Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

Caring with Confidence have launched a survey for carers and organisations that aims to eventually build a helpful directory for carers in the North West and help improve learning and care training opportunities for unpaid carers. Fill out the survey .

The wonderful Roby in Longsight has won CAS:H grant funding from Manchester City Council’s Longsight Ward so that they can open their doors each morning from Monday to Friday between 8:30 and 9:30 and will be providing free breakfasts, a space to be social and have fun and also to get support first thing in the morning if things are getting you down. The funding allows the Roby to provide basic breakfast food and drinks (with a healthy focus, but with the odd Bacon Butty available as a treat) but we will be relying on volunteers to staff the kitchen, help with preparing breakfast, cooking, serving and providing hot and cold drinks and smoothies. The Roby is a mental health and well-being charity based in Longsight with its community centre in the Roby United Reform Church on Dickenson Road. The charity provides essential services to individuals living with mental health conditions, rough sleepers and people living in sheltered / supported housing, people with drug and alcohol issues, r...

Recovery is on our Mental Health Wish List for 2010 and is a topic that seemed to generate a lot of conversation and excitement at our Mistletoe and Mental Health event a couple of weeks ago. Going through my email inbox, which I'm a bit behind on, I found an email from Rethink sent in November with news of a new report on recovery. ' Getting back into the world: reflections on lived experiences of recovery ', is what it says - a compilation of interviews with 48 people across England who have personal experience of mental illness. What's really interesting - and positive - about the report is that the interviews, analysis and write up were also done by people who have personal experience of mental illness. I've not had a chance to have a proper read but a quick glance shows that it will be an inspiring, thought provoking and useful report for anyone with an interest in recovery in mental illness.

Although the issue of confidentiality and information sharing hasn't made it onto our Mental Health Wish List it has cropped up several times as a discussion point over the past few months. Rethink recently sent through some guidance on information sharing from the Department of Health. The report, ' Information Sharing and Mental Health ', touches on some of the issues that we've discussed - that service users have a right to access information that impacts on them and that carers often feel that information is withheld from them unnecessarily. The guide is intended mostly for health professionals and is primarily focussed on sharing of information between statutory and non-statutory organisations. So, it doesn't directly address the issues we've been discussing as a group but does give a useful insight into the difficulties that professionals face. However, the guide does reference a report by Rethink for the Department of Health, published in 2004 , ' Pos...

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...

To celebrate the end of 2009 Rethink Manchester Carers in Action have put together a ‘wish list’ of what we’d like mental health provision to look like in Manchester, covering areas such as use of the recovery model and involving carers and service users in staff training. We want to know what else you think should be on the list and would particularly like service users' views. After the event we will be handing the wish list to Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. So whether you’re a service user, carer or professional, we hope you can come along, tell us what else you want on the wish list and join our festive celebration. Wednesday 9th December 2009, 6-8pm Manchester Carers Centre Beswick Row, M4 4PR Buffet food and drinks will be provided Please let us know if you’d like to come Email Mary Rayner, Group Co ordinator: maryrayner@hotmail.com Or call Manchester Carers Centre on 0161 835 4090

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.