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| The Cambridge Mental Health Resource Centre
For the latest news about the centre click here to download a newsletter. The Resource Centre is developing a web site click here to see what is available so far
A key role of the Resource Centre staff team is to develop partnerships with community providers in education, work, arts, sports and leisure further. We continue to work with them on their social inclusion agendas. These partnerships will be a resource to Mental Health professionals across statutory and voluntary agencies. Central to our vision is to meet the social inclusion agenda by providing an accessible and dynamic social space for people recovering from complex mental health problems, to meet along side others within their local community. The Café at the Resource Centre Since opening, we have piloted our community café and are widening access to include our local community. The Café has proved a successful stepping-stone both for support from peer groups and to find out more about opportunities available within the local community. It will also provide a non-stigmatising environment where members of the public can access information and advice around wellbeing issues. The Café also provides employment and volunteering opportunities for users or ex-users of mental health services. Several volunteers support it and we have made enough profit from the Café to recruit a paid worker for two hours a day. If anyone is interested in either volunteering or paid work in the Café please contact Fabian Le Pabic at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk Tel: 01223 359561 or Heather Taplin at advance@red2green.org Tel: 01223 811662. The site at Norfolk Street: working with our local community: The site
is being utilised to bring our local community resources in via some
of the pathways and to provide the much-needed space for partners
within our own organisation and external organisations. North
City CMHT will be holding their CBT groups here Art Tutors
accessing the Art Studio space for Adult day time courses For information on bookable rooms please contact Honor Kavanagh at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk Tel: 01223 359561. We have had two Open Days since opening in April 2006. The Open Days have proved invaluable for both promoting and networking with our partners from external organisations in the arts, education, volunteering, employment, sports and leisure. They are also an excellent way for users and carers to find out about how they can access support to develop their own pathways to recovery. The next Open Day is planned for Spring 2007 and will be advertised widely. Pathway updates Life Skills: One of the recommendations that came out of the review of Adult Day Services in Cambridge City report was to look at ways to help improve service user confidence and self esteem. The Resource centre will be offering a rolling programme of ‘Share and Learn Workshops’ in conjunction with community partners. The workshops will look at skills, knowledge or techniques that will assist individuals to engage in new opportunities or feel more confident in making changes in their lives. The workshops will run as a rolling programme, individuals will sign up to subjects that are relevant to them. In this way they will be able to build up a toolkit of skills to meet their own needs and aspirations. Some examples of workshop themes are: Relaxation techniques, Making changes, Assertiveness skills, Challenging negative thinking, Problem- solving, What is self esteem, Healthy body, healthy mind. The workshops will start in Spring 2007 and will be advertised widely. For more information contact Wendy Hall at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk Arts Pathways Art: On-going and future projects Driving the Social Inclusion agenda forward, we have worked with the Fitzwilliam’s newly appointed Outreach and Access Officers, Gill Hart and Sarah Campbell from Kettle’s Yard, to put together a summer programme that will link to programmes being offered in the autumn at the Fitzwilliam. These programmes will be open to all members of the public, rather than setting up specific programmes for people with mental health problems. The Fitzwilliam Museum is running a five-week course exploring some of the paintings from the Fitzwilliam. Gill Hart, Outreach and Access officer from the Fitzwilliam, will lead the course. There are two taster sessions: Tuesday 30 January and Tuesday 27 February, 1.30 to 3.00pm. No need to book or pay, just turn up. The Course is held at the Resource Centre, meeting in the Café. The course itself starts Tuesday 17 April 2007, to book a place contact Christina or Paul at the Resource Centre Tel:01223 359561 or E-mail mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk. A summer school is also planned at the Fitzwilliam in July 2007. These courses are available to all members of the local community but places will be reserved for service users. Given that one in six people experience mental health problems at some stage of their lives, we are keen to work with organisations to work towards access being more inclusive generally rather than creating segregated access for people with a mental health label. Our programme will also include ongoing access at the Fitzwilliam and Kettle’s Yard through the programmes we have set up with Sarah Campbell. We will be developing further links with other art institutions both locally and nationally and planned visits with them will be included in the Arts pathway. Open Studios Open Studios is an annual event and has a membership of over 300 artists and crafts people who open their studios and homes to the public over four weekends in July. Open Studios exhibitions 2005 & 2006 were an enormous success. It gave artists and other participants of the service a unique opportunity to meaningfully engage with our local community and a much wider public with a keen interest in Art. We had over a 1000 visitors over the eight days we opened. Both exhibitions included a multiplicity of styles, such as: pen and ink illustration, traditional, abstract, impressionist and surrealist painting, video and sculpture, charcoal drawings, photography and conceptual installations. Funding came from the ‘Awards for All’, 2nd Floor, Elizabeth House, 1 High St Chesterton, Cambridge CB4 1YW Tel: 01223 449009. This year we are opening out Open Studios to all Artists who use local mental health services as well as local artists who may access our Art Studio space. The Syd Barrett Beneficiary fund is supporting Open Studios 2007. Our vision
is to offer a fluid programme that enables service users to access
opportunities within the Resource Centre and on to the mainstream.
This means a commitment to joined-up working to offer accessible pathways.
It also means that we bring the local community into our space. Cams Visual Arts is a course based at the Resource Centre, which runs for an academic year. However, people can join at any time, as it is a rolling programme. It is suitable for people who may have been out of a learning environment for some time. The course covers 3D work, modelling and sculpting. For more information contact the Tutor Linton Bocock at lbock@acl.ccceducation.net Tel: 07793837696
The music pathway supports individuals to find appropriate, individually defined directions for their practical music-making skills. In-house provision A music workshop will commence at the Tenison Road Centre from the beginning of April 2007. It will be facilitated by two service users who have identified interests in acquiring these skills in their individual pathways. They will be supported by Paul Herrington until their confidence and skills reach levels when they can run the group independently Partnership with Cambridge Regional College In the academic year 2005/2006 three ten-week ‘Making Music’ courses ran in the Music Department at the college. A new venture for the college, the courses were created and facilitated by Paul Herrington from the Resource Centre and Paul Dawson from CRC in response to service users’ requests for structured college-based opportunities to act as a bridge to the college’s existing one and two-year BTECH courses. From January 2007 the course will be supported by a service user volunteer and is opened out to any adult learner interested in joining. In September 2006 a NCFE Level 1/2 certified one-year part-time course ‘Performance Skills’ commenced at CRC, taught by Paul Herrington and Paul Dawson. All students had completed a ‘Making Music’ course previously and requested a further stepping-stone towards full-time education. Partnership with Escape Artists In September 2005, a two-year series of workshops for service users co-ordinated by the Trumpington Street Centre culminated in a sell-out concert, ‘A Cambridge Cantata’, at Kings College Chapel, involving service users, professional musicians and the Kings College choir. This project was funded by the Escape Artists charity. A second collaboration with Escape Artists culminated in a performance by service users alone in December 2006. Further projects are planned once ongoing funding can be assured.
A group of musicians, who are also service users, are regularly invited to facilitate workshops at the bi-annual Wellbeing Day and other community venues. They have established a reputation for skilled inclusive working. For more information on the Arts pathways contact Christina Beamish or Paul Herrington at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk. Education and Training: Information on the next Back into Training/Education/Employment BITE Course: Date Topic Speakers at the sessions To be
advised 2007 Introductory Session Miny Solar & Christina Beamish
To be advised Managing Finances Cathy McCluskey CAB Cambridge To be advised Education &Training Kate Blackwell To be advised Access to Websites Miny solar Vocational Skills Worker To be advised Choices & Opportunities HeatherTaplin Red2Green To be advised Action Planning Christina Beamish & Miny Solar
An excellent
lead on from the last BITE programme is the development of a tailor-made
course for the BITE participants. Kate Blackwell, widening participation
officer, from Adult and Community Learning, is organising the course.
If successful, this will be offered as a rolling programme as a follow-on
from the BITE sessions. For more information contact Kate Blackwell
at kate.Blackwell@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or Miny Solar at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk. We work with individuals via their person centred plan to help them to access education and training to meet their individual needs. To date, we have worked with people wanting to access degree and MA courses as well as access back into further and higher education. Work and Employment: We work closely with the Vocational Services team based here at the Resource Centre to help people access support around returning to Work and Employment. Vocational Services, across Adult Mental Health Services via Occupational Therapists in the teams, provides a model which is client-centred and develops self assessment, goal-setting and action plans with support and review in place. For more information on Work,Advice,Volunteering,Education,Training (WAVET) go to www.workingtogetherforrecovery.co.uk. Sports and Leisure: We have
information on a full programme of sports activities via the city
sports and local networks. We also work with individuals to support
them to access sports and leisure activities to meet their individual
needs. We have made links with the sports forum, partners include
city sports team and various external organisations. The next meeting
is 23 January 2007. For more information, contact Judy Dean Project
Development Officer on 01223 218738. To develop measurable recovery outcomes for individuals based on intermediate, primary and associated outcomes To collate customer satisfaction data via person-centred recovery reviews and focussed group interviews. To develop a website for the Resource Centre to advertise opportunities with partners and information on the service we offer. To produce a leaflet on the service we offer for service users, professionals and partners For further information on the Resource Centre and its development please contact Carol Morgan, Cambridge MH Resource Centre Manager at mhresourcecentre@cambsmh.nhs.uk Tel:01223 359561.
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