Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

The issue of compulsory sectioning is a complex and emotionally difficult one for anyone who has experienced it as well as for carers. So we are delighted to be able to offer you the opportunity to hear from two very experienced legal practitioners - Doug Feery, a Barrister, and Mark McGhee, a solicitor - who will talk about compulsory sectioning from a service user and carer perspective and answer any questions you might have. The event will take place on Wednesday 12th June from 6 - 7:45pm at Manchester Carers Centre. All are very welcome. Download a poster here . Please do let your friends and contacts know about this event as it is an excellent opportunity to find out more about this topic. If you have any specific questions that you would like Doug and Mark to answer please let me know in advance so they can prepare. You can email me on this address .

Rethink Mental Illness Yorkshire & North East Regional Committee  are holding a conference especially for people with a mental illness, their carers and mental health professionals. And it’s absolutely free of charge for members of Rethink Mental Illness. This one-day event brings you expert speakers and workshops, a chance to meet fellow members over a sit-down lunch, plus opportunities to share your experience and learn from others about theirs. When? Saturday 8 June; 10am till 4pm Where? The Met Hotel, King Street, Leeds, LS1 2HQ Here are some highlights of the day: Hear from top psychologist Dr Alison Brabban, on how and why psychological therapies can be crucial to recovery and coping with mental illness. Learn about welfare reform and policy changes. Get practical guidance on WCA and DLA changes and getting through assessment successfully Find new coping resources, heat what others have done on the road to recovery. Here’s a link to the  programme and a booking form

There are many changes to welfare benefits taking place this year. The Advice Team at Rethink Mental Illness has produced a guide to the main changes. This gives a useful overview of the changes to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, the Social Fund and Disability Living Allowance. It can be downloaded from the Rethink Mental Illness website . If you want help filling in the ESA questionnaire email Lindsey Cree and request a copy of ‘Valerie’s Guide’. This contains information guidance, which many people have found immensely useful when filling in these forms.

This week I met with John Butler, the mental health development worker for Macc . John is helping to co-ordinate a new initiative called The Mental Health Recovery Network for Manchester  - more details below. They are looking for organisations and individuals to join, especially those who are mental health carers or people with lived experience of mental health difficulties. The Recovery Network is inviting all people with an interest in Mental Health services in Manchester to step outside of the current system into a safe space which is owned equally by everyone. The aim is to bring people from all sides of mental health together to improve services in Manchester and ultimately give people a better chance of recovery. The Recovery Network has already held its first meeting and you can download a copy of the meeting report, as well as more information about the Network and how to join, on the Manchester Community Central website . It is very much in the early stages and if you r

Our Chair, Lindsey Cree and group member Dawn Perrry have both just appeared on BBC1 Breakfast News to talk about carers and mental health. You'll be about to catch them on iPlayer - their slot was at 9.15. It's so important that GPs can help explain the care system and signpost to sources of peer and voluntary sector support. Well done Lindsey and Dawn, you were great. If you watched the programme and have come here looking for help and support there are various places to go. Our parent charity Rethink Mental Illness has a huge range of information and fact sheets for service users and carers available online and has a fantastic helpline open daily from 10-1. There are local groups like ours all over the country. Likewise, the Carers Trust provide a huge range of information, help and support for carers of any type and run a range of local centres (we meet at one of them). If you live in or around Manchester you are of course welcome to get in touch with us and come alon

This Wednesday 8th May we'll be holding our Annual General Meeting. It's at our usual meeting time and venue (6pm, Manchester Carers Centre ). Simon O'Donoghue from our parent charity, Rethink Mental Illness , is coming to talk with us, and we'll cover the AGM business too. Plus we'll be having cake to celebrate another year of Rethink Manchester Carers in Action (well, we always have cake but this time we'll have a bit more...). See here for the full agenda and timings . Everyone is very welcome, as ever. You'll also find our latest newsletter here , packed full of news and stories about about what's going on locally and nationally. Do pass it on to anyone you think may be interested.