone with a mental illness needs a carer, and not everyone who needs a carer has one. People with mental illnesses have lots of different needs like anyone else, and these will affect the support they need.

Early last month I did a joint talk with someone from Mind who are a charity that focuses on support for those with menta illness. Carers UK reminded members of the forum about the resources Mind has on their website.

Carers UK were also kind enough to speak about the impact of caring on minority ethnic carers. Carers UK presented how experiencing mental health issues, may make the caring role even more challenging. Rates of mental health problems can be higher within some Black, Asian and ethnic minority groups, as a result of racism and discrimination, and social and economic inequalities.

Carers UK also noted that experiencing prejudice, discrimination or harassment when accessing services can lead carers feeling distrustful of support services as a result.

This can also be down to struggling to obtain information and advice due to language barriers, plus not having the opportunity to shape and influence health and social care services. Some carers may feel that they have no ‘voice’ in the system, and feel unable to complain or raise concerns about services

Carers UK give a wealth of information and resources aimed at unpaid carers and those who support carers. Carers UK representative Zahra presented some of the amazing resources that carers can use.

  • Update from members of the group.

As usual the national ethnic mental health carers group supports the NHS England framework, which is the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework. The forum provided space for carers involved at their NHS trust to update. We had updates from West London Health trust from their recent PCREF listening events.

We also had an update from Wandsworth talking therapies, where they updated on the recent “Bridging Minds” forum and how the community of Wandsworth provided feedback their experiences on the impact of racism and discrimination. I also managed to attend the forum, which was supported by Wandsworth Carers (see poster below).

There was an update and engagement from Oxleas on their focus for ethnic minority carers, but there is still more work to do. Other updates were from carers involved at Cambridge & Peterborough NHS trust and also Kent & Medway NHS trust, plus Cygnet who is a provider of mental health services.

For the forum on the 30th of August, we will look at the topic of carers rights.

Thanks for reading.

Spoken Word event at the Haringey Service User & Carer Forum.

Welcome back to a quick update from Carer activist, author and poet Matthew McKenzie. This update is from an event I performed at which was held over the Chestnut Community centre over at Haringey. The event was a spoken word event, which was part of Haringey Service User and Carer Forum.

A quick note is you can actually download poems and listen to songs if you scroll to the end of my update of the spoken word event.

The Haringey Service User and Carer Forum aims to provide a place for past and present service users and carers to learn about new developments and to provide feedback on services.

The forum provides an opportunity for people to discuss their experiences and to share views with staff so that their ideas can help to influence the way services operate. This meeting is organised by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust.

Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust provides integrated mental health services in Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, and also provides community health services in Enfield. They look after people’s mental and physical health in hospitals or in the community, and provide a range of mental health services for young people and adults.

So for the 8th of July, I attended the spoken word event hosted by Martin Weegmann who is a Clinical Psychologist & Group Analyst at the mental health trust. We were joined by many who also performed, songs, spoken word, poetry and art.

Some of the art presented at the event, I managed to take some pictures. This was in order to help promote the work by Nicola Newman

You can view more of Nicola’s art at her Instagram page.

https://www.instagram.com/visions.of.balance/

I was joined by Jo Lambert who does poetry to help express mental wellbeing, mental health experiences and also carer experiences. Jo and myself have a poetry circle to help promote carer awareness. You can watch our performance off my YouTube Channel.

We also heard excellent poems, songs and spoken word performed by others at the event. Obviously I could not record them, but I spoke to a few who loved to have their work shared off my blog site.

A number of songs were performed by Victoria Lamb who has her songs hosted off her soundcloud page, which is linked below.

I enjoyed being part of this excellent group that has a focus of community empowerment.

I often try attend the SU forum when I can as Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust are supportive of my work engaging with carers. I look forward to the next spoken word event.

You can also check out many of the poetry from those with lived experience from the following book which can be viewed below.

Preview and download book below

Book – finalDownload

Thanks for dropping by.

SE5 Forum for Camberwell – Feel Good Festival

Welcome back to a quick update of an event I participated in. As you might already know, I have a Carers Stall which I use for raising awareness of unpaid carers. The stall is often located at hospitals or events.

This time I took the stall to a festival over in the London Borough of Southwark. The Camberwell Feel Good Festival returned for Summer 2024 with two Saturday festival events, packed full of fun and engaging health and wellbeing activities, free food and music, and vital support services for all ages.

With support from Catherine Gamble who is a fellow at the Royal College of Nursing, there was various stalls promoting wellbeing, information and information to make attendees feel good. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, but I was amazed at the turnout.

However my stall contained information from Carers UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Parkinsons UK and Southwark Carers which provides support to unpaid carers in the borough of Southwark.

The Event Highlights at the festival are listed below:

  • Yoga, tai chi and physical exercise for all ages
  • Mindful arts and crafts stalls
  • Children’s active fun and games
  • Free lunch and pantry from local food charities
  • Children’s no-cook food workshop
  • Live music and choirs
  • Health support services stands
  • Gardening & food growing workshops
  • NHS physical and mental health advice and support

We also had some Members of the RCN lived experience group helping our with their own stalls and I was delighted to meet Hannah Cadogan who showed me the quilt she made during the pandemic to raise awareness. She also showed the book that promoted the quilt called “The Making of the Cassel Quilt”

It was not long before I checked out some other stalls located next to my carer stall which I shared with Catherine.

The Maudsley NHS and Kings college NHS stalls were out promoting health and wellbeing. This stall was smoking cessation and I actually took a CO2 lung test to see how healthy my lungs were.

Also at the feel good festival was the Maudsley Gallery, which provided arts and crafts for young children. Children were making shakers to go along with the music at the festival.

I then explored other stalls located at Camberwell Green park.

All in all, I had an excellent time helping to promote wellbeing, advice and information. I would like to thank Catherine for involving me and SE5 Forum for putting on an excellent festival.

Time to be heard – Bridging Minds Forum

Thanks for checking in. I have exciting news for carers from an ethnic background. Wandsworth Carers are running their Bridging Minds forum on the 19th of July from 3 pm, which will take place at Balham Library Hall, 16 Ramsden Road, London, SW12 8QY

BAME forum will be Facilitated by the Community Empowerment Network, Wandsworth Carer’s Centre, NHS Wandsworth Talking Therapies

The forum will focus on discussions around race, ethnicity, and culture in relation to mental health. The forum will feature culturally specific foods, and all Carers who sign up and attend will receive a £30 supermarket voucher as a token of our appreciation for their time and input.

I will certainly be attending this exciting forum and hope ethnic carers who support those with mental illness from the borough of Wandsworth can drop by.

To book please email either Lindsey.cross@soundminds.co.uk or panashe@wandsworthcarers.org.uk

See you there

London Cancer carer forum – July 2024

Welcome to another update from Carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I run many carer groups aimed at unpaid carers, one of them focuses on the experences of those caring for someone with Cancer.

Caring for a close relative can be an isolating experience, especially when trying to navigate the health and social care system. Carers can often be providing care and support behind the scenes almost forgetting about their own health and care needs.

If you are caring for someone with cancer, feel free to check out my next carer forum which I run once a month online for the last wednesday of that month.

I will also cover carer rights. Plus for those from minority backgrounds there is an exciting opportunity to share your experiences. We can often ignore those from ethnic groups providing support and unpaid care.

So Amrit Kaur from East London university is conducting research to hear from Punjabi Sikhs who have cared for someone with cancer. Please see poster below for more details or email Amrit at u2195627@uel.ac.uk

Ethnic Minority Carers Experiences of Inpatient Care

Welcome back to another update from Carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I have some exciting research in which carers can feedback their experiences.

Ella Rose a researcher from University College London is conducting a study focusing on the experiences of carers from ethnic minority backgrounds of inpatient mental health care in the UK. There are currently very few studies documenting the experiences of ethnic minority carers of mental health services. She hopes this study will fill an important gap in current research and help identify the specific needs of ethnic minority carers, and how services can best support them.

Participation in this study will involve a one-hour interview to discuss their experiences as carers of a loved one receiving inpatient mental health care in the UK, their views, and their support needs. She is recruiting individuals over 18 who identify as being from an ethnic minority background and who are carers for someone currently or previously admitted to inpatient mental health care within the last three years. As a thank you for their time, she will offer participants a £25 voucher.

To take part in the study please see the poster below or email Ella at ella.rose.23@ucl.ac.uk

Of all the things – Last week for crowdfunding campaign

During Hoarding Awareness week 2024, I did a blog post on the excellent animation short that raises awareness of Hoarding.

The animation film is called ‘Of All the Things’ , which is partly funded by the BFI NETWORK, that delves into the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship amidst the challenges of hoarding disorder.

As a carer with lived experience of caring for someone with mental illness, I understand how the animation can offer a fresh perspective on the journey towards understanding and connection while aiming to raise awareness and combat the stigma surrounding this often misunderstood condition.

It is now the last week to support the project via crowd funding. You can access the following ink https://greenlit.com/project/of-all-the-things

For more information about the project. Check out the BBC News link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-69053179