Our plans for 2011

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 'Bring and Share' event in December we talked about all the skills, experience and knowledge that we've gained by either coping with having a mental illness, or though caring for a loved one who has been very ill. We're a pretty skilled bunch of people and have something powerful here. If we'd known these things 10, 15, 20 years ago then where would we be now?

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Update on closure of MRI inpatient services

The NHS North West Board has approved the capital funding for Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust's Inpatient Pathway Redesign (IPR) Project. See the Trust's website for more information about this . This means that the Trust will now proceed with plans to relocate its inpatient services to two sites from the current three. The change will result in the inpatient beds that are currently at Edale House at Manchester Royal Infirmary being relocated to Park House on the North Manchester General Hospital site. The Trust says: "This will give us unprecedented opportunities to improve care to our service users and their carers." When the Trust announced its intention to close the inpatient unit at MRI we wrote to the Manchester Evening News to express our concerns about the extra burden this would place on some carers in terms of extra travelling time. The Trust's latest communication about the IPR states that: "The work in addressing concerns about ...

What an inspiring evening!

We had our 'Bring and Share' event tonight and as well as eating too much chocolate (again) I've come away feeling really inspired. We talked about all the skills, experience and knowledge that we've gained by either coping with having a mental illness, or though caring for a loved one who has been very ill. You can see all the ideas we jotted down from the discussion - from coming to understand your limitations (and that these can change), to developing patience, coping strategies and learning how to think positively. We understand how mental health services work and different illnesses themselves. It struck me, particularly from the people in the room who themselves have to deal with what can be devastating mental illnesses, that we're a pretty skilled bunch of people. For some, mental illness forces a process of self examination - and eventually self awareness - that is painful but hugely illuminating. It's a process that many of us won't have to go throu...

Meeting this Thursday 8th August

We'll be meeting this Thursday 8th August at the usual time of 6 -7:30pm at the Old Bank Building on Hanover Street in the city centre. All welcome - just turn up, there's no need for a referral or to let us know in advance (unless you'd like to). Our speaker this month is Emily Eisner, a PhD Researcher running a study called ExPRESS:2. She is based at the Clinical Psychology Department of the University of Manchester. In her recent research, she tested out a smartphone app called ‘ExPRESS’, which aims to help people with psychosis stay well. You can read about it here . She is planning her next research study and would really value some input from people with lived experience of mental health issues, especially those with experience of psychosis and their friends and family. We also have a group social event coming up on Sunday 18th August. We'll catch a train out to Hebden Bridge, walk back along the canal to Todmorden then catch the train back to Manchester. Ple...

Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

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