Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

I spent the sunniest Saturday in Manchester for a long time sat inside for a day's training on physical health It was run by Rethink's campaigns team to get local activists like us here at RMCIA thinking about how we can get involved in Rethink's Fair Treatment Now campaign. The 'shocking statistic' is that people with severe mental health problems like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorder and severe depression die up to 20 years younger compared with the rest of the population - not just from suicide but from preventable physical illnesses. There were about 20 people in the room including service users, carers, activists and professionals - or combinations of two or more of those fairly unloved labels. I was particularly struck to hear the personal stories of people who had battled through really difficult times and had their physical health problems overlooked, or at worst ignored. It's popular knowledge that regular exercise makes us all fe...

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 '...

Rethink have won couple of important campaigning victories recently. The first has been succeeding in persuading government to ban employers from asking job candidates about their medical history before inviting them for interview. There are so many cases of capable people openly disclosing a mental illness, only to find they are passed over for interview time and time again. The second victory, announced just this week, has been persuading the leaders of the three main political parties to sign up to an agreement not to use mental health slurs in the run up to the general election . It's a pretty sad sign that this campaign was needed - though politicians do stoop pretty low in their heckles, even to the point of picking on physical disabilities (Gordon Brown and his eye, for instance). But good on Rethink for getting this issue on the agenda. Watch out Gordon, David and Nick - we'll be listening!

At our Christmas party this week we launched our wish list for mental health services in Manchester. We're calling on service users, carers and people who work with us to sign up in support of the wish list. Here's how you can show your support: 1. Follow this link to download the wish list 2. Save it to your computer 3. Add in any comments you have and sign your name (just typing is fine - no need to sign in pen) 4. Email it to me or post it to Ruth Hannan, Manchester Carers Centre, Beswick Row, Manchester M4 4PR At the end of January we'll collect up all the signed wish lists and send them to Manchester City Council, NHS Manchester and Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. The document I've linked to above is a summary version of the wish list, because we thought that not everyone has the time to read through a 10 page document! If you'd like to read the full wish list, click here to download . We don't claim that the wish list is comprehensive or re...

Time to Change, the national anti-stigma campaign, is recruiting for 'Lived Experience Advisors'. They want to hear from anyone who has direct experience as a survivor, service user or carer, is involved with national, regional or local networks and has skills in public speaking, media work, research, involving others or community engagement. This is a chance to join England's most amitious campaign to end mental health discrimination. For more information, including application forms, visit the Time to Change website , email , or phone on 020 8215 2356.

It's time again for some more campaign plotting... we're planning to hold a Christmas Party on Wednesday 9th December to bring together as many different carers, service users and their representatives to discuss what we'd like the future of mental health to be in Manchester. More details coming soon... If you'd like to come to this Wednesday's meeting, it's 6-8pm at Manchester Carers Centre, Beswick Row (nr Victoria Station).

NICE guidelines aren't a handbook for general good behaviour, but are issued by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (hence the 'NICE') as a guide on ow different health conditions should be treated - and set out the most effective treatments which they recommend should be offered. The new NICE guidelines on treatment for schizophrenia were published in March 2009. Rethink has produced a guide on changes from when the guidance was last published, which include: - The guidelines no longer recommend that newer, atypical antipsychotics are prescribed over older ones. Instead, they say that a choice of medication should be offered to the service user, following a discussion about possible side effects. - The new guidelines also recommend that the service user should be offered 10 sessions of CBT and possible family therapy. - GPs are also required to offer annual physical health checks to people with schizophrenia and the results should be shared with their ...