Category Archives: Event reviews

Reviews of events I have been to

London Met Connect – event review #LMetConnect

Welcome to another blog post. You know? I like attending well-being days and health events, especially events to do with mental health. Well I was in luck, on Thursday the 23rd of October, I just managed to attend the London Metropolitan university “London Met Connect”, which was presented by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The aim of the event was to get people thinking about mental health. The event gave attendees the opportunity to explore mental health and recovery from a number of perspectives, these including service user participation and local, nation and global initiatives.

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Review of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”

Its about time I did another review, however this one is different. Usually I attend events, conferences, engagement events and awareness days. On the 23rd of October 2014 I decided to pop over to to the Battersea over in the borough of Wandsworth to watch an opera performed at Testbed1 which is a 7,000 sq ft creative events space located in Battersea.. Now I am usually just the person to go to the Cinema and yes I know that seems boring, but I thought why not check out this new opera called “The Anatomy of Melancholy”.

As you can guess Melancholy is a state of low mood or we could say Depression, so since this is a blog is about caring and mental health, I felt it was worth my time to view this Opera performance.

While I was travelling to the show, I kept thinking at the back of my mind how will this Opera performance describe the form of depression, but before I continue with the review, I think its important to describe a bit about depression.

Depression can affect us all, some get depression worse than others. If someone suffers chronic depression then this can be a serious mental health condition where the person begins to become very sad, hopeless, and unimportant and often is unable to live in a normal way. The person experiences

Loss of interest
Slowness of movement and thinking
Thoughts about hopelessness, suicide and death
Tiredness and lack of energy

In the UK Depression affects 1 in 5 older people. You can get more information about depression from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Going back to the Opera performance, as I entered to gain a seat around the stage, I was impressed with the use of lighting, which set the scene very well. I especially admired the use of shadows around the stage. The lighting was done by Joshua Pharo who has done many works across theatre, dance and opera.

The play was written and directed by Finn Beames who is also the founder of bodycorps. We also had OPUS2014 finalist Benjamin Tassie who composed the music for the play and the co-designer being Mayou Tikerioti who has designed many productions in the UK and Greece. The conductor of the play was Tim Murray who has already conducted a series of operas at the Gran Teatro del luceu, Royal Opera House and more.

The Opera centered on the old medical belief of the four humors: disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily liquids, or humors. These being Yellow, Phlegm, Black bile and blood. The Opera singers included

John Lattimore whose new work for autumn 2014 will cover John Adams at ENO.

We also had actors Mark Beesley who sung as a principal solo singer at many major opera houses. We also had Janet Henfrey who has been performing over the last 50 years in many theatres.

Other members of the cast were Donna Lennard who has performed in many opera roles one being alice in Airborne, Dario Dugandzic whose credits include The Dark. Anna Harvey with her roles being “Daughter of the sea” and Maud Millar who made her debut Oliver Knussen’s Trumpets with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The style of the opera kept my interest going as I looked for references on how depression affects someone. The actors carried their characters well enough that you at least cared about what happens to them in the play. The opera highlighted not only the difficultly of living with depression, but how it affects families and carers, which was well performed by the Grandmother (Janet Henfrey) and the Profather (Mark Beesley).

The Opera also centered on the use of genetics and renaissance medicine, there was quite a lot to learn about the study into Melancholy.

The performance was also very creative in using different scenes and equipment where inventiveness raised my curiosity about depression, especially with the use of film and equipment where I began to almost focus on several things going on at once.

The music played throughout the opera lent itself to the performance with its eerie sounds, frightening scores and gloomy moods. I must admit I am not one for opera performances and some parts of the play I couldnt understand in one sitting, but nevertheless I really enjoyed the show and would certainly see it again if I have the chance.

You can find out more about “The Anatomy of Melancholy” from their site http://www.bodycorps.org/

World Mental Health day 2014 – #mhday

The Future

On this blog post, I have decided to do a post about World Mental Health Day 2014. Last year on World Mental health day 2013, I visited an event to do with service user involvement in research, which was held over at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

This year I am going to visit around 3 or 4 events in South London and experience how different people celebrate world mental health day 2014.

Please check out the video I made of the events I visited that day.

Going back to my blog post, ever since I have been a carer for someone suffering from schizophrenia, I have always wondered how such a mysterious illness can take the personality away from our loved ones.

I sometimes struggle to work out why my loved one does not understand me as much as she used to. It seems as far as I can remember my loved one seems so different as if there is lack of interest in many things, sometimes she is irritable and other times very withdrawn.

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It feels like I could never understand mental health difficulties and I am sure my loved one struggles to explain how she feels.

I think that perhaps this is one of the reasons why there is a World Mental Health day 2014. The event is to allow others to reflect and think about mental health for the day. We cannot all experience what mental ill health fully means unless we are sufferers, but at least we can all help raise awareness and combat the stigma of mental ill health throughout society.

I feel it does not matter too much if you suffer from bipolar or severe depression, with world mental health day, it is so important to get our voices heard, it is so important to write down our thoughts and feelings so that others can learn from those affected by schizophrenia.

I only hope that as a carer and one that blogs fairly often, that others out there are inspired to blog about mental health. World Mental Health day need not be about depressing others about mental health, the day can also be a celebration of those who are clearly part of society.

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We all go through difficult days and we all hit different levels of mental health. The blur between carers, health professionals and those with lived experience can encompass us all as anyone can be hit by mental health problems.

Society can only gain in the long run when no one is isolated, where no one is stigmatized and where no one ends up developing mental ill health in the first place. With events like World Mental Health Day, we can take that extra step to be aware of our own mental health, we can take that extra step to be aware of others suffering mental health problems.

I feel World Mental Health Day is about coming together and recognising what makes us human, no matter how fragile or strong we all are, we can forget that we are people, we end up forgetting our minds until its too late. We need to use such events as a way to remember that our mental health and emotions play a far bigger role than we ever take notice of.

Let us all celebrate, help raise awareness and use World Mental Health Day to aid us in to becoming healthier people and not only look after ourselves but to stop, reflect and look after others.

Please take some time to check out everyone elses blog posts at http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mental-health-day/

Happy Heads event 2014 review

Welcome back to another of my mental health and wellbeing event reviews. This next event I have been personally involved in helping to arrange with at least some of my ideas.

The event was on the 26th of July 2014 and it was aimed at young people to explore, learn and connect on expressing their views on wellbeing and mental health. The event was held over at the Maudsley Learning Center, which is a venue over in the London borough of Southwark that hosts wellbeing events, meetings and workshops.

I have written a blog post that led up to the Happy Heads event, which can be viewed here.

I have also made a 22 minute video about my visit to the Happy Heads festival. Feel free to watch the video below.

Going back to the blog post how did the event work out on the day? To be honest although I can give my views, I feel it would be great that a young person who attended the event should give their views on how they felt the event went.

My main view of the event was that the event lived up to its expectations and more, but engaging with young people on health and wellbeing cannot be done with just a festival alone, but this festival was a great start and was certainly well attended.

When I arrived for the event, I ended up volunteering to help out at the Timebanking UK stalls. I talked to a few people on what it means to giving your time and skill in order to help others. Infact the Happy Heads event was centered around five themes being

Being Active
Connecting
Giving
Learning
and finally “taking notice”

The Timebanking UK sections was on the “Giving” theme. I got creative in that zone and built one of my main talent in which I can help others. That talent was on computer skills, which was placed in the “Suitcase of Talent”.

The next part of the festival which I visited was the “Being Active” zone, where I spoke to several fitness instructors on the benefits of being active.

Soon I arrived in a colorful and comfortable room facilitated by “IamGreeds”. Feel free to visited his site. Basically the poet was hoping some young people can express what wellbeing means to them using spoken word, which was read out on the free mic session later on at the festival.

Another section I visited was the Mindfull Fun Fair zone, this area was linked to the “Taking Notice” zone. I spoke to the stall holders about why it is so important to be mindful and be aware of how we treat others or how others treat us. The stall holders were from Mindfull, which is an online support, information and advice about mental health and emotional wellbeing aimed at young people.

Another stall holder at the Mindfull Fun Fair zone was representing the “beatbullying” organisation. He gave me a run down on how bullying affects young people and why the beatbullying campaign was set up to tacking bullying.

Soon it wasn’t long before I got my creative energies following and I wandered into the DJ mixing room, which had quite an impressive array of sets placed in the room and excellent DJ equipment. Mixing and scratching the records actually made me feel quite young again.

The music mixing zone was set up by RAW Sounds. Raw Sounds is a programme of creative media sessions for people accessing mental health services. Feel free to visit their site here.

One of the most impressive displays I noticed was actually situated at the basement level of the Maudsley Learning Center. This section was being used by the YoungMinds Vs project. YoungMinds vs has been set up to tackle School stress, bullying, sexual pressure, and lack of jobs for young people. I had a great time talking to teenagers at this particular section of the festival on why they feel mental health and wellbeing awareness is important for many in the community.

There are other videos from the Happy Heads festival which I thought to help advertise, feel free to check out those videos as well.

Mental Health and Well-being event 2014 review

Welcome to another of my event reviews. Its been a while since I have last blog, but that does not mean I have not been busy. On the 10th of September 2014 I decided to check out the Mental Health and Well-being Event, which was aimed at Adults with Learning disabilities.

This event took place over at the Maudsley Learning center, which is also known as The ORTUS.

I usually visit the Maudsley Learning Center to check out mental health awareness events or conferences that can often be held there, but the ORTUS is more than just an events building, it does many other things where the community can relax and learn more about well-being.

Now I do not know if you had seen my video blog of last years well-being community event, but feel free to check out my video of last years community well-being event. There is also a video blog of the recent 2014 video event near the end of this blog.

This year being 2014, the Well-being event was big, and I mean more stalls, more workshops, more rooms and more involvement. There was lots on offer and everyone was so friendly, engaging and cooperative.

We have three floors of activities at the event and at the ground floor there were numerous stalls, where I checked out around 13 of them.

The next floor up was some more stalls and a coffee and tea area, then 2 floors up we had to workshops, each workshop running every half an hour, but first lets check out briefly what stalls were on ground floor, before I continue I would like to apologize in advance if I missed any names out.

I cannot go through all the stalls I checked out off the written blog, but if you want something more interactive, you can view the video blog I made of the event.

You might have noticed the video blog is around 11 minutes longer than the last years video blog, but this goes to show how much was put into the event this year.

My favourite stalls that I was on the lookout for were the ones which had those who use the services actually helping out off the stalls. This showed me that the service users were inclusive in the services that were provided for them, this meant there was more control for those who may have challenging behaviour.

Other stalls of interest was the “Adults with Learning Disabilities Health Team”. The team must have had around 2 to 3 stalls where each were focusing on a specific health area. One of my favourite stall to visit was the interactive game, which helped divert your mind from how much exercise you was doing.

I always feel learning should be fun and games are one of the powerful way to challenge your mind and at times your body.

Talking about bodies, Quite a few stalls were focused on advertising the sports and health centres dotted around the Southwark area, so many people can take advantage of the sports centers, there were quite a number of discounts on membership that its such good time to get fit and active.

It was also great to see Southwark carers at the well-being event. We must not forget the families or carers who form the backbone of care for those with mental health difficulties or intellectual behaviours. So many carers out there silently cope and do their role without a moments thought for themselves. So hopefully if carers and families of those who have learning disabilities visited that stall, I would hope they get the support they need.

After visiting a few stalls, it was time to check out the workshops. There were quite a few workshops running and fortunately all the workshops were packed.

The workshops running were

What is Austism?
Mindfulness
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
The tree of life
Role of medication
What is Mental Health?

So there were six workshops in all. I could not stay for the full length of time since I was busy exploring the other parts of the event, but what I saw at the workshops made me feel that the organisers spent a large amount of time and energy to get the workshops running.

Unfortunately I could not stay the whole event, since I had a meeting to go to, but I feel so glad to be invited to help cover and promote the event.

Reachout Challenge Celebration Event Review

Welcome to another mental health event review. I have not blogged for quite some time off my carer’s blog, although I did do a video blog last week, which will be shown off this blog.

One of the other blogs I contribute to being slamtwigops has been suspended during a transition stage, but as for myself I like doing blogs and I am fairly passionate about mental health or the how carers can contribute in the well-being of others, so I thought to continue blogging off my site.

On the 12th August 6 pm 2014 I decided to pop over to the Croydon Voluntary Action building which is situated over in the London borough of Croydon.

There was a special celebratory event taking place, which celebrated the 18 months of their anti-stigma project. This project was run by “Hear Us Reachout Challenge“.

Hear Us is Croydon’s Mental Health Service User Group which acts as a coordinating body to facilitate, and ensure service users involvement in, the planning, delivery and monitoring of mental health services in Croydon. Helping to improve the quality of the services commissioned and delivered in Croydon objectives.

“Hear us” aims

1.To relieve the needs of people living in the London Borough of Croydon and surrounding areas who have mental health problems by provision of services and advice.

2.To advance education about mental health for the public benefit in the London borough of Croydon and surrounding areas with the object of creating awareness and reducing the stigma attached to mental health.

Going back to reviewing the event, usually when I arrive to events or forums run by “Hear Us” it can sometimes take a little while to get in, but this time I got into the room quite easily. The staff was very friendly and I was given a run down of what to expect at the event.

I noticed a lot of booklets and reading material about the project and I spent some time reading the Bio’s of the volunteers and contributes who work for “Hear US”.

When I sat down to set up my equipment, I was delighted to see that there was a goody bag filled with lots of treats and more information about the event, project and mental health resource information. There was also some sweets, fortune cookies, stress ball and pen, plus water and lots more. This showed how much effort “Hear Us – Reachout Challenge” had taken to provide information and make the event as welcoming as possible.

While we were waiting for the event to start, the audience was treated to some music playing off the speakers, one of the songs was “I am still standing” by Elton John, which I thought was rather fitting. We were shown lots of slide show pictures of what “Hear Us” has been up to over the past 18 month’s since 2014.

After some slides, we then had the Project Manager Jane White speak about “Reach out challenge” and how they were funded by “Time to change“, plus how “Hear Us – Reach out Challenge” were set up to challenge mental health stigma, especially in the London Borough of Croydon.

A lot was talking place that day and next up after Jane White spoke about the project, we then had Dr Ray Chapman speak on “Stigma & Discrimination”.

Ray presented on the following

What is stigma
Where does it come from?
Media representation “power” causes problems by stigmatizing mental health
Stereotypes and stigmatization.
What can be done?

Plus Ray then Talked about “positive impact needed from mental health professionals”. Dr Ray felt things needed to be done things differently and felt Working with partners was key to tackling mental health stigma and discrimination.

I have also done a video blog of the event, which talks a bit more on Ray’s presentation as a review which you can watch below.

After Dr Ray’s presentation, we then had Jane talk more about the volunteers that helped Reach Out Challenge and Visa-Versa. Hearing from the volunteers was perhaps one of my favorite part of the event, because I am quite interested in people’s lives and their experiences. Some of the stories told by the volunteers were very personal and challenging to listen to because of how much each had went through, but I felt I learnt quite a lot from their stories. The learning aspect is good in order to challenge my own prejudices.

The Volunteers spoke about how mental health has affected them.

– What they have been doing on the project
– the highs and lows on mental health
– How they have helped others especially on the work place
– How certain things they tried to cope with mental health did not always work in the past.
– The reasons they got involved in the project.
– Challenging stigma and how its still out there.
– How some lost a lot of opportunities and support once mental health difficulties first hit them, but felt a lot about the project had helped them.
– Some got so involved that they Became a trustee for HearUs

After hearing the volunteers speak, Jane white spoke a bit more on the difficulties the project had faced. She was worried and pondering how to work with organisations in order to get rid of mental health stigma.

We where shown more slides and I was impressed with a slide containing a 1000 photos forming a logo of “Reach out Challenge”.

Over the 18 months, The project has worked with 17 organisations. They also Produced positive stories in mental health and have produced many positive changes tackling mental health stigma in Croydon and helping to give those with lived experiences a voice. It is so important those who use mental health services be given the confidence to speak up about what they have gone through, but its also important that they are heard, thus the name of the project “Hear Us”. This is perhaps the same for carers as well.

Over the 18 months the project members tested How useful the project has been, so we were shown graphs produced on the slides.

Jane White reminded us to Sign a pledge with “Time to Change” so we can challenge ourselves for the better helping to combat and reduce mental health stigma.

Next we were shown the latest “Time To Change” campaign which is the #wolfpack video, #wolfpack probably being the hashtag on twitter.

I could not stay for long because I had to rush back in order to look after my mother, but before I left. I ate some Fish and Chips provided by “Hear Us – Reach Out Challenge”.

Eventually Sue Baker who is the Director of Time to Change arrived to speak to us at the event. Sue Thanked HearUs for all their work and she spoke about how change is becoming to take effect. She talked about the day due to Robin Williams death on death about depression, but she feels the media is a lot more supportive of such news, because in the past there would be some ridicule and stigma coming from the media.

She feels help is possible, recovery is possible, but depression is the biggest thief of all, but it does not need to be if stigma is broken. Change is happening, but there is a long way to go, but having conversations can be tough, but it does work.

Overall I enjoyed attending and blogging about the event, as a carer I still feel I hold a lot of prejudices about mental health and sometimes I lack the patience to understand those using mental health services. I hope such events provided by HearUs can help me challenge those prejudices as soon as possible.

A celebration of wellbeing for the young people

I am not so young anymore, well that’s at least what I think, but tomorrow I am hoping to experience a great festival that not only celebrates what its like to be young, but also celebrates well-being for young people. The festival is called the “Happy Heads” festival which takes place over at the Maudsley Learning centre.

Now even at my age, I admit I sometimes struggle to understand the concept of well-being and how it can benefit our lives in an ever chaotic world. So can you imaging the challenges for young people today?

Never has being young in the UK presented so many difficult challenges for young people. although I hope not to write a blog that starts off so grim, but I do want you to be aware of what young people have to go through these days.

Asked to do more for less

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When I was in school or college, things were fairly simple. I would just try get the grades, get the job and get on trying to make a living. I admit things were not always so easy, but fast forward to the present.

I look around and wonder what its like for young people and I am taking of the age range from perhaps 14 to 21. I wonder how much pressure the educational system is placing on your people, because hence a lot of pressure is being placed on the educational system. Even now in the UK, there are a lack of teachers. So in a competitive world, young people are having a lot more pressure placed on them.

Difficultly understanding oneself let alone understanding what others request of you

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This is something I could almost relate to. For those who are young it is not always easy to understand yourself, let alone trying to figure out what people require of you. I could state that even at my age, I do not fully understand all the things I do and yet when I look back when I was a lot younger, I can appreciate how far I have come with all the pressures placed on myself. Understanding our place in society while we are young seems to be common in every generation and to be honest, this generation is no different except with one big issue.

Information……….

There is so much information, from mobile phones, tablets, the news, computers and even from the Internet. More storage, more memory and more speed. Never before has young people have access to so much information, but the problem with information is that it needs to be processed before we can understand it. Place the quantity of information in an ever changing society and the pressures on young people multiply.

Connecting with others takes time

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For every age be it old or young, connecting with other people takes time, but I suspect that when you are younger, connecting with other people may take just a bit longer. When you are young, the idea of trust is vitally important. Being young means you place yourself in situations that you perhaps have not experienced before, because your emotions need to be guarded. This is a tough situation to be in if our connections go wrong and it takes a long time for a young person to heal when they older. Connecting with others be it through your peers, friends, family or the community presents a tough challenge in today’s times.

Community struggles with who belongs

All communities have their own problems and challenges, but I find that in today’s times the community seems to be more distance. Perhaps the community seems fragmented. I do admit we have “peoples days” and “festivals” and celebrations, but after those are over, what is the legacy?

I am not saying there is an easy fix, we all need to get on and try and do our best, no matter what is asked of us, but its harder to do this when you are young person these days. I can only sympathize with them, I feel it is so important to give young people a voice so they feel they are part of the community for far too long adults like myself try and speak for young people and try to second guess their problems, which I suppose is what I am doing right now.

Learning how to cope

Coping through the tough times can be difficult. Coping through the tough times when your young can be a far more difficult challenge. With the advantages of age and experience, if you have coped through emotional difficulties before, then its often the case that you have learnt how to cope and you can see things through.

When you are young, the territory can often be new. Of course there are resources available to try help young people to cope with the emotional and physical stresses of their life, but so much can be at risk when new emotional challenges present themselves to a young person for the first time.

The pressures of technology

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Perhaps out of all the problems mentioned so far, this one is the most unique and the most critical. As soon as I step outside into the neighbourhood, it won’t take long to find someone’s head buried in their mobile phone, or if you get on the tube or bus, you can see someone using their tablet. Technology has given us many advantages and benefits in connecting to each other and sharing things through Facebook or other social media, but there are problems as well…what could they be?

As for one, it is so much easier to just stay at home and play games, education is so much easier off the internet. The pressure to keep pace with new devices is an added weight this all costs money and young people can loose out as since they are busy connecting to social media, there is a trade off in not being able to connect with the environment or friends. Every new generation has their challenges, but technology places a new challenge never seen before and shows no signs of slowing down.

Physical health

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On this topic, young people’s physical health has taken a tumble and this has probably fed off from the problems of technology, connecting with the community or struggling to cope. I am not stating all young people’s physical health suffers, but the pressure to avoid exercise has increased due to the age where its harder to feel safe in parks, its easier to connect with technology, the food we eat has become cheaper, but can also be more unhealthy. One thing I have noticed on travelling around on the buses in the afternoons is the amount of fried food packages left lying around. Perhaps young people are not to blame as such food has become so cheap to buy, but all this takes their toil on young people’s physical health. There has to be a price to pay.

Financial problems

This is hard to avoid and yes financial pressures are all round, but with young people they have to rely on their peers when it comes to financial situations. As we all know, good finances means more choice, that being more choice on what we can do, more choice on how to cope, more choice overall. Yet, never has it been so hard for young people to get into work after they have left education, it is a struggle for young people to get that choice if finances are so hard.

Wondering about the future

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This is not always a problem, but the future is hurtling towards us at an increasing and frightening pace. If you are old or young, we tend to worry about the future, but for those who are young, it must be difficult to wonder how the future will turn out, especially if you lack the means to control your own destiny. We all do this, we wonder how long we can connect with our families and friends, we wonder where we will live or wonder if we will move into a different interest.

It does not help when we spend so much of our lives doing so much, that there is little time to wonder if we are living right. Can you imagine the situation for younger people?

Bullying problems

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This happens to all ages, old or young. There are many types of bullying, but being bullied when you are young can cause so many difficult problems. Lets not beat around the bush here, bullies are cowards and there is no doubt about it, but the situation is the same, bullying still carries on, bullying is the hidden menace in schools, in colleges and outside in the play areas, out on the streets. Young people, especially those who are bullied face a difficult choice, will they get that support if they decide to tackle the bullying? I am not saying there is a perfect solution to this issue, I am just pointing out that this is one of the pressures young people experience today.

Educational problems

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I have mentioned the problem of education in some of the points that I have raised earlier. We are all born with unique gifts and talents, but now days I am not afraid to state that the education system places so much more on our young people in order for them to be successful in society, but what if you struggle with education when you are young these days? Do young people still belong in a society where getting ahead means so much? What about those whose interests or values are not entirely on education?

Coping with discrimination

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In today’s society we are all different, I am proud to live in a society where we can learn so much about different cultures and celebrate them. We are a more tolerant society in the UK, but this is not always the case. There are times when people will point out differences as if they are weaknesses, there are times when its easier to pick on younger people because they may lack the experience to defend themselves. There are times when being young is a stigma in society itself. We live in a society of labels, there is no easy way to get away from it. Sometimes I notice that young person people can be associated with trouble making, being ungrateful or just not learning fast enough. As a young person, how easy can it be to cope with discrimination?

I am sure I have missed out so many things which young people can experience, but I certainly am eager to find out ways how young people can battle these issues and challenges. With each subject I have pointed out, if young people are not supported then the risk can cause damage to their well-being, be it mental or physically. We all have our part to play and we must not let this happen, but pointing out problems is only half the battle. What are the solutions? what ideas can be of use? How can young people be empowered to face these challenges with the skills required of them?

A celebration

I have mentioned this before and I am not afraid it again. I cannot speak for young people and it is of the utmost importance young people have their own voice. I can only speculate what difficulties and challenges young people face in today’s fast moving world. However one thing I have noticed ever since I have started visiting events and festivals is what is celebrated for young people’s well-being?

I have probably been to and review around 60 events and very few of them are geared to young people, but tomorrow on the 26th July 2014. I get to check out the Happy Heads festival, where many partners and sponsors aim to celebrate well-being for young people. Each partner has played their role in working with young people to face the challenges and issues I have pointed out earlier and to get an idea of who I am talking about let me list them for you.

Together we Can
Maudsley Learning
Raw Material
South London and Maudsley
Guardian Masterclasses
Millwall football
MindFull
Dance United
Young Minds
PhotoVoice
Timebanking UK
and I am sure many more that I have contributed or will be there on the day.

Looking at their HappyHeads site, one thing that has stood out are the five ways to happiness, which can be aimed at young people. What can they mean? and how can these ways help us in order to achieve happiness? Of course these are my views and perhaps I may misunderstand some things, but I felt its important to give our views because we can all learn from each other.

Connecting

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If we take the time to connect to each other, then connection can bring understanding, connection can bring unity, connection can bring belonging and so much more. As a society we can be separated for so long, we often wonder if connecting to anything but our mobile apps is worth the trouble, but now more than ever is connecting so important in a world where its easier to keep our distance. Connecting is what makes us a community, connecting is what makes the community stronger not only for people, but for younger people who are an important part of the community. Connecting to any one is not something so easy and its probably not the only solution to many challenges young people may face, but connecting can lead to happiness.

Taking Notice

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What ever we notice can lead to many things, noticing is a rather general activity, but what happens if we gear or aim what we notice into something that can lead to happiness? What happens if we notice that we are breathing….that’s it, stop just there and notice you ARE breathing, notice you are alive. Do you notice your problems you were worrying about melt away for a moment?

What happens if you notice the glass being fall full than being half empty? You can begin to now understand it is what we notice that can lead to happiness and happiness can lead to us coping with the issues I have raise earlier on. I am not stating this thing is easy, but whatever we notice can be a powerful tool for young people.

Giving

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Giving can be one of the most powerful and personal things a person can do, although the act of giving is not in the gift itself, it is the action of giving, the time it takes to make the decision to give rather than receive or wanting that is most humble. When we give, we state to others that we are there for them, we connect with them, not just to make us happy as that can sometimes be self serving, we give because we WANT to help others be happy in their situation. It need not be a physical or material gift, we can give in so many ways and many of us to do not even realize we give every day.

Young people give all they have got and do not realize this special resource, while others do not know the powerful of giving and how it can heal not only others, but ourselves. Giving can and often does lead to happiness in ourselves.

Learning

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There is no way of getting away from Learning, be it from educational to awareness or learning how to get ahead, but you do not have to be a triple “A” student to value the skill of learning. We are learning every day no matter what talents you have, but the situation is do you know that you are learning? So much pressure is placed on young people to learn a resource and if they fail to make the grade, then they feel put off from learning, but this is a big mistake. Learning should be about learning something we find of value to ourselves as well. Every day, every hour, every minute we learn something and this should be celebrated. Learning can lead to happiness.

Being Active

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This probably one of the most important things that a young person can value. Being young is about energy, movement and creativity. I can tell you for sure when you get to my age, that being active is important, but a whole different ball game. An active person has a chance to get out there and use their bodies to help with their wellbeing. Its not always about Minds, our body is important as well and if our body is not in good shape, our minds can suffer. This is also visa versa, we need to celebrate and use our bodies to be active, especially young people. So being active can lead to happiness.

Happiness is not the only thing to help young people in a difficult world, but it is an important thing to help young people. Happiness can help our wellbeing and should be celebrated, especially for young people who are under more pressure more than ever before. I hope tomorrow I will experience each of the 5 ways to wellbeing and blog about what I have seen.

Thanks for reading through my blog post. You can find out more about Happy Heads festival here…http://happy-heads.org/index.php?page=10

Review on Healthwatch Southwark “Social Care” Event

Welcome to another blog post from my carers blog site. As usual I sometimes check out events to do with Mental Health, wellbeing events and carer’s events. I do not mind feeding back what I have picked up from these events. So on the Tuesday 22nd July over at Cambridge House in the London Borough of Southwark.

I decided to check out Southwark Healthwatch event on ” What’s happening in Social Care in Southwark – now and in the future?”.

The event lasted from 4:00 pm till 6:30 pm and there was lots on offer, plus plenty of time to contribute and get our views across. Before I continue, you may wonder what on earth is Healthwatch all about?

Healthwatch helps to give people a powerful voice locally and nationally. At a local level, local Healthwatch will work to help local people get the best out of their local health and social care services. Whether it’s improving them today or helping to shape them for tomorrow.

Healthwatch is the independent consumer champion created to gather and represent the views of the public. Healthwatch plays a critical role at both national and local level and will make sure that the views of the public and people who use services are taken into account.

Each borough across the UK has its own Healthwatch and not all Healthwatches have the same problems or work the same way, but their main focus is getting the people’s views via the right channels and helping sign post people to the correct health organisations. Healthwatch also a lot more than what I have mentioned, but please check out Healthwatch Southwark‘s site when you have time.

So going back to the event on “Social Care in Southwark”, what was in store?

Luckily we were told the agenda before the event, plus copies of the agenda were placed nearly on the tables. I must admit, even though I could not get any shots of people in the audience. The event was well attended, I think around 60 to 70 people came to the event. Quite a few of them being active members for their organisation. Here is a list of representations at the event. I have also taken the time to add a link of each organisations site.

Community Action Southwark – Umbrella group for voluntary sector groups in the borough.
Healthwatch Southwark – Here to make sure your views on local health and social care services are heard.
Local residents – Residents of Southwark who attended the event.
Metropolitan – Might be reps from the police.
Lambeth and Southwark MIND – Independent charity run by people who have personal experience of using mental health services.
Anchor – Provide a range of housing support for older residents in Southwark and beyond.
Blackfriars Settlement – Multi-faceted educational charity operating in North Southwark
SLaM – South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Southwark Council – Council to Southwark Residents
Cambridge House – provide both a Law Centre offers confidential advice, assistance and representation.
Southwark Carers – provides information, advice and support to Carers across the borough.
Cooltan Arts – mental health and arts charity that believes mental well-being is enhanced by the power of creativity.
Southwark Irish Pensioners Project – Provide a lifeline to hundreds of elderly, vulnerable and isolated Irish people in Southwark
Southwark Deaf Group – Support for Deaf People around most daily living issues.
Latin American Disabled People’s Project – Run by and for disabled Spanish and Portuguese speaking people living in London.
Eritrean Orthodox Church and Community Centre – Eritrean Orthodox Christian Community Church.
Latin American UK forum – Helps support Latin American’s living in the UK.
Southwark Disablement Association – SDA is an organisation of people with seen and unseen disabilities which supports disabled people
Latin American Womens Rights Service – supports Latin American women in the UK
Anjel 2000 – Supports Organisations and Individuals in the Health and Social Care Sector.

If I jump into the agenda of the event. We had the David Cooper who is the Chair of Healthwatch Southwark open the event.

Next was the Manager of Healthwatch Southwark “Alvin Kinch” explain more about what Healthwatch Southwark is all about.

After that, we have the director of social care “Alexandra Laidler” present to us about the challenges and developments of social care services in the borough of Southwark.

Once the speakers were finished, we then moved onto a quick question and answer session, which was followed by group discussions on a scenario and then each table fed back to the audience on their findings.

After the findings, we then were treated to a free dinner, which was very healthy.

So what I ll do is give a quick break down or pointers from the event.

First David Strong presented on the projects Healthwatch Southwark are doing and what they have been up to during the past 6 months. David also mentioned that while Healthwatch southwark are so busy working on the 4 targets for the people in southwark, these being the following

Access to GP services
Access to Mental Health services
Sexual Health Services, specifically HIV
Social Care

So the last part mentioned being social care was Healthwatch Southwarks aim to get our views and collate them into a report.

David Asked an important question “What happens when individuals do not meet the means-tested threshold to receive care and support”?

How can they pay for social care?

We then had Alvin explain a bit more about what Healthwatch Southwark is about. She went through the following being.

– How Healthwatch listens to people’s voices on matters of health services.
– How Healthwatch Southwark sets up focus groups, which they have been doing throughout the year.
– How Healthwatch visits services.
– They then produce a report on what they find.
– They also visit older people’s services.
– Plus when people contact Healthwatch, Healthwatch southwark can advise or signpost.
– Healthwatch Southwark does “Enter & View” training, but I think also many other healthwatches do this.

During the event, there was a mention of the New care act 2014, which I hope to cover one day.

Next up was Alex Laidler who is the Director of Adult Social Care at Southwark Council. She spoke about how cuts presents a difficult problem for social care services in the London Borough of Southwark. Alex also mentioned more on “The Care Act” and “The Children and families Act”.

Alex spoke on how cuts will drive services to integrate with each other. This is where Southwark Council seeks to develop its Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

Southwark’s Health & Wellbeing Board have set up three priorities in order to deliver better health and care outcomes for the residents of Southwark, which are

– Giving every young person the best start in life
– Building healthier communities
– Improving the experiences of the most vulnerable residents and enabling them to live more independent lives.

Alex moved on to talk about how Southwark council and Southwark’s CCG strategic approach to integration. One of the points raised were how Southwark Council and the CCG have agreed their “Better Care Fund” where £22 million will fund schemes to support people to live at home and avoid hospital and A&E care.

The director of social care for Southwark then highlighted Southwark Council’s Social Care Priorities. I ll point out two being

– Develop diverse, innovative and adaptable health and social care
– Personalised health and social care services that are able to follow a resident through their lifetime.

Alex then talked about Southwark councils objectives for

Older people when it comes to social care.
Mental Health in the social Care setting
objectives for Learning disabilities & Autism.
And also Carers.

I ll point out a few of the objectives mentioned for carers

– Improving information and advice for carers
– Developing an outreach programme to reach carers at an early stage
– Young carers programme to offer support for young carers
– Expanding the provision of personal budgets for carers
– and many more points presented at the event

After Alex’s presentation, we heard quite a few good questions from the audience and representatives.

One question was about how difficult it is to know about personal budgets or even how to get a personal budget if suffering mental health problems.

Another was on how more awareness is needed for the Deaf community, plus the lack of interpreters.

A good question from the reps was on the financial situation of carers in Southwark.

After the Q&A session, there were the “Round the table” discussion. Each of the 7 tables where given around I think up to 3 scenarios focusing on Social Care problems, which we then fed back at the end. I found the discussions quite informative and education, since I admit I do not know much about social care problems.

Here were the points that were fed back at the end of the discussions from each table.

– There can be a problem when it comes to understanding what the person wants regarding social care, a lot can be down to the assessment criteria.
– The council should support and develop deaf people on some services.
– There is far too short time on discharge plans for Mental health users
– People need more control of social care services, there needs to be more choice.
– Social care assessments should be integrated
– carers needs support especially when the caree does not make their own support needs known.
– Discharge plans can and do often go wrong

After the lengthy discussions and feedback session, attendees were treated to a light meal, which I very much appreciated.

So how did I find the Healthwatch Southwark event?

* I felt the information presented at the event was relevant to its issues, but we will have to see how the health services act on the queries and questions.

* I was giving the opportunity to participate and even had the chance to feedback and share my experiences, this is critical to any focus group or event. Such events should be inclusive.

* The event made me understand the importance of giving my views on local health and social care services, if you do not give your views on health services, then its difficult for organisations to measure their effectiveness. Plus being able to give your views on health experiences is empowering, since I am sure that in the past, people were ignored, especially the most vulnerable people in the community.

* I felt my knowledge of Healthwatch has increased and I hope your knowledge about Healthwatch Southwark has increased as well.

* The knowledge of the speakers were very good, although I would have liked just a few more speakers, but I could understand the lack of time allocated at the event.

* The venue being Cambridge House was excellent and I certainly enjoyed the healthy food that was served.

At the end of the event, we congratulated Alvin Kinch on how much she has contributed to Healthwatch and LiNK, she now has moved to a new role with Healthwatch England and I hope Alvin will continue to contributed much more to engaging people’s views on health services.

As a carer I felt it was important to attend Healthwatch events not only to get my voice heard or spread knowledge of the event, but also listen to other people affected by the health services. They have very important things to say and Healthwatch is there to collate their views.

My visit to Bethlem Sunfayre 2014

On Saturday 5 July 12-5pm I decided to visit Bethlem Hospital grounds to attend the Bethlem Sunfayre 2014.

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a hospital in London, United Kingdom for the treatment of mental illness, part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It has moved three times from its original location, and is Europe’s first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses.

Each year they hold the Bethlem Sunfayre where there are some of the stalls selling various wares, plus five zones. Each zone was highlighted as colour balloons.

The Blue area was for stalls, BBQ and music and entertainment stage.
The Yellow Area was for Art workshops, ceramic workshops and the Bethlem Gallery
The Green and Purple area showed the walled Garden
Another Blue area was the Archives, Museum and Cycling zone
Then the Red area being Community Centre, Complimentary therapies and cafe.

Being at the Sunfayre I had a great day out and took my brother along, although unfortunately it was raining on and off, but that did not spoil the Sunfayre much anyway.

As soon as I entered the hospital grounds, I saw the event was well attended and the closer I got to the stalls, the more I noticed how community focuses the event was.

The first person I spoke to was Victoria Northwood who actually knew me by name since I had visited the museum and gallery before. Victoria was holding the Bethlem Museum marquee and explained to me the latest developments on where the museum is moving to.

The new area for the Museum will have more space and seating for people
There will be more things for people to enjoy
Plus they will have an early tour of the museum, which I hope to attend.
Victoria mentioned that they will be over at the Dragon Cafe at some point to do some promotion and awareness.

Unfortunately I missed the Mansions in the Orchard Tour, but I really learnt a lot from Victoria Northwood who was most helpful.

You can find more about the Bethlem Museum off their blog site, which is well worth reading at http://bethlemheritage.wordpress.com/

After checking out some stalls, I came across the Croydon HearUs Reach Out Stall. Hear Us is Croydon’s Mental Health Service User Group which acts as a coordinating body to facilitate, and ensure service users involvement in, the planning, delivery and monitoring of mental health services in Croydon.

It was great to see them at the Bethlem Sunfayre and Barbra one of the staff of ReachOut was glad to chat to me on the latest developments of HearUs and what they were doing at the Sunfayre. You can find out more about Hear Us at http://www.hear-us.org/

I then stopped to listen to some of the amazing music at the main stage section, where quite a lot of the music was songs with some Drum N Bass and some dance music. I noticed the songs reflected views on mental health, which drawed my attention, quite a lot of the lyrics focused on recovery and some songs were about understanding mental health.

The organizers were from a group called “Key Changes” who provide music engagement and recovery services for young people and adults experiencing severe mental illnesses including psychosis, schizophrenia, bi polar and personality disorders. Please check out their brilliant site here http://www.keychanges.org.uk/

I really enjoyed listening to the amazing music and wished I arrived earlier to listen to more tracks.

Later on after checking out some more stalls and talking to the stall holders I decided to visit the Bethlem Gallery to see what activities were going on there and I was amazed to see lots of people trying their hand at pottery. I was hoping to try some pottery myself, but since I arrived a little late to the Sunfayre I wanted to check out more at the event.

I moved on to another part of the Bethlem Gallery to view the art exhibition by Martha Orbach. I chatted to the staff at the gallery about the exhibition before I moved on to the next section.

After going through some leaflets and cards that displayed more information about the Gallery, I went over to the yellow section to see what other activities I could take part in. I ended up speaking to Michila Ross the Arts coordinator about the large drawing set, which was taking place in the middle of the room. I also took some pictures of the finished art displays, which were quite impressive.

Soon I moved off to the Red area and entered the complimentary Therapies area where Reiki and some bodywork was taking place. Unfortunately I was too late to book myself an appointment, but it was nice to know that therapies were taking place at the Sunfayre.

I then moved into the community center and spoke to who I think was Isobel Mdudu about their information stall on volunteering. She mentioned to me that volunteering is a great way to share your skills, experience and passion at the trust and that there were many benefits. You can check out more information on volunteering off SLaM’s site which is http://www.slam.nhs.uk/about-us/work-for-us/volunteering

Next stop for me was back at the stalls.

I noticed one stall which mentioned “Beat”, I asked the stall holders if I could take a photo and they agreed, by the way “Beat” is the UK’s only nationwide organisation supporting people affected by eating disorders, their family members and friends, and campaigning on their behalf. They are also the world’s largest eating disorders charity. This stall was raising funds for the charity. You can find more about Beat here http://www.b-eat.co.uk/

The next stall was run by the “Mind & Soul community choir”, I have done a couple of blogs about the choir before. The Mind & Soul Choir was founded as a way of promoting mental wellbeing and reducing some of the stigma surrounding mental illness through singing.

They are currently supported by the Maudsley Charity. Their patron is the Mary King. Tou can check out more about the choir here http://www.lea-cornthwaite.com/mind-soul-choir/

Again as soon as I got to their stall, it was being packed away. I hope they managed to sell a few things.

I visited quite a few more stalls over the next hour like the “Riverhouse” stall, Some food stalls and the “Mind in Croydon” stall where they had some good information on quitting smoking.

Overall I enjoyed speaking to people at the Bethlem Sunfayre and hearing their stories. Everyone had something interesting to say and even if I was not there to speak to people, I was glad to attend and also to learn more about mental health and be part of the community where I lend my support.

This event is something I enjoyed and I hope to visit the Sunfayre again next year.

The last hurrah!! London Anxiety Festival 2014

Welcome to another of Matthew Mckenzie’s blog post on caring within the mental health field. However this particular blog post is about the London Anxiety Arts Festival 2014, which has been running from June until a few days up from July. I have attended a few of the Anxiety Arts festival events and if you check the sites video section, you ll see one about the Catjun Project.

I thought to do this last blog of the festival as one last review. So far I have attended around 6 of the events starting with the “An evening of wellness: your mind, your health”, which was shown at the Maudsley Learning center and the last event which took place over at the Horse Hospital over by Russell Square. The Horse Hospital is a three tiered arts venue in London incorporating The Chamber Of Pop Culture.

Before I continue my round up of the Anxiety Arts festival, what is this festival all about?

Well Anxiety 2014 is a new London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation. Taking place at multiple venues throughout June 2014. Although their main programme has now finished, they still have a few events and exhibitions in July and beyond.

You can check up more about them at their site, which is http://www.anxiety2014.org/

So ok, what can I say about the festival due to the 6 events that I have been to? I can most certainly say that I have enjoyed each event due to several reasons.

1. Learning about anxiety.
2. Experiencing the wonders of Art
3. Meeting friendly people
4. Getting involved and spreading the word
5. Being part of something

Let me elaborate on each of the reasons I have listed. I am sure most of you know what anxiety is, we have all experienced anxiety at different levels and as a carer, I have been anxious about many things, I admit we all have different levels of anxiety, but how many of us out there just cope with anxiety and not look into what anxiety is any further?

As you may already know, some people out there experience anxiety at very high levels and one of the ways they can express their experience with anxiety is through art and creativity. I felt that I was almost experiencing as close as it can be on how such artists were experiencing anxiety.

A good example was the work of Liz Atkins over at the Maudsley Learning Centre, which is called “curdled” being a solo exhibition commissioned by The Bethlem Gallery as part of the Anxiety 2014 Arts Festival. This was the first event I went to and experienced. I was lucky enough to chat to Liz Atkins on the 2nd of July at the closing festival and learnt more about her work and why she displayed her art.

You can learn more about Liz’s work here http://www.lizatkin.com/curdled/4584963643

The next event was when I met the lovely Anna Sexton who is the Learning and Communities Curator for the festival.

I met Anna at the “evening of wellness” event over at The Ortus, at the event we got to hear more about the festival and a few other projects.

The next event I went to was the “Cathja Art Exhibition and film show“, which was about the Friends of Cathja community boat, where we had a talk from their experts about mental health, creativity and unique community of makers.

Then we where shown a premiere of artist Albert Potrony’s film about this unique creative community based on a Dutch barge between 6.30pm – 8pm.

The premiere of an ethnographic film ‘The Potential Space’ about the Cathja community by artist Albert Potrony, the inaugural performance of Dave Auld’s Shanty written especially for Cathja.

For the 4th event, I turned up for the CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle Midnight Walk, which was a fun, guided midnight walk through South London. We stopped along the way for talks and games on ‘mad’ buildings, night working, surrealism and the anxious city.

Then the 5th event was the screening of Asylum documentary where I met Anna B. Sexton. The documentary made by Peter Robinson entered radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s controversial Archway Community – where the inmates literally ran the asylum. We also heard from Dragon Cafe’s Declan McGill and a few others.

Then the last event, which again featured lots of art was a wrap up of the festival and a celebration and goodbye from those involved, where I remembered the lovely speech from Errol Francis who is the Festival Director.

So you can see, with all these events, I learnt so much about art, creativity and anxiety.

On “Experiencing the wonders of Art“, I can certainly admit I am not so much of an artist myself, but some of the works I have seen have been startling, inspiring, amazing and thought provoking. Each expressing their field to the highest degree and I have been proud to view either painted works, song or movement as an expression.

On “Meeting friendly people“, I am glad to say that Anna Sexton has worked so hard in speaking to people at each event and making them feel welcomed. I have watched how professional she was in her role and how she enjoyed her work in meeting people and explaining things.

Meeting Errol was also a great pleasure, since he was always smiling. Plus also meeting Scarlett Avia who is the Festival Projects Assistant, where she was so busy tweeting and working so hard via social media and other things.

Since I was “Getting involved and spreading the word“, I have used a range of methods to archive this, being video blogs or vlogs as Anna calls them, plus taken many pictures and wrote up reviews. Plus at the events I also talked to many participants. I have enjoyed every moment.

Lastly I am proud that I was part of something for the community, for London. I felt part of a celebration, a festival, almost a movement. Mental Health still is almost an ignored field out there. There is so much stigma against mental health, that we can only be glad to know that the Mental Health Foundation are working hard to break the stigma. The festival is truly needed and I hope they return next year.

A Caring Mind

A blog for carers of mental health and cancer

Category Archives: Event reviews

London Met Connect – event review #LMetConnect

Review of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”

World Mental Health day 2014 – #mhday

Happy Heads event 2014 review

Mental Health and Well-being event 2014 review

Reachout Challenge Celebration Event Review

A celebration of wellbeing for the young people

My visit to Bethlem Sunfayre 2014

The last hurrah!! London Anxiety Festival 2014