Archive
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
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,
Mental Health Foundation Newsletter
Hi Supporter, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The future of mental health services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mental Health Foundation Newsletter (November 2012)
This appalling health inequality simply can’t be allowed to continue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Job: Research and Development Manager Mental Health Foundation
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AFM934/research-and-development-manager/
Changing Minds
We are the UK’s leading mental health research, policy and service improvement charity.
Full-time (35 hours per week)
£35,580 – £37,203 per annum
London SE1
Permanent
Research sits at the heart of all we do, and as the Research and Development Manager you will play a major role in supporting the Head of Research to secure and deliver a substantial programme of work for the Foundation.
You will be responsible for managing a significant portfolio of research projects, and for providing management and support to a team of junior research staff. You will be involved in designing projects, developing proposals, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of results through written reports, publications and presentations to a range of stakeholders.
You will be pro-active in identifying and responding to new business opportunities and have a demonstrable commitment to improving mental health services and empowering service users.
A track record in mental health research (or a related field of research) is essential, including experience of managing staff and / or external consultants. You must also have a thorough knowledge of research methods, a strong business focus, and a good understanding of wellbeing and mental health problems.
Closing date: Tuesday 4th December 2012, 10am
Interview date: Thursday 13th December 2012
To apply please download as job pack by clicking ‘Apply Online’ below and send a completed application form to vacancies@mhf.org.uk.
Strictly no recruitment agencies please. Previous candidates need not apply.
Mental Health Foundation: Today is World Mental Health Day
The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is Depression: A Global Crisis.
Around 350 million people globally are already affected by depression and the World Health Organisation estimate it will be the single biggest burden of disease in the world by 2030.
- Depression is a treatable illness and recovery is possible and achievable
- Depression is not a sign of weakness – it’s a mental health disorder that prevents people from having a normal life
- It’s the most predominant and costly mental health challenge for people of working-age
- All countries should be aiming to develop resilience to depression
- More research into mental health is needed to increase the understanding of mental disorders and develop more effective responses.
We’ve developed some really useful resources for today including advice on how to manage your mental health and our Chief Executive Andrew McCulloch has written a blog about the future of Mental Health.
Thousands of people all across the UK are marking today by holding a Tea & Talk event – getting together with friends for a chat and and raising money for mental health. However you decide to mark World Mental Health Day we hope you help us to spread the message and join in to help everyone live mentally healthier lives and reduce the stigma around mental health problems.
To join the debate and find out more facts, stories and tips, check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Latest Mental Health Foundation Newsletter
Campaign launched to prevent suicide
Each year in the UK, twice as many people die by suicide than lose their lives in road traffic accidents.
U Can Cope is a film that promotes the messages that anyone can experience suicidal thoughts, there is always hope and there is always somewhere to find help. Please share the film to spread these extremely important messages. Launched on World Suicide Prevention Day earlier this month, the film was produced in collaboration with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Connecting with People and other professional and voluntary organisations. Paul Bristow, Head of Communications |
||
Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival | ||
Our sixth annual Mental Health Arts & Film Festival takes place across Scotland from 1-25 October.
This year’s theme ‘walk in my shoes’ celebrates diversity and understanding, reflected in the wide range of events that make up the programme of film, theatre, music, dance, comedy, literature and visual arts. Now the biggest festival of its kind in Europe with hundreds of events each year, the full programme of events is now available. |
||
Build your resilience to depression | ||
Depression: a Global Crisis is the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day on 10 October.
Depression can affect anyone and is predicted to be the leading cause of global disability burden by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation. We want everyone to look after their mental wellbeing and increase their resilience to common problems such as depression. You can start now by finding out ten easy ways to look after your mental health or by downloading our free booklet. |
||
Talking is good for you!
|
||
Join us to mark World Mental Health Day by holding a Tea & Talk fundraising event.
Spending time with other people and talking about your feelings is good for your mental health. All you need to do is get together a group of friends, family or colleagues then have a cuppa, a natter and ask them to make a donation. You can access lots of free resources for your event including a quiz to get you talking about mental health. |
||
How do you feel? | ||
We’ve been working hard for many years to reduce the stigma and discrimination linked to mental health. We believe people are becoming more comfortable talking about common mental health problems such as depression.
But we’d really value your opinion on this and we’d like to know are you comfortable talking about depression? Tell us by replying to this email with Yes or No as the subject line or email us at supporter@mentalhealth.org.uk. In return for sharing your view you’ll be entered into a draw to win a copy of The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook. Your feedback will help us to know what’s important to our supporters and inform our future priorities. We will share the results with you in next month’s newsletter. We won’t share your feedback with any other organisation or use it for any other purpose. |
||
Win great prizes and support mental health | ||
There’s still time to enter our raffle to help raise funds to support our work.
We’ve got some great prizes up for grabs including a year’s supply of cake and signed Franz Ferdinand albums. Find out more about how to enter and the prizes you could win or reply to this email for more information. The draw takes place on 31 October so don’t wait too long to enter! |
||
How to improve access to psychological therapies?
|
||
Only a fraction of the millions of people suffering from mental illness have access to treatments, according to a report from the London School of Economics.
Our Head of Policy, Simon Lawton-Smith, has written a blog about current psychological therapy provision and our campaign to increase this. |