Profiles

Mental Health Service User Involvement. Well, it’s what we do at Launchpad... That is to say, we are a project for people who use, or have used, mental health services in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, and we work to ensure that the voice of the service user is heard in all the decision-making bodies that affect mental health. People who use services are ‘experts by experience’, and our knowledge and insight are invaluable for any attempts to improve the mental health system. We try to put across service user views to bodies as diverse as the Strategic Health Authority, the Primary Care Trust, the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust (NTW), the city council, social services, the police, voluntary organisations, charities, and MPs, to name just a few. There are as many service user points of view as there are service users, so we convey as wide a range of opinions and outlooks as possible. In order to accurately represent the great breadth and depth of mental health service user opinion, we run focus groups, do a lot of outreach work, work with the in-patient Patients’ Rep scheme etc, produce the service users’ guide to day services, and we constantly seek out the views of otherwise hard-to-reach groups. We also campaign against the stigma that all too often is attached to having a mental health problem, strive to improve the lot of the service user, produce a well-regarded magazine, “ON THE GRAPEVINE” and have a number of local and national media appearances to our credit. Busy bees that we are, there is more, more, more at LP. We run the NEWCASTLE MENTAL HEALTH USER FORUM, with periodic COMMUNITY LECTURES at a whole host of venues, and act as its base outside of meetings. Better yet is our cracking CREATIVE WRITING GROUP, which meets every Wednesday (barring holidays etc) from around 11a.m. Run by the award-winning Janice, it has a relaxed and convivial approach, so that you can explore the talent inside you. On every other Friday (again, from 11a.m.) we have our depression and general mental health SELF-HELP & DISCUSSION GROUP. In a highly supportive and friendly atmosphere, participants use a semi-structured, stepped approach to managing their mental distress. There is also our amiable, free-form, women’s group, BLISSFUL, which meets up most Saturday lunchtime/ afternoons. Just give us a bell on 0191 2330382 if this sounds like it might be your cup of tea/coffee/whatever. Once a month, together with our good friends at the GATESHEAD MH USER FORUM, we run a mental health group, PRIDE IN MIND, for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual communities. We also have an interest in RESEARCH and can offer training in MH research. Furthermore, we run various SELF MANAGEMENT programmes (for mental health); call us for details. We also collect as much information as possible about all types of mental health problems and issues. Even if we can’t directly help, then we’ll know someone who can! If it's MH, users, and in Newcastle then we're the folk to know.