100 years since the term 'schizophrenia' was first coined, & those affected by the illness continue to get a raw deal in most areas of their lives.
What would life have been for you if you were diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1911?
Viewed with fear and suspicion; treated by trial and error; your rights and views ignored.
Sounds grim, but sadly folk living with schizophrenia often experience similar today. Schizophrenia can be a devastating illness, affecting the lives & prospects of hundreds of thousands of families across the UK.
If you, like we at Mid Staffs Mind, believe people impacted by this distressing, debilitating, isolating illness deserve a better deal, please send Rethink's e-card to David Cameron urging him to support their five birthday wishes for schizophrenia & help ensure the next 100 years are nothing like the last...
Dear David Cameron
It's 100 years since the term schizophrenia was first coined but people who have it are still getting a raw deal. I am supporting these five birthday wishes from Rethink Mental Illness. I think you should too.
I wish, in the next ten years, people with schizophrenia...
1. Will not be dying, on average, 20 years younger than everyone else.
2. Will have the same access to treatment as people with physical illnesses.
3. Will not face stigma & discrimination just because they are ill.
4. Will not be silenced and sidelined, but they & their families will have their voice heard.
5. Will be treated with compassion not suspicion.
Go to: www.facebook.com/RethinkCharity
31 October 2011
Hi! We're back... with an update...
Hello there, it’s been a long, long time since we had a little chinwag, but during that time the guys at the coalface here at Mid Staffs Mind have been doing a whole bunch of stuff…
There was our first Mid Staffs Mind Annual Review 2011 in late July: folk from across the organisation, representing localities, clubs & groups, service users, staff, volunteers, & Trustees got together to take a look at where we’d come from, & where we hoped to go! It proved a great opportunity to reflect on activities we had to let go, those we committed to hold on to, & potential social, health, & lifeskill developments we might offer to future users of our service. Some great ideas for activities & partnerships were generated, & we began to explore changes needed to enable the primacy of volunteers & peer supporters in facilitating MSM work.
A few of the guys got together & took off across Cannock Chase on their bikes – this was to get Mid Staffs Mind Mountain Bike Club off the drawing board. We’ve had a few rides over the Chase, & a couple of road rides, but haven’t got into a regular pattern yet – at least in part ‘cos of wimping out as the colder, damper weather’s threatened! But I think we’ll persevere, even if it’s only once a month to keep a couple of roughie-toughies ticking over through the winter months. Further examples of ideas generated are a Coffee Club likely to be joint activity with Cannock library, & a Supper Club (nice way to package domestic skills development, eh?)
Our inaugural Mid Staffs Mind Volunteer Day 2011 in late August was a grand day. We got together with most of our volunteers, gave’em a great big cheer & pat on the back for all the wonderful work they do, then remorselessly picked their brains for feedback in respect of Mid Staffs Mind’s general effectiveness (& ineffectivenesses!), changes or additions to our systems / services , & things they need individually & collectively to be effective volunteer staff members. We did give'em a nice lunch in exchange for their efforts! Thank you to all who took part, the data provided on the day was most informative & will be of real practical value.
Our Annual General Meeting 2010-11on 8th September was quite the milestone, providing a point at which we could say a formal goodbye to our past – applauding Mid Staffs Mind’s history & achievements; taking lessons from previous mistakes & difficult days – while ushering in new aspirations, structures, & strategies. It’s a tough process; some folk who supported this organisation through thick & thin for many years are striving to accept the altered practices in governance & workstream demanded by our constrained funding – some may not complete the journey, & that is a great sadness, but significant change is inevitable, may be embraced, & can be managed.
In September, we took part in a couple of Job Fayres in Cannock & Rugeley hosted by Cannock MP Aidan Burley. Underpinning our presence is volunteering as a great way for people to get their CV going or broadening their experience, especially in employment-challenged areas like ours. Structure, social contact, productivity, personal confidence, learning – what’s there not to like about the upside of volunteering?
Monday 10th October was World Mental Health Day & this year we finally managed to get some awareness-raising events off the ground: Mid Staffs Mind in Wombourne partnered with Wombourne library & held a ‘Coffee & Information’ morning; there was ‘Tea, Cake & Chat’ at Mid Staffs Mind in Cannock. We met a few folk, downed a few calories, raised a few shillings, & appreciated the need to get very much better organised in future opportunities to invite our communities, promote our presence & service, & fundraise.
Mid Staffs Mind in Stafford were rather rapidly bounced out of the Chartley Centre at the back end of September. There was an element of rumour & rudeness attached to the process, & our Stafford service users were caused significant worry. Things were looking kind of bleak for a while there, until somebody in the upper echelons of South Staffs & Shropshire Foundation Trust stepped in & reiterated their ongoing support in a most practical fashion by enabling us to move to the Arthur Findlay Centre, where we now base a peer-supported drop-in (Monday 10am – 1pm) & our Women’s Group (Thursday 1.30 – 4.30pm). We would like to take this opportunity to thank our local mental health Trust & individual officers for all the support they have given us over many years.
Mid Staffs Mind Out of Hours Service in Stafford has relocated to Quest at the weekend. The Cannock Out of Hours Service continues to run at our Manor Avenue centre.
Mid Staffs Mind has commenced joint-working in Stafford with Richmond Fellowship, running a peer-supported safe space / drop-in, Tuesday 10am – 1pm, at St John’s House, Weston Road. Here's hoping this is but the first of many joint enterprises with this colleague organisation.
Mid Staffs Mind in Wombourne have moved from the United Reform Church – to whom we would like to give our heartfelt thanks for their welcome & ongoing support - & now host a peer-supported group 1 – 4pm Wednesdays, in the community room at Wombourne Fire Station.
Mid Staffs Mind Work Clubs, supported by funding from JobCentre Plus, were inaugurated at Cannock Work Club on Wednesday 12th October. Stafford Work Club launched on Monday 24th October; a Wombourne Work Club is to follow, possibly in November. The Work Clubs will initially run Monday 10am – 12.30pm based alternately at Stafford (Arthur Findlay Centre) & Cannock (Mid Staffs Mind, Manor Avenue).
Thursday October 13th saw the Mid Staffs Mind Development Day 2011 co-facilitated by Eleanor Chumley-Roberts, who has been working with us as part of the Staffordshire Community Works mentorship scheme. This was a fantastic event, with representatives from across our localities, groups & activities – plenty of ‘new’ faces, not just us usual suspects oft seen lurking about Mid Staffs Mind meetings – coming together to consider our shared values & mission, internal / external communication, generating activities, fundraising, promotion etc. In short, bringing the ‘family’ of Mid Staffs Mind together to reflect, respond, & help reorientate the organisation. Hard work, good fun, honesty, ideas, commitment, clean mugs & pumpy-pumpy-squirty-things for hot drinks… what more could we have hoped for? Thanks to everyone who gave up a day to support this important forum. We will be doing similar again – why wouldn’t we use the resource & support offered by folk we already know, who already know us?
See... I told you we’d been busy!
There was our first Mid Staffs Mind Annual Review 2011 in late July: folk from across the organisation, representing localities, clubs & groups, service users, staff, volunteers, & Trustees got together to take a look at where we’d come from, & where we hoped to go! It proved a great opportunity to reflect on activities we had to let go, those we committed to hold on to, & potential social, health, & lifeskill developments we might offer to future users of our service. Some great ideas for activities & partnerships were generated, & we began to explore changes needed to enable the primacy of volunteers & peer supporters in facilitating MSM work.
A few of the guys got together & took off across Cannock Chase on their bikes – this was to get Mid Staffs Mind Mountain Bike Club off the drawing board. We’ve had a few rides over the Chase, & a couple of road rides, but haven’t got into a regular pattern yet – at least in part ‘cos of wimping out as the colder, damper weather’s threatened! But I think we’ll persevere, even if it’s only once a month to keep a couple of roughie-toughies ticking over through the winter months. Further examples of ideas generated are a Coffee Club likely to be joint activity with Cannock library, & a Supper Club (nice way to package domestic skills development, eh?)
Our inaugural Mid Staffs Mind Volunteer Day 2011 in late August was a grand day. We got together with most of our volunteers, gave’em a great big cheer & pat on the back for all the wonderful work they do, then remorselessly picked their brains for feedback in respect of Mid Staffs Mind’s general effectiveness (& ineffectivenesses!), changes or additions to our systems / services , & things they need individually & collectively to be effective volunteer staff members. We did give'em a nice lunch in exchange for their efforts! Thank you to all who took part, the data provided on the day was most informative & will be of real practical value.
Our Annual General Meeting 2010-11on 8th September was quite the milestone, providing a point at which we could say a formal goodbye to our past – applauding Mid Staffs Mind’s history & achievements; taking lessons from previous mistakes & difficult days – while ushering in new aspirations, structures, & strategies. It’s a tough process; some folk who supported this organisation through thick & thin for many years are striving to accept the altered practices in governance & workstream demanded by our constrained funding – some may not complete the journey, & that is a great sadness, but significant change is inevitable, may be embraced, & can be managed.
In September, we took part in a couple of Job Fayres in Cannock & Rugeley hosted by Cannock MP Aidan Burley. Underpinning our presence is volunteering as a great way for people to get their CV going or broadening their experience, especially in employment-challenged areas like ours. Structure, social contact, productivity, personal confidence, learning – what’s there not to like about the upside of volunteering?
Monday 10th October was World Mental Health Day & this year we finally managed to get some awareness-raising events off the ground: Mid Staffs Mind in Wombourne partnered with Wombourne library & held a ‘Coffee & Information’ morning; there was ‘Tea, Cake & Chat’ at Mid Staffs Mind in Cannock. We met a few folk, downed a few calories, raised a few shillings, & appreciated the need to get very much better organised in future opportunities to invite our communities, promote our presence & service, & fundraise.
Mid Staffs Mind in Stafford were rather rapidly bounced out of the Chartley Centre at the back end of September. There was an element of rumour & rudeness attached to the process, & our Stafford service users were caused significant worry. Things were looking kind of bleak for a while there, until somebody in the upper echelons of South Staffs & Shropshire Foundation Trust stepped in & reiterated their ongoing support in a most practical fashion by enabling us to move to the Arthur Findlay Centre, where we now base a peer-supported drop-in (Monday 10am – 1pm) & our Women’s Group (Thursday 1.30 – 4.30pm). We would like to take this opportunity to thank our local mental health Trust & individual officers for all the support they have given us over many years.
Mid Staffs Mind Out of Hours Service in Stafford has relocated to Quest at the weekend. The Cannock Out of Hours Service continues to run at our Manor Avenue centre.
Mid Staffs Mind has commenced joint-working in Stafford with Richmond Fellowship, running a peer-supported safe space / drop-in, Tuesday 10am – 1pm, at St John’s House, Weston Road. Here's hoping this is but the first of many joint enterprises with this colleague organisation.
Mid Staffs Mind in Wombourne have moved from the United Reform Church – to whom we would like to give our heartfelt thanks for their welcome & ongoing support - & now host a peer-supported group 1 – 4pm Wednesdays, in the community room at Wombourne Fire Station.
Mid Staffs Mind Work Clubs, supported by funding from JobCentre Plus, were inaugurated at Cannock Work Club on Wednesday 12th October. Stafford Work Club launched on Monday 24th October; a Wombourne Work Club is to follow, possibly in November. The Work Clubs will initially run Monday 10am – 12.30pm based alternately at Stafford (Arthur Findlay Centre) & Cannock (Mid Staffs Mind, Manor Avenue).
Thursday October 13th saw the Mid Staffs Mind Development Day 2011 co-facilitated by Eleanor Chumley-Roberts, who has been working with us as part of the Staffordshire Community Works mentorship scheme. This was a fantastic event, with representatives from across our localities, groups & activities – plenty of ‘new’ faces, not just us usual suspects oft seen lurking about Mid Staffs Mind meetings – coming together to consider our shared values & mission, internal / external communication, generating activities, fundraising, promotion etc. In short, bringing the ‘family’ of Mid Staffs Mind together to reflect, respond, & help reorientate the organisation. Hard work, good fun, honesty, ideas, commitment, clean mugs & pumpy-pumpy-squirty-things for hot drinks… what more could we have hoped for? Thanks to everyone who gave up a day to support this important forum. We will be doing similar again – why wouldn’t we use the resource & support offered by folk we already know, who already know us?
See... I told you we’d been busy!
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