Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

We've been sent details of a research project - details below if you would like to read more and get involved. The main aim of the project is to improve current practices surrounding the identification of mental health problems for people in contact with the police, through increasing access to timely and appropriate referral to mental health professionals . The project focuses on the gap in police access to mental health services on the evenings and weekends when there is a high turnover of people through custody. The project is a collaboration between the Offender Health Research Network, University of Manchester and LancashireCare NHS Foundation Trust. If interested, you are welcome to participate in the following ways; 1. Interview (1 x 1 hour) (May 2011 - Jan 2012) 2. Consultation Questionnaires (approx 4) (Nov 2011 - Dec 2012) A £10 mobile top up for participation in the interview and a £20 mobile top up for completion of each questionnaire will be provided. (Arg...

Come and join us at our Christmas Party on  Wednesday 14th December, from 6 – 7:45pm at Manchester Carers Centre , Vulcan Mill, 12-18 Pollard Street, Manchester M4 7AN. As well as having a cup of tea and a good catch up, we've got a fun line up including... Exclusive music performance by Dissolved Boy - AKA Andrew CJ Smith! Raffle to raise funds for our group Food and drink – bring a little something to share! Christmas quiz Everyone is welcome – just come along. If you are travelling by public transport or by foot, a ‘walking bus’ will leave from the taxi rank at Manchester Piccadilly station at 5:30pm. Please call Mary Patel on 07816 754 032 to let us know you will be coming, so we know to wait for you. If you are travelling by car then free parking is available on Pollard Street after 6pm.

One our our group members, Dawn Perry, has been interviewed in Community Care magazine about her experience of an Anxiety UK mentoring scheme. Anxiety UK is a Manchester-based organisation and is running this pilot scheme which it hopes to roll out more widely across the country. The article is available online on the Community Care website . Dawn has set up a Facebook group called Making Mental Health Positive , to share coping strategies and techniques. It's open to anyone who'd like to join.

I spent yesterday (Saturday) at Rethink Mental Illness' annual Members Day, at the Russell Hotel in London. I met my mum there, who is group co-ordinator of two groups on the Welsh/English border (go mum!) as well as one of our group members, Martine. It was also great to catch up (and meet in some instances) Rethink Mental Illness staff and other group members from all over the country. Despite the tough financial climate, Rethink Mental Illness is doing okay, with membership numbers healthy (though if you're not already a member do sign up and support the charity's great work - only around £2 a month). We heard about Rethink's plans for the coming year and I attended a workshop on the new Schizophrenia Commission which has just recently been launched, as well as Rethink's most recently campaign 'Unhappy Birthday Schizophrenia' to mark 100 years since psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler first coined the term. Send an 'Unhappy Birthday' card to Prime Min...

As usual it was good to catch up with people at our group meeting this week. We kicked off with some ideas for our pre-Christmas meeting in December and settled on a good old fashioned approach of bring and share food, some silly games and a raffle. We're also hoping to have a performance from Andrew CJ Smith - you can hear him narrate his most recent book here . It'll be at the usual venue of Manchester Carers Centre, from 6 - 7.45pm on Wednesday 14th December. The bulk of our meeting was spent talking about Manchester Mental Health Trust's current review of adult community mental health services ( read our recent post about this ). Patrick Cahoon and Linval Smith came to talk through the plans. The Trust is proposing moving to a recovery-based, stepped care model which is a slightly jargonified way of saying they want to encourage and help people to get better, with different levels of care (or steps) within this. These steps range from Step One (the most basic one) whi...

I've been sent details of a petition that you might want to sign. This year many of us have supported the Hardest Hit events. Firstly in London in May followed by the ones in October held at venues around the country. Many more disabled people and carers were so disappointed not to have been there. Cost, distance, transport, their health or disability prevented them from attending. The petition reads: "Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families. Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions The government were embarking on wholesale reform of the benefit system when the economic crisis struck. These welfare reforms had not been piloted and the plan was to monitor and assess the impact of the new untried approach as it was introduced in a buoyant economy. Unfortunately since then the economy has gone in to crisis and the government has simultaneously embarked on a ...

It's only a few days until our next meeting, taking place this Wednesday 9th November from 6 - 7.45pm at the usual venue, Manchester Carers Centre . After a cup of tea, a snack and a bit of a catch up with one another, we've got two main things to talk about this week: 1. Michael Yousif from the Royal College of Psychiatrists Public Education Editorial Board is coming to talk to the group about how the College can improve its information provision for Carers. 2. Patrick Cahoon and Linval Smith, from Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, are coming to talk to the group about the Trust's current review of community mental health services. If you are traveling by public transport or by foot, a ‘walking bus’ will leave from the taxi rank at Manchester Piccadilly station at 5.30pm. Please call Mary Patel on 07816 754 032 to let us know you will be coming, so we know to wait for you. If you are traveling by car, free parking is available on Pollard Street from ...

Rethink Mental Illness is establishing an independent expert commission to review the current impact of schizophrenia and to identify what needs to be done to improve outcomes. Over the next few months Rethink Mental Illness will be gathering opinions from experts across England – people living with schizophrenia, families, practitioners, researchers, journalists, policy makers to address barriers and solutions to delivering effective mental health services and public health education programmes that address stigma. Find out more at The Schizophrenia Commission website .

It's 100 years since the term 'schizophrenia' was first coined. To mark this 'unhappy' occasion, the national charity that we're a part of - Rethink Mental Illness - have launched a new campaign to raise awareness of the poor deal that many people with this diagnosis still receive. If you've got 30 seconds then go to the Rethink Mental Illness website to send a birthday e-card to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, with five birthday wishes for schizophrenia. The campaign got some good coverage in The Guardian last week.

Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust is currently conducting a review of its Adult Community Mental Health Services. The Trust provides a range of services to 10,500 people each year through community mental health services, inpatient and outpatient services. The main focus of the review appears to be a reshuffle in the way that Community Mental Health Teams are structured and relate to other parts of mental health provision in Manchester. The Trust states that the benefits will be: Continue to improve the quality of Adult CMHS delivered to the local population. Improve the links between GPs (primary care) and the Trust (secondary care) making it easier for people who need support with their mental health to receive the care we provide. Improve the transfer of service users between teams and externally to ensure their mental health needs are met at the right time by the right people. Give our staff the opportunity to use their therapeutic skills more effectively to a...