Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

We've just received this announcement from the Trust... Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust recently announced that they passed into the final Monitor phase of their Foundation Trust application. This means that they will shortly be launching our Governor elections and need people who are passionate about improving our services to come forward and stand for election. As a Governor you would play a big part in shaping services by representing the views of service users and carers as well as carrying out key statutory duties. There will be 14 Public Governors on the Council of Governors representing four constituencies – North Manchester (five Governors), South Manchester (five), Greater Manchester (three) and Out of Area (one). These 14 Governors will sit alongside four staff Governors and seven appointed Governors representing partner organisations such as Manchester City Council. There are lots of reasons for standing as a Foundation Trust Governor. For some, beco...

We're really delighted to announce that following an election at our meeting last week we now have a new group Chair. Lindsey Cree has been a really active member of Rethink Manchester Carers in Action and is a brilliant champion for mental health issues. Lindsey says of herself: "I am a member of Rethink Mental Illness, as well as Rethink Manchester Carers in Action, and am passionate about supporting carers of those with a mental illness. I am an Involvement Worker with Rethink's Mental Health Education Team and am involved in research with Manchester University with the aim of enhancing service user involvement in care planning of mental health services. I attend local LINk and Mental Health Watchdog meetings in Manchester." Well done Lindsey and thanks so much for taking on the role!

The Schizophrenia Commission held its first event in London last week. More information from the event including pod casts of speaker talks and their slide point presentations will be posted on the Commission's website soon. The second event will be in Manchester on 21 February 2012. You can apply online now for tickets . Please follow the link - and pass onto your friends and contacts. The theme for Manchester is treatment and services for schizophrenia and psychosis.

It was the first hearing of the Schizophrenia Commission today. If you're on Twitter you can follow what's happening at @szcomm  https://twitter.com/#!/szcomm

We've posted a couple of blogs about a review being conducted by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust of Adult Mental Health Community Services. You can read the main points we raised with the Trust. The Trust has provided an update on this review which you can access on its website . Some of the points we raised - about how people will be 'stepped up' and 'stepped down' the new model of care, and continued involvement of carers - are addressed.

Manchester City Council's Directorate for Adults, Health and Wellbeing is proposing to change the way it commissions Residential and Nursing Care placements for customers with mental ill-health. A 12 week consultation process runs from 6 December 2011 and ends on 28 February 2012. The Council is seeking the views of both existing and prospective Service Providers in relation to our future commissioning intentions and the development of a mental health specific, service specification and pricing framework. We'll try to take a look at the consultation documents (though there are three of them) and if appropriate complete the survey. Full details of the consultation are available on the Council's website .

I've pinched this graphic from the Time to Change website. It's part of a new campaign for 2012 to try and get people talking more openly about mental health in an effort to reduce discrimination. I think it's a great illustration of how we can get a bit wound up about how to approach talking to someone who's experiencing mental health problems, when often a simple 'hi, how are you feeling today' is all that's needed. You can make a pledge to talk about mental health on the Time to Change website.

On Wednesday 15th February 2012, Lancashire Hearing Voices Network will be holding an event to launch a new regional network for the support and empowerment of those who suffer emotional distress from hearing voices, unusual beliefs and tactile experiences. This event will include the following speakers: Peter Bullimore & Kate Crawford - Hearing Voices Network Dr Rufus May - Clinical Psychologist Rachel Waddingham - Voice Collective (Young People) Erica Irene - Dutch Hearing Voices Network Paul Hammersley — Lancaster University Venue: Claremont First Steps Centre, Dickson Road, Blackpool, FY1 2AP Registration, tea & coffee: 9.15—9.45am Close of event: 4.00pm Buffet lunch included Cost: £40 Waged / £25 Students and part time / £15 Unwaged For more info and to book your place, contact: Dean Smith— 8 Edmondsen Place, Fleetwood, FY7 7GD Tel: 07933 519 051 Email: shah75@gmx.com or Jo Henderson— Tel: 07581 236 397 Email: mydae1@googlemail.com

We'll be having our first meeting of 2012 next Wednesday 11th January, 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, a bite to eat and a good catch up, we'll be planning our activities for the year ahead and hearing from a speaker about a research project being carried out by the University of Manchester to find out more about the daily lives of people who experience psychosis. 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.

And another article on mental health from local media. This time much less positive (though thankfully balanced) but highlighting a really important issue, that many people in our prison system experience mental health issues. The MEN reports: "Some 80 per cent of inmates had at least one diagnosed mental health issue, while 70 per cent had two or more. Despite that, the mental health unit at the over-stretched Cheshire prison had space for just ten women, the report found." Full article here . What I found more disturbing than the article were the comments - why is it that people spend their time posting such negative things? Here's a selection of the worst... "is this 80.000 hyperciondriacs or just a lot of excuses for being locked up?????" "They must have been mental to have been put in there in the first place." I'll be optimistic and say that the kind of people who post comments such as this probably aren't very pleasant and ar...

Just spotted this article in the Stretford and Urmston Messenger about Greater Manchester West Mental Health Foundation Trust launching a new research project to evaluate cognitive behavioural therapy for bipolar disorder. Full article here if you're interested .