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Wellbeing:
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15 March 2010
New Horizons for wellbeing
I’ve never been asked to unveil a plaque before, but I have to confess I hadn’t spent much time in Telford until today, apart from a visit to the Ironbridge Museum.The reason for the visit (and the plaque) was to join in celebrating the re-opening of Telford Mind’s building, now named the Wellbeing Centre. And I have to say I’m thoroughly pleased I went. Telford Mind, like so many local Mind Associations, is an embodiment of what the Government would like to see across the country in its New Horizons strategy.
The newly renamed (now with plaque) Wellbeing Centre provides an open access service to the local community and offers a range of more formal and informal services under its roof.
It’s a million miles away from the old day centre concept of years gone by, with therapy rooms upstairs offering counselling and complementary therapies, an IT suite, and a refreshing open door policy 6 days a week. It’s run by a small staff team with over 40 volunteers, and 5,500 people walked through their door last year, even when the builders were in.
The organisation is evolving to a more community-oriented approach, with more outreach planned, and partnerships with local and national bodies. These range from Combat Stress to the Shropshire Geological Society, and support from the Lloyds TSB Foundation among others.
Like many towns, Telford has been affected by the recession, and the need for a non-stigmatising open service has never been greater. I spoke to a service user who told me about how he hid his mental health problems for nearly a decade before breaking down. Once he found Telford Mind, he’d been able to build up his confidence and he’s now one of the trustees, a volunteer befriender and thinking about a return to work.
This is exactly the kind of approach that New Horizons would like to see across the country, and yet we hear that in some areas such open access services are threatened by funding cuts and the tightening of eligibility criteria.
So our challenge is to prove the effectiveness of this approach, both in cost-effectiveness for the taxpayer, and more importantly in helping people with experience of mental distress recover and reclaim their place in society.
With some trepidation, and watched on by a “chain” of mayors with far more experience than me of plaque unveiling, and a great crowd, I managed to pull the right string, the curtain fell, and the Wellbeing Centre was deemed open for business.
Paul Farmer, CEO
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1 February 2010
The value of volunteeringFor people with mental health problems, isolation and loneliness can become an ever present problem, leading to a reduction in their wellbeing. Ninety per cent of respondents to a survey by Welsh mental health charity Hafal said that loneliness makes the symptoms of their severe mental illness worse - depression in particular.
This is certainly the case for me. After many years of mental ill health, I felt separate from people my own age because I was not working or studying. I’m sure there are many people around the UK who face being alone for many long hours during the day.
Mind Cymru has a group of volunteers who work in their Cardiff office, supporting the work of staff. I joined them over a year ago and have never looked back.
As well as gaining office work experience, I have greater confidence and higher self-esteem from meeting new people, having somewhere to go and feeling that the work you are doing is useful, bringing the sense that your life has a purpose.
Beating loneliness and isolation is just as important to the recovery of people with mental health problems as treatments such as medication and talking therapies.
Volunteering of any kind not only helps the organisation you are working with, but brings the possibility of new social contacts and a new way of relating to the world. Go for it!
Katherine Dutson, volunteer, Mind Cymru
7 Comments -
29 January 2010
I'll be there for youObviously I am always fully professional and look at the number of comments on Mind’s blogs from various contributors as a sign of what interests people and not as a popularity contest. Yeah right! After careful consideration, I am just going to review the antics of cute cats.
Why should it matter? Why do we need to know how many followers we - or others - have on Twitter or friends on Facebook?
A BBC article informs us that the average number of friends is 150 and that the ideal number of close friends is between six and 12. Your popularity at school is positively linked to your wage level in later life – excepting, perhaps, those people who are unpopular at school and then go on to pen/produce high school misfit movies. To add to the pressure there is now the necessity of having the right number of friends on Facebook (it’s 302) to have the most appeal to others.
It is widely accepted that having social support networks can reduce your likelihood of developing mental health problems or help promote recovery when you do experience mental distress. So stop taking the time to count and start taking the time to follow the advice of Raymond Tallis and cherish those precious friendships.
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
6 Comments -
5 January 2010
Good to be grumpyShould I be concerned that our communications officer told me I should write a blog about whether it is good to be grumpy? Perhaps he thinks that I moonlight writing comments on grumpy old sod.
Or maybe it’s just because we’re all feeling a bit grouchy now that the festivities are over and trying to stick to all those new year’s resolutions is proving harder with each passing day.
Research from the University of New South Wales found that people who were put into a negative frame of mind acted in a more cautious manner, and through thinking things through more clearly than people who were in a positive frame of mind. So it isn’t about personality types and how that impacts on social interaction or thinking at all!
Other studies confirm that if you are in a bad mood you deliberate more on the issues than if you are in a good mood. Well, we can all think of occasions when our good mood or enthusiasm for an idea meant that the potential downside was not fully thought through.
Of course this doesn't mean that grouchiness is beneficial to wellbeing. No, in order to be a healthier person you’re going to have to engage in an activity defined by R. Parse as “buoyant immersion in the presence of unanticipated glimpsings prompting harmonious integrity which surfaces anew through contemplative visioning”. That’s have a laugh, to you and me. Now there’s a resolution worth keeping.
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
5 Comments -
3 December 2009
Wellbeing is here to staySitting on the train back up to Leeds from Brighton, I have a moment, or rather five hours, to reflect on a thought-provoking day and a half spent at this year’s Mind Conference.
The conference focused on recognising the importance of wellbeing, and looking not just at how we can treat or prevent mental illness, but how we can actively strive for positive states of being.
By way of (weak) analogy, if a mouse is being chased by a cat, it can keep its attention on the cat and focus solely on staying out of its reach. Or it can also look at where it wants to go, where it may be safest, and perhaps where there’s a nice bit of cheese.
In reality this represented a very significant and courageous cultural shift for Mind. Did it work? Yes.
Guided by Mind's CEO Paul Farmer, an affable young Bill Gates lookalike, the conference went from introducing the science of wellbeing, to how it’s used now, to how it might be linked in with existing mental health services in the future.
Wellbeing is very much a science now, grounded in Positive Psychology. Sandra Carlisle, a professor at Glasgow University, talked of how modern society, and indeed the economy, must learn from it if it is to support the wellbeing of society. This would be hard for anyone to deny.
The more challenging part of the conference was connecting this to the mental health field, and integrating it with existing practices.
A panel of the most diverse personalities imaginable were called upon to debate the issue. Peter Beresford with his deep booming voice and passionate outbursts, and Marion Janner, who evoked in the audience equal parts laughter, appreciation, and nervousness over what she might say or do next.
It was the simple points that carried the most value, such as Professor John Hopton’s reminder that wherever we go with wellbeing in the future, mental health services will always be required due to the inevitability of unfortunate genetic makeup and circumstances.
As a whole, the discussion was overcomplicated and rife with false dichotomies symptomatic of the traditional view of mental health, such as ‘does the responsibility lie with the individual or the organisation?’.
The outdated view of mental health is that we are either mentally ill or healthy. This view is divisive and inaccurate. The modern view recognises scales of wellbeing.
The question therefore becomes not just how do the mentally healthy support the mentally ill, but how do each of us promote the wellbeing of us all. And the first answer to this is that we must lead by example. That no one prompted the panellists or delegates to think about what they do for their own wellbeing was a missed opportunity.
The final speaker of the conference was Anthony Seldon, Headmaster of Wellington College school in Berkshire. He began by asking the audience to consider how school was for them, and how it should be.
Having heard Professor Seldon speak before, I thought that his idealism might receive some scorn from the more pessimistic individuals, but his talk was instead met with shouts of “I wish you’d been my headmaster!”.
Wellington College teaches children ‘the skills of well-being’. This is done through specific classes, and a College culture that supports them (‘ten-point programme’). The classes themselves consist of meditation, a look at the constituents of a good life, and activities similar to the Marshmallow Test, which encourages self-control.
Professor Seldon, who is probably the nearest thing there is to a real life Albus Dumbledore, closed his talk by appealing to Gandhi’s oft-used quote, “be the change you want to see in the world”. He was not present for the rest of the Conference, but had he been, he might have realised how appropriate this quote was. It provided the definitive yet simple answer to the question that the conference posed: “where to with wellbeing?”.
For what the science of wellbeing does, is enable us to all to ‘be the change’. If each of us are not applying it to our own lives though, we cannot expect others to apply it to theirs. Recognising this, Paul Farmer concluded an exciting two days, by directing us to the New Economics Foundation’s ‘five ways to wellbeing’: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give.
Edward Pinkney
Edward has recently launched the Student Mental Wealth Project, which aims to build a network of students championing mental health and wellbeing in every university.
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1 December 2009
Is 'wellbeing' the new 'recovery'?Well, I haven’t been to a Mind conference for some years. This year, it was the topic that decided me; I have had trouble getting my head around the ‘wellbeing' agenda.
Having been involved in the mental health world for over twenty years I hope you can forgive me for a little scepticism. Like one of the conference delegates I spoke to, I too have wondered if it is simply the new buzz word brought in to replace ‘recovery’.
One of the speakers suggested that recovery is only for people in contact with secondary services, whereas wellbeing is for all. Well, I am not sure about that, but they do have something important in common: a thread of optimism or hope that things can and should be better.
So, I started with the impression of wellbeing holding overtones of happiness and rose-tinted spectacles, wondering if it is really the business of mental health policy or services.
The first speakers on Thursday evening, Jonathan Naess, Jeff Walker and Kevin Lewis, did not do a great deal to contradict this, although Jeff’s enthusiasm was catching and probably made many of us feel that there has to be something in it!
A self-confessed academic, who described himself as being half way up an ivory tower, Richard Bentall nonetheless managed to ‘ground’ wellbeing for people with severe mental health problems. Richard identified four succinct threats to wellbeing in the form of mortality, disorder, low self-esteem and identity. All of these, with the possible exception of mortality, are key themes in many discussions about recovery. He talked us through ways of managing these threats.
This was neatly followed up by Dr Jo Nurse, who has been key in developing the New Horizons document. (Perhaps to her surprise, many people in the audience had not heard of New Horizons). Another ivory tower perhaps? Anyway, Jo talked us through much of the thinking behind it, the wellbeing agenda and the ideas behind promoting mental health and wellbeing across the life course, from childhood through to old age and death.
What I found encouraging is the focus on the influence of social factors on mental health and wellbeing, the recognition that our social circumstances, adverse life events, relationships and inequalities are major factors in determining all of our mental health…and wellbeing. Taking Richard and Jo's presentations together, I had a brief moment of hope that we might be seeing the beginnings of the demise of the medical model.
Throughout the conference, the question about an impending change of Government hovered in the air. Will the newly formed National Mental Health Development Unit survive? Will welfare benefits become more restricted? Will New Horizons hit the dust?
We don’t know. But, some of us at least are more informed and perhaps more open-minded about the 'wellbeing agenda', thanks to the Mind conference….
Alison Faulkner
Alison is a freelance researcher, trainer and consultant, working from a service user/survivor perspective. She has over 20 years experience of social research mainly in the mental health field, and has worked for the Mental Health Foundation, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and the National Centre for Social Research.
Since becoming freelance in 2002, she has worked for a range of organisations including Mind and Rethink. As a user of mental health services, Alison has experience of a range of services including acute inpatient care, crisis services, psychotherapy and medication.
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29 November 2009
Perspectives on wellbeing: things our grandmothers knewThe debate on wellbeing at the Mind conferences, 25 to 27 November, Brighton
On the face of it, there is a lot to be angry about when you think about wellbeing. The system is wrong – so wrong that it will take more unpicking than could be achieved in a bunch of generations.
Clinicians still firmly hold the power in the mental health system - a system which itself undermines empowerment, hope and recovery. Looking at the wider picture, we find a society, particularly in the UK, that is increasingly unequal (inequality, rather than poverty, being a key cause of poor wellbeing).
We have a world economy built on an unsustainable model of ever increasing consumption – a consumption that literally makes us sick. And all this supported by politicians and economists who measure people’s value purely in what they contribute to GDP - or so we were told by Peter Beresford, Professor of Social Policy at Brunel University, taking the ‘revolution’ line in the morning debate at the Mind conference.
But a much more dominant theme at the conference, at least for me, was hope. It’s true that things are not what they should be, but then things are not what they were either. We have heard from individuals involved in recruitment or peer support at their local health trusts.
We’ve heard from our own local Mind associations about wellbeing projects that are completely turning around services, and the lives of those who participate in them – both users and staff.
We have heard from people working in the Department of Health about their hopes and efforts to both improve mental health services and ensure wellbeing is taken seriously across government.
And we heard from cheery but thoughtful headteacher Anthony Seldon and three of his year 11 pupils about how they are teaching the next generation about gaining and maintaining their own personal wellbeing at Wellington College.
And a lot of wellbeing is really stuff our grandmothers knew – finding people to love, a place to belong, doing good to others, getting fresh air, exercise and enough sleep. Science is now catching up with our grandmothers.
Unravelling our political and economic world structures is a daunting tasks, but while we are tackling that, there’s lots of other things we can be doing that will have a profound effect on lives here and now.
So I guess I’m an old-fashioned believer in hope. Both that there is hope, and in the power of hope – that hope in itself can start to bring about change. Anger has its place, but I do think the more powerful, sustainable and persuasive fuel for changing the world will be hope. To quote Dr Seldon: "And that ladies and gentleman is not an impossible dream."
Sophie Corlett, Head of External Relations
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9 October 2009
The Conservatives Get MovingAnd so to Manchester for our third week of party conference work, this time with the Conservatives, the current favourites to form the new Government at the next general election.
This week is of course Get Moving week, and up and down the country hundreds of events are taking place to encourage people to improve their physical activity to improve their mental well being.
The Conservative conference was no exception. Mind pedometers were the must have item of Conference, and once we'd explained to some slightly bemused delegates how they worked, many were to be seen frequently checking them to find out how many steps they'd taken.
The theme of work and worklessness was a major one at this conference, and David Cameron set the ball rolling by announcing that all people currently on Incapacity Benefit would be reviewed and many would lose some of their benefits as a result.Mind was quick to respond to this, reflecting the concerns voiced by many of this approach. So we were heartened to hear Theresa May qualifying their position on Channel 4 News and recognising the importance of providing the right level of support for people with mental health problems. This message was also reinforced by Tory Disabilities Minister Mark Harper.
There's no doubt that whichever party wins the election, change is coming, and the main question seems to be around the pace of change. We continue to call for a system which puts people with mental health problems at the heart of its approach and recognises their needs.Paul Farmer, Chief Executive
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17 September 2009
Why the wellbeing of NHS staff is so importantSo, NHS staff take the more sick days than anywhere else in the public sector? Anyone who has had any experience with the day to day running of NHS services can't be that shocked by this.
Growing up in a household of medic parents, I know the stress that these professions can entail. I imagine that if I told my mum that a quarter of NHS staff go off sick due to stress, depression and anxiety, she would simply look a bit baffled and reply "Surely stress, depression and anxiety are part of the job?!"
Speaking with people who use NHS mental health services over the last few months, as we consult on the Department of Health's plans for New Horizons, the next 10 year strategy for mental health, the issue of NHS staff wellbeing keeps cropping up.
The general opinion is that there are some great people working in mental health services but too many of them just aren't treated properly. Instead, they can be overworked and left with little support of their own. The resulting absenteeism then goes on to have a very negative effect on clients who, even in a crisis, are told that their psychiatrist isn't available or that their community psychiatric nurse will be changing for the umpteenth time. In fact, more than 80 per cent of NHS staff questioned admitted that their health affected the quality of care they gave to patients.
Users of NHS services deserve better continuity with mental health professionals who are well enough to provide the right care, and mental health professionals deserve a better working environment that practices what it preaches.
As the Department of Health begins to draw up plans to improve wellbeing across the whole population, let's hope they remember the needs of their own. You can have your say on the Department of Health's plans for New Horizons.
Mariam Kemple, Policy and Campaigns Officer
3 Comments -
3 September 2009
"Bike Belles" call for safety on the roadsAs a penniless student, I cycled everywhere in any weather. On one occasion I remember battling the snowy blizzards of deepest January as I rushed to our weekly class, run by an English professor who had an uncanny resemblance to Sean Connery (none of the female students were ever late or absent).
As any cyclist worth their bicycle pump will know, snow is the very worst weather offender - you are left attempting to glimpse sight of the road ahead between avalanches of snowflakes that leave you drenched in the horror of near freezing water. Sounds like a pretty unpleasant experience doesn't it?
Yet it wasn't. I loved cycling. Aside from the wonderfully cheap transport, it gave me a natural boost to my day and helped fight the flab of a student diet. In fact, exercise is proven to reduce stress and feelings of depression and increase energy levels. Some studies have even found that it can have the same antidepressant effect as psychotherapy.
However, living in London I just don't cycle anywhere. At university I was lucky to live in a small town full of cycle lanes but the bigger cities are a very different story. To put it simply, I'm terrified! And I'm not alone. A poll of British women has found that concerns for their own safety is the most common reason why they do not cycle at all (79 per cent of women in Britain never ride a bike).
It is for this reason that Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity, have launched the Motion for Women petition on their Bike Belles website, calling for the Government to that the issue of safer cycling more seriously. With cycling acknowledged as a great way to tackle not only mental distress but also traffic congestion, climate change and obesity, please help make cycling safer by signing the petition today.
Visit Mind's page on ecotherapy to find out more about our work on improving access to green exercise. And don't forget, Get Moving - a week of physical activity events aiming to combat stigma against mental health problems - launches on 3 October.
Start the discussion
Mariam Kemple, Policy and Campaigns Officer -
28 August 2009
Can pets improve your mental health?Conversations about cats seem to be all the rage at Mind at the moment. No, we're not expanding our remit; staff and volunteers who are proud pet owners are discussing the latest in pet psychology books.
From my point of view, it is animals or pets as therapy for either physical or mental health issues that is the topic, whether it be the option to get a dog in Lewisham using your individual budget care allowance or swimming with dolphins to cure depression.
Read a little closer, and of course the questions start coming. A review of studies into dolphin-assisted therapy found that the studies were methodologically flawed and also failed to investigate any long term benefits. Another review of the link between pet ownership and health found that research this decade found no reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, no decrease in the use of primary care and no psychological or physical benefits to older people living in the community associated with pet ownership.
Kruger and Serpell writing in Handbook on animal-assisted therapy "Despite their long history and the unequivocally positive media attention they typically receive, animal-assisted interventions are currently best described as a category of promising complementary practices that are still struggling to demonstrate their effectiveness and validity" (p.21).
Even recent research looking at therapy using farm animals failed to adequately control for effects of working outdoors or increased socialisation opportunities as being part of the research and not the control group. Then there is the need to consider the impact on the animals being used for therapy.
If this sort of therapy option gets positive media attention then researchers should harness that interest to plan and fund robust research to investigate the effectiveness of what could be a relatively safe, inexpensive and non-invasive treatment option.
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
8 Comments -
24 August 2009
Seeds of changeEcotherapy - the latest buzz word in mental health circles. Getting out and about, to you and me. Green exercise, improving your well being by joining a walking or gardening group, or pulling shopping trolleys out the canal or flying a kite - all that kind of stuff.
Sounds simple enough, but it's an idea whose time has come. Mind knew that already of course. Local Mind groups have been running green projects for years, because we've known that getting outside and a bit active can do wonders for your mental health. But this is different. These days people know about conservation, renewable energy, global warming, carbon footprints and climate change.
When we launched the Ecominds funding scheme interest was slow but my goodness - how that changed. The scheme is now over subscribed thanks to a massive level of public interest. Ecominds - is Ecotherapy in action, an idea whose time has come.
Every Ecominds project is designed to improve the wellbeing of people with direct experience of mental distress. Sadly Mind can't fund every bid we get - there isn't enough money - but we are seeing some great, innovative projects designed for communities across England. We've even got a proposal to set up a sustainable Eco burials programme - a recycling angle which is definitely a Mind first.
The projects are all inspirational in their own way, but one thing they have in common is that every single one brings people coping with mental health problems into a community environmental setting, helping chip away at the stigma and prejudice that often surrounds mental health issues.
Ten months since Ecominds launched, the first success stories are arriving. First away is a fantastic garden built to seriously professional standards at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show in July. It bagged a Silver Medal with a Gold missed by the slimmest of margins.
Barry Watts, Grants Manager
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1 August 2009
Venturing into the great outdoorsI'm off on holidays to the Antipodes soon and so I am probably the only person who harks back to the days when jumpers filled the shelves in August but all you really wanted was that summer dress. Now the shops are all stocking more seasonal wares, another change attributed to the recession. Trying on woollies when it's sunny outside makes you feel strangely disconnected.
With the publication in Britain of Richard Louv's book, columnists have been considering whether their children are being deprived of the benefits of growing up alongside nature. Surely all of us could benefit from welcoming a bit more nature into our lives and living in harmony with the seasons? It is established that "contact with nature promotes health and wellbeing", yet we've never been more urban or cut off from the natural environment. I've got a good excuse - a holiday with time and space to reconnect with nature and feel the sand between my toes (actually, it will be more sand blowing in my face at this time of year!).
It is worth remembering that even the over-crowded UK has wonderful nature reserves and open spaces that we can all find the time and energy to enjoy. Venturing into the great outdoors can be cheap or even free and benefits your body and mind, what more could you ask for?
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information
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