Category Archives: Event reviews

Reviews of events I have been to

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Embed from Getty Images

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.

Lewisham Healthwatch & Save Lewisham Campaign Community Health Care Event

On the 28th of June, I attended the Lewisham Healthwatch & Save Lewisham Campaign “Winning the Best Community Health Care” Event.

This took place at Lessof Auditorium, Lewisham Hospital. The event was mainly for interested parties, where we had representatives from SaveLewishamHospital Campaign, Lewisham Carers, LeSoCo, Voluntary Action Lewisham, Lewisham’s Health & Wellbeing Board, some of the Lewisham’s Councillor’s, Lewisham’s Young Advisors, Lewisham Disability Coalition and many more.

As you can tell from the list above, many groups and organisations attended, but What is Healthwatch?

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is the national consumer champion in health and care. They have significant statutory powers to ensure the voice of the consumer is strengthened and heard by those who commission, deliver and regulate health and care services.

You can find more about Lewisham Healthwatch below.

http://www.healthwatchlewisham.co.uk/

This event was also a joint event with Save Lewisham Campaign

Save Lewisham A&E was set up by local organisations, residents, Dr’s, nurses, therapists and patients because they do not believe the Tory-appointed Trust Special Administrator should jeopardise the health of South Londoners to pay for debts that were caused by years of political mismanagement.

You can find out more about them below.

Latest!

Going back to the event. On the day we looked into what makes community Health care brilliant, identified healthcare that needs to be cherished to ensure future community health care.

We also learned from people’s stories about community healthcare, which gave us ideas in order to build a vision for what the best community health care could be for Lewisham.

You might have probably already guessed it, but this blog is based in the UK and mentions many UK mental health organisations off my links page. I often try to go to mental health or health community events or meetings and the “Winning the best community Health care” event was the latest.

I think we had around 40 or more turn up to the event to give their ideas about what makes the best community health care.

There are cuts coming to the NHS and these cuts will create many problems, Perhaps no one will receive the quality of health services like they did before. There is a risk that privatization will not hold patients interest at heart, plus the cuts won’t stop at the NHS, it will hit quite a lot of voluntary organisations which already are under pressure from limited funds.

Lewisham Hospital had a campaign to save the A&E, which was a long and hard fight that ended in success, but even still the hospital is under threat.

Recently the six Clinical Commissioning Groups which commissions or buys services for the doctors are running their plan for integrated care across south London. There is a lot of planning and consultancy the will be needed.

So how do we tackle such problems?

At the event we needed to define what is community health care. We have to understand that quantitative health care does not make qualitative community health care. Before this event, Lewisham Healthwatch collected over ‘100’ stories from those who used community health care in order to discern the very qualities of health care.

Throughout the day we as a group worked on declaring a vision for the perfect community health care system, we also had several members in the group produce their own ideas about burning issues for enhancing community care, which was followed by a brainstorming session.

So how did I think the event went?

To be honest, before I turned up to the event, I was not sure what to expect, but by the end of the day I could say that there was so much I learnt. I felt empowered giving my views as a carer within such a group, not only because I use carers Lewisham (which is a voluntary community service) but because who I care for also uses a lot of services.

The event also gave me a lot more opportunity not only to participate, but also to have fun in participating, plus to gain further insight into the problems of the National Health Service, which faces its greatest test ever since it was formed.

There is fear of the unknown that if such services are cut. A lot of people are worried the more things are privatized then value for money will be lost, community will be lost and quality of service would be at risk.

Not only is it vitally important Healthwatch runs such events, it is also important that the public give their views on the services they use. They do not have to always complain, the public can just make a statement or congratulate on a service.

I hope Healthwatch continues to do a vitally important role engaging and obtaining views from the community in future for the community.

CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle Midnight Walk

On Saturday June 21st 2014, 11.45pm to 5am, Sunday June 22nd 2014
I joined CoolTan Arts on 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.

The walk/event was part of Anxiety Arts Festival London 2014

CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle is a guided, stigma-busting cultural walk, designed to encourage mental and physical well-being, through art, exercise, humor and history.

Although I am a carer of someone suffering mental health difficulties, there is always more room to learn more about mental health and Cooltan’s Largactyl shuffle walks are great to not only learn about mental health, but also about the city of London.

I actually have done a video blog for one of their shuffle walks last year, but I think it was about time I join another walk with them. They are so much fun and its a great adventure. So while I was on the train watching the sun set, I was looking forward to the walk, although I was a little anxious on what to expect on walking at night.

Before I continue this is cooltan’s 8th Largactyl midnight shuffle walk, but what is cooltan all about?

CoolTan Arts believes mental well-being is enhanced by the power of creativity. It’s a charity run by and for adults with mental distress.

They run a varied program of creative workshops from their vibrant arts center in Southwark’s lively Walworth Road, near Elephant & Castle; these include visual arts, textiles, digital arts, video, poetry, and performing arts. Our activities include exhibitions, public art projects and well-being walks which help break down the stigma of mental distress.

As I have mentioned earlier this walk is run in conjunction with the Anxiety Arts Festival London 2014.

The Anxiety Arts Festival 2014 is a new London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation. Taking place at multiple venues throughout June 2014. The festival explores anxiety, looking at its causes, how it affects all of our lives, and how it can act as a creative force.

So As you may guess this walk had quite a lot to learn about anxiety and mental health not only from what we are being told, but how we experienced the walk.

Oddly enough, I had an argument with someone before I got to the walk, unfortunately London does have people who are homeless most of those of no fault of their own, however on this occasion this person decided to blame me for his problems and an argument ensued, this left me feeling anxious, although I did not know it at the time.

I then calmed down and headed towards the walk and spoke to some people who turned up in order to find out their expectations. Cooltan volunteer walkers and Michelle Barrier the CEO of CoolTan arts explained at around 11:45 pm what the walk was about. They told us about health and safety and we filled in some forms to check our health since some walks can be tiring, but the volunteer walkers tend to walk at a moderate to slow pace in order for people to catch up.

Michelle talked to us about how she had experienced anxiety in the past and felt this walk should not only be about learning what anxiety is, but also about celebrating it by going through places on the walk that might be dark or where we would not usually go at night.

Our first part of the walk stopped past some people’s favorite building the Xmas Tree, where Michelle explained a bit more about the building.

We then walked towards Redcross Way and we were told about someone called Octavia Hill who was responsible for being the first person to develop social housing. Oddly enough thinking about Octavia Hill made me wonder just a bit more about people who are homeless in London, especially those who have mental health problems.

One of the volunteer lead walkers who I think was called “Lou” spoke about the “Winchester Geese” who were prostitutes probably around 1598 onward. This is because they were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink. This is where such women and many other poor people were buried in a place called Cross Bones off redcross way.

Cross Bones is a post-medieval disused burial ground in The Borough, Southwark, south London.

The more Lou explained about who was buried at the burial site, the more I thought about easy it is for the destitute to become victims of society even in these days, it made me feel anxious and Cooltan kindly handed out notes to people where we could tie them to the gate as thoughts to those who we have lost, I tied one myself.

We continued to walk onward and reached the St George the Martyr Church, which is opposite Borough tube station. We where given a talk by another lead walker called “Tim” about Charles Dickens and how he used to walk the streets of London talking to the poor or down and out about their experiences in London, so he could write about these experiences. We were told the reason why Charles Dickens moved to this place because his dad was in prison and then we began to have fun with our first activity as we split into 8 groups.

Since it was night time, this activity centered on matching the description of what kind of people work at night on to pictures. I watched how each group were solving the puzzle and also talked to some volunteers.

We then walked onward and were told about the “Walkie Talkie” building and how it literally melted a car by reflecting light onto the vehicle.

We continued to walk further on crossing quite a few roads, but I was glad to see the guided walkers helping us cross the roads since it certainly can be dangerous at night. We then walked down the underpass and into the center of the roundabout at the Elephant and Castle spot.

We were then told about Micheal Faraday and the meaning of the reflective building behind us. There were many interesting facts about electromagnetic inventions.

Next Olea who is another go the lead walkers then set us our 2nd activity and this was on each of us in groups discussing what anxiety is and then showing in some form how to combat anxiety. Within my group, I decided to take the lead and explained to the group that to combat anxiety, we can reassure the person who is anxious.

We should do this reassurance by doing a group hug.

Next we walked towards elephant and castle market place where it got very dark and a few of us began to use the free NHS torches provided to us free by cooltan, I did not shine my torch that much, but I did felt anxious of the dark places even though I was in a group. At that point my mind flashed back to where I had an argument with someone homeless person and I wondered if I was shown anxiety before I got on the walk….how interesting, although it did leave me in a bad mood.

We then crossed a road and Michelle Barrier talked to us about the Zebra building and the problem of council housing, she mentioned the large fans at the top of the building, which I never really paid much attention to beforehand. We then walked just a bit further on and we were told that the Labour HQ building used to be situated around the area, I think it was the “John Smith” building.

Within a few minutes a sound rang out, the sound made me feel slight anxious of what it was and I was slightly proud with my quick thinking to record the sound.

After a while we ended up at the Cooltan Art’s HQ on Walworth road where we relaxed after a long walk and heard a bit more about Cooltan Arts activities and how they were formed. Cooltan explained one of their latest project was the Food for mood book and the poetry book which they have for sale.

Talking about poetry, we were treated to some poetry by Peter Cox.

Basically Cooltan main aim is to try keep people suffering mental illness out of hospital with the use of harnessing the power of creativity and art. Another aim of Cooltan is to raise and highlight what mental illness and mental health is, they also help in combating mental health stigma.

After a rest we then continued on with our adventure into the night and passed a building where Charlie Chaplin was born.

We then moved up to Albany road and Michelle Barrier talked about Richard Muzira who used to help Cooltan Arts with filming production.

Richard Muzira, was sadly killed in a cycling accident on Monday 18th November.

The accident, involved a collision with a tipper truck, which took place at the busy junction of Camberwell Road and Albany Road.

Cooltan Arts are hoping to get a memorial for Richard.

We then moved on to Burgess Park were we had another Activity from a lovely Italian lead walker called “AVA”. Her activity involved people standing in a line holding up a letter where we guessed what the letter would form and I think it spelt out something to do with psychiatry.

Ava then continued to talk that each letter also had a meaning on how we work in the city of London and how we need to recognize our own mental health.

We then stopped for a moment to look at the sunrise, however we had some uninvited guests which made me feel a little anxious, because the uninvited guests were a little drunk if you could say, although they did enjoy our walk, perhaps a bit too much. However they then calmed down. Perhaps this happens a lot in the early hours of Sunday morning.

We do not often get to see the sunrise in the morning and it was one of the golden moments of the walk, since we are so busy making a living, thinking of the future, that we forget about present, we forget about now, if we just stop only for the moment, we can feel the beauty of nature.

Our next stop was to at Camberwell green where we stopped at the sculptural bench, created by artist Rossen Daskalov, made from oak timber, the bench design is based on the theme of reconnecting, with each other and with nature. Sited next to the Ginkgo Tree planted by CoolTan Arts to commemorate World Mental Health Day 2011, the bench creates a place of calm contemplation for all to enjoy.

One of the last Cooltan arts lead walkers then talked about the surrealist movement on its idea of the unconscious and its importance of dreams bursting into reality as one of the walkers sat on the bench. She read a lovely poem which I could not capture at the time and she also spoke how the surrealists linked creativity with mental health.

Eventually we ended up at our last destination being the Maudsley hospital, as day light was all around, my anxiousness began to fade as night finally went away, but then also the excitement was gone as well. We were all congratulated for staying with the 5 hour walk and we stopped for our 2nd set of refreshments at the Maudsley Chapel.

My final review of the Cooltan walk is that the event was an amazing experience and it was well worth the time to make it there. I can see not only the connection with other people on the walk, but also the connection on learning about mental health, learning about the city you live, learning about yourself and how you experience things. Plus learning about the hard work Cooltan are doing when it comes to mental health.

You can check out more on “Cooltan Arts” off their site being

http://www.cooltanarts.org.uk/

Friends of Cathja Event Review

On Wednesday the 18th of June 2014, I was over at the Hermitage Community Moorings based at Wapping for another of the Anxiety Arts Festival 2014 event.

However what is the Anxiety Arts Festival all about?

London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation and taking place throughout June. You can get more information about them off their site which is

http://www.anxiety2014.org/

Being a carer of someone suffering mental health difficulties, I had a keen interest in exploring what this event had on offer. I was told by Ann Sexton who is Learning and Communities Curator for the festival that this event will show new film by Albert Potrony which is called “The Potential Space”. The film focuses on the relationships between the people working in this unorthodox space, the work they produce and the setting they are in.

Albert Potrony’s The Potential Space is comissioned by Anxiety 2014 & Friends of Cathja and Funded by Time to Change & the Mental Health Foundation.

There was also drinks, a barbecue, some inspirational folk songs and a chance to learn more about the project and meet friendly people. The sun was out and the waves off the barge were soothing and relaxing. I felt at peace and could go almost anywhere as I explored the Hermitage Community Moorings.

I met the lovely Ann Sexton for the second time in my journeys getting views and going to mental health events around south london and she introduced me to some of the big players off the “Friends of Cathja” project. There was quite a good turn out and people were very friendly.

Again I took some time to check out some of the creations done at the “Friends of Cathja” project and a lot of the work was creative and very imaginative, where the theme relates well to the Anxiety Arts Festival. One thing about the Festival is that both the events I had been to was free and I am sure many others are free as well although some might not be. Remember to check out their site.

After wandering up and down the moorings I went into the exhibition because I was drawn to some music, which set the scene nicely.

After that song, we got to hear 4 songs from a lovely person who I could not catch his name at present, but as a consolation, here are at least 2 of the songs he sung with his recent band.

After hearing the folk songs, they showed the film “The Potential Space”. I listened how the project looked to involve anyone especially those suffering mental health difficulties a chance and the space to express themselves creatively at the bardge. A place away from the crowded pressures of society and to feel alive again. I enjoyed hearing the views of those involved in the works that they produced, how they got so skilled and left a mark behind for others to marvel at. There was not a hint of suffering on any of the workers as you can see how healing it was for them to express themselves in their work.

I then went off to explore the Cathja Barge myself and talked to a few people as I took some pictures. Learn’t how important that there should be a place in society for people to express themselves without any pressure or profit in such a way, that healing took place and faith and confidence was restored not only in the community, but in themselves.

As the event almost came to an end, I wandered off down the moorings and watched boats sail up and down the river, while the sun began to set and the splash of the waves soothed my mood.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and I encourage anyone who is around London during June 2014 to check out more of the Anxiety Arts Festival 2014.

Lewisham Carers Event 2014

On Tuesday the 10th of June 2014 I decided to take a trip to Lewisham’s Civic suite for the Carers day event which runs from carers week 2014.

lewisham civic suite

What is carers week?

Carers Week is a UK-wide annual awareness campaign which takes place from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 June 2014.

Being a carer myself for over 11 years, I feel an interest and a connection in raising carer awareness, although my role as a carer has been on mental health care.

I have actually been to the Lewisham’s reaching out to carers event 3 or 4 times, so I had some idea what to expect. Usually you would have numerous stalls, posters and flyers, some speeches, lunch and a wellbeing treatment room where you could get massage or other forms or relaxation.

All these things are critical for carers especially the number one thing being “Information”. What tends to hit carers the most is lack of information, be it information on what to do as a carer, information on getting support, information on looking after themselves or their caree (that being the person who they care for).

As I arrived at the “Reaching out for carers” event. I was greated by staff who are passionate by carers. One was off the Lewisham carer’s partnership board and I know he works very hard to raising awareness and services for carers in lewisham. The other staff who signed me in was the “Carers lewisham” youth worker.

goodie bag

I got my raffle ticket off the welcoming staff and also a goodie bag filled with
carer packs and information. There was quite a lot, so this impressed me.

Most of the day was spent wandering from stall to stall, although this year I did not talk too much to the other stall holders, but I saw the usual being “Lewisham Talking Newspaper”, “FORVIL stall (Vietnamese support for Lewisham Vietnamese residents”, “Lewisham IAPTs (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies” and several other stalls.

pic-1 The main stalls I visited were the “Lewisham Carers” stall, SLaM carers information stall “SLaM” stands for South London and Maudsley trust and I visited and chatted to those holding the IAPTs stall.

To be honest I used to go to the “Reaching out for carers” event to look for information and I guess I still do at some point, but the main reason now is to reach out to carers, not because I can try offer any support, its mainly because I am still looking for that connection, I am looking for the network of carers. I usually go to carers groups in my borough which is Lewisham and I meet some familiar faces, but being a carer can often be a lonely role. It can be hard to be understood as carers battle for ever decreasing support.

This year’s carers event held over at Lewisham’s civic suite did not disappoint when speaking to other carers, I met a few who are well known to Lewisham on their caring role. I spoke to them on what they thought about the event and most were fairly happy. I asked them how they were getting along in their well being and caring role and things were improving as long as they themselves felt valued.

nhs self-care

I also did the same for the stall holders where I asked how they were in themselves and unfortunately some were ill. In my “mind” I thought what pressure are they under? Could it be service changes? could it be proving support to carers that might be demanding? None of the stall holders told me. However I do sympathize with most of them.

I did not stay too long at the event because I had to pop into work. Luckily I work part time to support myself financially and we ll get on to that another day because carers definitely need financial support, but this is lacking because they are busy caring.

Overall I was fairly pleased with the event and I wished I took more pictures. I hope to attend more events in future regarding carers or mental health events.

A Caring Mind

A blog for carers of mental health and cancer

Category Archives: Event reviews

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

Lewisham Healthwatch & Save Lewisham Campaign Community Health Care Event

CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle Midnight Walk

Friends of Cathja Event Review

Lewisham Carers Event 2014