South West News

Hi all,

As South West co-ordinator I would like to extend warm South West wishes to all my colleagues and initiatives across the country for the year ahead.

The Open Up initiative 'Tea and Talk' run by Helen Hutchings and Laura Newton and based in Exeter continues to go from strength to strength and several sessions have been facilitated already with more in the pipeline. This innovative project brings together people who work in the community for organsiations such as the Fire Service and the Police together with those who have experienced mental health problems. During a one hour awareness session people are encouraged to share their personal feelings on mental health whilst partaking of a mug of tea (in an Open Up mug!) and some tasty cakes. The session includes an introduction to the key messages of Open Up and the wider Time To Change campaign as well as asking particpants to consider ways discrimination can be tackled and how people can be encouraged to be more open about their experiences in the workplace, their communities and their families.

Living in the most Westerly town of England (St Just in Cornwall), Jenny Perrin aims to highlight the difficulty of living with depression in such an isolated location. This will be done by making a short film portraying some of Jenny's experiences which will then be used as an aid to discussion around the topic of depression and the corresponding discrimination that many of those with a diagnosis of depression face every day. It is hoped the film will encourage a new way of thinking towards people with mental health problems and challenge the perceptions of those involved with the professional support network. It is also planned to produce a calendar for 2011 using materials gathered from those with experience of mental distress such as photographs, poetry and art.

So two very different initiatives in the south west and I look forward to working alongside Jenny, Helen and Laura over the coming year.

Having spoken to Jenny at length about the geographical isolation of Cornwall, I have decided to hold an Open Up event at Camborne College during early April. Details will follow in due course and if anyone from Cornwall is reading this and would like to find out more please contact me or just watch this space. The event will have entertainment possibly including music from Growing Minds who were a successful Open Up initiative in the first phase and also I'm hoping to invite InterACTing from Wakefield in West Yorkshire who perform a powerful and thought provoking play about living with mental illness. There will also be an opportunity to see some films that have been produced with the sole aim of tackling mental health discrimination. For example; "Open Secrets", an award winning short film about the stigma of mental illness and its effect on family life and "Life In The Office", a Shift produced series of short films to encourage discussion of mental health in the workplace. It is hoped that reasonable travel expenses for those attending who have experience of mental health problems will be met, lunch and refreshments will be provided and there will be ample opportunity for those interesting in challenging mental health discrimination to meet and network. We will also include time for a workshop looking at the particular problems faced in the county of Cornwall, prioritising these and then looking at ways they can be addressed.