Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

Really sad news that The Roby , a centre that provides many different wellbeing and mental health services for the local community in Longsight, is facing a huge cut 86% in its funding income. Great quote from Ben Crouch, Director of The Roby, who says: "In my two years here at The Roby, we have directly supported and intervened when people have turned up on our door because they are on the brink of suicide or have been kicked out of their home and we have given them whatever assistance we can. They come to us because they know we are there because we’ve previously helped a family member of one of their friends. You can’t commission that." Tough times at the moment but mental health services can be seen as a soft target. With a common misconception that someone experiencing mental distress should just 'pull themself together', places such as The Roby can be viewed as a nice to have, rather than a need to have. The Roby is holding a public meeting on the 24th January

We had a busy and productive meeting last night and amongst many other things discussed our plans for this year. Here there are, in summary - more details to come soon: What do we want to achieve this year? Reach 50 new people Hold at least two events in a different location Run a campaign to raise awareness of mental illness in Manchester Raise funds to ensure we can continue our work Events We want to organise three 'outreach' events, not at the usual venue of Manchester Carers Centre, because we want to try and reach a wider audience. The 'hot topics' we would like as themes for our events are: GP commissioning: its effect on mental health in Manchester, in particular the three practice based commissioning hubs that we understand are forming across the city. Health White Paper - what does it mean? Changes in benefits, in particular Employment and Support Allowance, and the push to get people 'back to work'. Campaign for 2011 – ‘What we know now’ At our '