Mental Health Foundation Newsletter: Don’t Call me Crazy, Call me Mad

Don’t call me crazy, call me mad

David Crepaz Keay, Head of Empowerment and Social Inclusion at the Mental Health Foundation, has a truly unique perspective on mental health – he has lived with hearing voices since adolescence. His experiences have shaped his attitude to labels and, in a compelling interview, he talks about seeking to reclaim the word ‘mad’. In his role at the Foundation David works to develop, deliver, and evaluate things like service user involvement, career involvement, peer support and self-management training.
Teaching positive life coping skills to children with learning disabilities
Last month Hanifa Islam and Jill Davies, who work for the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, visited our ‘FRIENDS for Life’ project at a school in Eastbourne. The project is trialling an adaptation of the established ‘FRIENDS for Life’ programme, for children with learning disabilities, which teaches resilience and positive life coping skills. You can read more about their visit in Hanifa’s blog post.
What would depression look like if it were a cake?
According to the Depressed Cake Shop initiative, they would be grey on the outside, but colourful inside. From 2-4 August, temporary cake shops will pop up around the country to raise awareness of depression. All cakes will be covered in grey icing to “communicate… that all fun can disappear from life” when one is depressed, according to Miss Cakehead, who is behind the Depressed Cake Shop. Money raised from the cake sales will be donated to various mental health charities, and the Mental Health Foundation is grateful to be one of them. Check out a full list of shop locations. We hope to see you there!
Have a natter and change lives
If you’re a keen baker or just enjoy a tea time treat, then get ready to celebrate World Mental Health Day with your very own Tea & Talk Event! Hold a tea party at work or with your friends or loved ones, bring on the baked goods and have a good natter – while raising much-needed money for, and awareness of, our work. World Mental Health Day is on 10 October, but you can hold your Tea & Talk whenever you want. Find out more and pre-order your free Tea & Talk pack today.
Changing Minds, Changing Lives
This month, we’re officially launching our first combined Mental Health and Learning Disability blog.  Changing Minds, Changing Lives offers unique perspectives from key experts, service users and anyone with a story to tell about their experiences. Want to get involved? Head on over to changingmindschanginglives.com to join the conversation, or contact press@mentalhealth.org.uk if you’d like to come on board as a guest blogger.
Felix Da Housecat is Changing Minds!
Earlier this month, house music legend Felix Da Housecat performed to a sold-out Glasgow venue at our ‘Changing Minds’ event.  1,600 people came together for an incredible night of entertainment, celebrating good mental health and tackling stigma through music and dance. The event was such a success that we plan to do it every year! Have a look at photos from the event on Facebook, read more about the night and listen to an interview with Felix and the other DJs who took part.
Raffle Update!
Every year we hold a raffle as a fun way to raise money and support our work to help everyone live mentally healthier lives. We planned to send out raffle tickets with the last edition of our supporter newsletter Talkback, but unfortunately we had to wait for a license amendment from the Gambling Commission before we could print or sell tickets. In order to keep postal costs to a minimum we will be sending out raffle tickets with the September edition of Talkback. We apologise for the delay and will be extending the date of the draw to allow for plenty of time for you to enter. Read more about the raffle.

Mental Health Foundation: Participation Request

Would you be interested in taking part in a qualitative study exploring experience of the ending of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)?

Peter from the University of Lancaster is conducting qualitative research as part of his clinical psychology training. The study has NHS ethics approval. He is meeting with people and asking individuals who have received CAT about their experience of the ending of therapy-things like: how it felt, what was important about it, what helped or didn’t help. he hopes this research will help us to understand more about how therapy works and how it is experienced.

So, if you : have had CAT over the last two years and had a recognised (not abrupt or unplanned) ending, for any problem or diagnosis, and would like to meet with him for an informal discussion about your experience of CAT ending, he would be really glad to hear from you. he will travel to meet you, either at a neutral place near you or your own home.

If it is of interest you can contact him:

Text/phone: 07852516812 or E:mail P.Lydon@lancaster.ac.uk

Thank you

Mental Health Foundation: Diet and Mental Health

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/D/diet/

Mental Health Foundation: Call for Participation

A science documentary is looking for 18-25 year olds currently living with various mental illnesses to share their story. It will be an hour long documentary for the BBC 3 Mental Health season, focussing on the science of mental illness. The idea of the show is to focus on 6 or 7 individual young people (18-25) who each have a different mental health issue. Using your stories, and the latest scientific information, they will use illustrative computer graphics to demonstrate the causes of and treatment for their particular illness while seeking to dispel common myths.

They are hoping to include: Anxiety (including panic attacks), OCD, Eating Disorders, Bi Polar disorder, Self Harm, Psychosis and Schizophrenia.

If you would be happy to share your experiences please contact Alex Carruthers at mentalhealth@pioneertv.com.

Mental Health Foundation: Can you help us improve social care in the UK?

Social care service users can be more vulnerable to poor mental health than the rest of the population.

For this reason, it’s vital that the social care workforce understands the importance of promoting good mental health and wellbeing.

The Mental Health Foundation has been asked to collect the views of people who use these services about how social care workers can help people’s mental health and wellbeing, so we’re writing to all our supporters to ask whether you, or anyone you know, has experience of receiving social care support and would be willing to answer a few questions about it.

If you receive support or help from an organisation that provides social care, or you are a relative or friend of someone who does, we would be very grateful if you could complete a short online survey. It should take no more than 10 minutes of your time.

If you know someone who might be interested in the survey, please forward this email to them. All responses will be handled confidentially.

Get more information and complete the survey now.

Thank you for your continued support,

The Mental Health Foundation

Mental Health Foundation Newsletter

Hi Supporter,

The future of mental health services

We’ve launched an inquiry into what mental health services might look like in 20 to 30 years’ time. We want your input into what you think mental health service provision should consist of in the future. Our inquiry panel of mental health professionals, service users and carers will work to gather evidence from a range of audiences to help shape the mental health services of tomorrow, and we need your help. We really value your opinions. If you would like to help, please take part in our survey. Best wishes, Simon Lawton-Smith Head of Policy Our new Stress booklet has now launched Back in November we asked you to help create a new stress booklet. We had a fantastic response, with many people sharing stories and tips about how they deal with stress. The new booklet, ‘How to manage and reduce stress’, is now available to download for free. It covers what stress is and how it is caused, how to manage and reduce it, as well as tips and suggestions on where to get further help and information. Download the booklet for free now. Friends for Life ‘Friends for Life’ is an internationally recognised programme that aims to teach children and young people how to cope with stress and anxieties. It helps children to identify ‘anxiety-increasing’ thoughts and anxious feelings and learn ways to overcome problems rather than avoid them. We now want to make this programme accessible for children with learning disabilities. Find out more about the ‘Friends for Life’ project. Fancy a Challenge? Boost your mental health with regular exercise this year – and support our work! Join our Bupa London 10k team and run a stunning course around London’s most famous landmarks this May. It’s a perfect race for first-time runners, and we’ll support you every step of the way with training plans, sponsorship advice and a picnic after the finish line. Find out more about the race, and register to take part. Blue Monday Last Monday was ‘Blue Monday’, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Research shows that it’s not the actual day that gets people down, but shorter days and less sunlight throughout the winter months can make us feel gloomy. Find out how to beat the January blues. Do you have a story to share? Real-life stories are vital to inspire others, tackle discrimination and encourage more people to support our groundbreaking work. We want to talk to people who would be happy to share their experiences on our website and Facebook pageand in the media.  Stories from people like Cat, who suffers from Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, and Matthew, who lives with depression and anxiety disorder, are vital to helping break down the stigma around mental health. To share your story, please contact our press team.  We always give full details about what the opportunity entails and will never pass on details without your consent. Names can be changed for anonymity if required. TalkBack – now available to download Our newsletter for supporters, TalkBack, is published three times a year. It’s a way to keep you in the loop about our projects, research and fundraising activities. We’re really excited to share the new online version of TalkBack with you. It includes an article on the success of our self-harm publication and an update on our ‘An Ordinary Life’ project from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities. Download our latest TalkBack now and let us know what you think about what we’re up to. We hope you enjoy hearing all about our latest work.

The Mental Health Foundation is a member of the Fundraising Standards Board, and is committed to the highest standards in fundraising practice. Colechurch House 1 London Bridge Walk London SE1 2SX © Mental Health Foundation Registered Charity No England 801130 Scotland SC 039714 Company Registration No 2350846

Mental Health Foundation Newsletter (November 2012)

This appalling health inequality simply can’t be allowed to continue

People with severe mental health problems are dying 15-20 years earlier than other citizens.  It’s shocking that only 1 in 10 people with severe mental illness get access to effective psychological therapy despite it being recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).GPs and other health professionals must do more to offer routine health assessments to people with severe mental health problems and address identified needs. The Schizophrenia Commission‘s report ‘The Abandoned Illness’ points out that about 45% of people who receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia recover after one or more episodes. Rates of recovery will only improve when we refocus resources onto the early stages of illness, give people hope, and help them to self-manage their condition better, instead of spending all of our resources downstream. Read my full response to the report. Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive What causes you stress? Recent reports show that hospital admissions for stress have risen by seven percent in the last twelve months – not surprising since stress and anxiety are on the increase at this time of economic difficulty.  This January we’ll be launching a new booklet to help people manage stress better and we want you to help us write it! What causes you stress? What methods do you use to cope with stress? Tell us by replying to this email or contactingsupporter@mentalhealth.org.uk by 5 December and your tips might make it into the new booklet, which will be available in the New Year. Double your donations with the Big Give Christmas Challenge Your donation could be matched by our Charity Champion, Candis Magazine when you donate to our Best Start for Children project through the Big Give Christmas Challenge.  The Challenge takes place from 6-8 December and all donations must be made within these dates through the Big Give website. Get our free ‘Truth About Self-Harm’ booklet Self-harm affects at least 1 in 15 young people in the UK and there is evidence that rates of self-harm in the UK are the highest in Europe.  Recent research shows over three quarters of young people don’t know where to turn to talk about self-harm and many GP’s and teachers don’t have enough knowledge to deal with this issue. We have just updated and relaunched our publicationThe Truth About Self-Harm. Download it for free and fine out more about self-harm amongst young people – why it happens, how to deal with it, and how to recover from what can become a very destructive cycle. Conquer Kilimanjaro in 2013! If you ever wanted to embark on an awe-inspiring trek through a breathtaking landscape of forests, moorland and glaciers to reach Africa’s roof at 19,335 feet, now is the time to sign up. Join our trekkers on our next trip to Kilimanjaro in October and raise much needed money for our work.Sign up now or get a free brochure. London Art and Mental Health Festival We’re planning to hold the first ever London-based Art and Mental Health Festival in June 2014.  Our first London festival planned for June of 2014 will focus on anxiety. The festival will include a programme of visual arts, film, music and performing arts and will address the theme from many different viewpoints with opportunities for audience participation, discussion and pointers to practical sources of support. The creation of the event follows the success of our annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, which began in 2007. In the build up to June 2014, we’re hosting a series of events beginning with a Christmas concert on 21 December. Contact festival@mentalhealth.org.uk to find out more. Have you seen our Dementia project film? Our Dementia Engagement & Empowerment Project explores, supports, promotes and celebrates groups and projects led by or actively involving people with dementia across the UK .  It influences services and policies that affect the lives of people with dementia. We recently made an inspiring film about the project and the people involved which has been well received. If you’ve not seen it yet, head over to our YouTube channel and let us know what you think.