PEER SUPPORT Community Living Well JANUARY 2018 ABOUT #PEERTALK News of our growing Peer Support Groups, including a new drop in group for members. PAGE 6 NEWS FROM MOTHER TONGUE Find out about other parts of Community Living Well. In this edition we find out about the Mother Tongue Counselling service. PAGE 4-5 SOCIAL MEET UPS Some great social meet ups taking place in January, including two special museum visits. PAGE 12-20 2 JANUARY 2018 Getting Well and Staying Well As we welcome in the new year the Peer Support service will be providing more opportunities for members to give and receieve help to improve their wellbeing. During each type of peer support meet up - social, online, 1-to-1, groups, living well workshops and timebank - we will be focusing on using our time together to talk with others about the challenges of staying well and sharing our knowledge of how we can overcome these challenges. Talking about our mental health and wellbeing can help to lessen the burden and help reduce feelings of isolation. The connections made with other peers and being part of a community offering support and understanding to each other can be rewarding. The recent feedback received from the new Peer Support Groups has told us that having more supported opportunities to talk openly about mental health would be a valuable experience that will help with managing day to day problems. In January, Feel Good Friday (and in the near future, Monday Social) will include additional opportunities to receive and offer peer support. You can read more about these groups on page 8-9 and page 13 or you can contact us to let us know if you would like to find out more and attend. Community Living Well Peer Support is brought to you by Kensington and Chelsea Mind Office 1, 7 Thorpe Close, London, W10 5XL. Registered in England No. 2597728 | Charity No. 1002986 Liz Duff, Team Leader Meet the team [email protected] 07976 244 589 To get in touch email: [email protected] or (Working days; Mon - Thu) call the messaging service on 020 3011 0433 to leave your name and number and we will call you back. Liam Pywell, Peer Support Development Worker For organisations to refer someone to Peer Support, please email [email protected] [email protected] 07960 290 265 PEER SUPPORT MAGAZINE 3 PEER SUPPORT WHO IS IT FOR? CAN I COME TO PEER SUPPORT? CAN PEER SUPPORT HELP ME? Community Living Well Peer Support is Peer Support can help you to feel less isolated available to: and increase your confidence. It gives you a chance to gain knowledge about your mental health and to get or give support and talk to • people over 16 others who can empathise through a shared • who are registered with a GP in Kensington experience. and Chelsea, Queen's Park or Paddington areas of Westminster Peer Support offers both peer-led and peer- • who have experienced or are affected facilitated activities which focus on your by depression or other mental health strengths, hopes and ambitions and can help problems you develop skills and strategies to manage and maintain your emotional and physical • whose mental health care is being looked wellbeing. after by primary care general practice services Peer support can help you through: • or to the carers of those who satisfy the • feeling accepted by others who share above. your experience • developing and sharing skills We can also take referrals for people stepping • reducing feelings of isolation down from secondary mental health services • building confidence and emotional resilience through the Community Living Well Primary • building new relationships Care Liaison Nurse team. If you are eligible and you'd like to come along to any Peer Support activity get in touch today. [email protected] | or call 020 3011 0433. Whitney Shaw-Dale Stuart Beck Peer Support Coordinator Peer Support Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] 07908 265 183 (Working days; Mon, Wed- Fri) 07495 579 252 Yvonne Nelson Christina Bengston Peer Support Coordinator Marketing Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] 07964 376 928 (Working days; Tue, Wed) 07908 265 186 4 JANUARY 2018 Around Community Living Well Each month we'll be sharing news and information with you from around the whole of the Community Living Well service. This month we take a look at Mother Tongue Counselling. health, illness and overall wellbeing can lead WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED SUPPORT us to hide or ignore our symptoms until they worsen. There can be times in life when we feel stuck and helpless, and nothing seems right, when Just like any physical health condition, little things start to overwhelm us and worry mental health problems do not represent takes over our mind, when we feel tired or a personal failure or weakness. They can afraid and feel unable to manage everyday happen to anyone, anytime! tasks, when we can’t eat well, sleep well and start to avoid people and activities! With effective and timely support, most people achieve full recovery and are able to One in four of us experience a mental health live productive lives. Feeling better can start difficulty such as stress, anxiety or depression with something as simple as just ‘talking’ to a at least once in our lifetime. Despite being very trained counsellor. common, a lot of us do not feel comfortable talking about our difficult thoughts and Research and studies tell us that talking feelings to others. Incomplete or inappropriate therapy or counselling is much more effective information about mental health, fear of and beneficial for the patient, when the being judged or discriminated against, and counsellor speaks the same language, rather even cultural differences and attitudes about than using an interpreter. I felt empowered because I had the choice to“ use any words in any language when I wanted to discuss my experiences, describe my painful feelings or put meaning to my strong emotions... Now I feel more prepared and am looking to embrace a much positive and happy future.” Around Community Living Well MOTHER TONGUE COUNSELLING Our small and approachable team at Mother Tongue Counselling engages with the Arabic and Farsi speaking communities from Kensington and Chelsea, Queen's Park and Paddington to support them with their GET MORE INFORMATION mental and emotional wellbeing and to ensure that their access to help is not stalled We appreciate that sometimes more by their ethnicity, culture or faith. information may be required to get a feel of what psychological support may look like. We provide up to 12 free one-to-one Therefore, we also deliver regular self-help counselling sessions in Arabic and Farsi groups and emotional wellbeing workshops languages, at various community locations, (co-facilitated in Arabic & Farsi), usually including St Charles Centre for Health and arranged with existing community groups Wellbeing. People are also able to self-refer. on a range of topics related to mental health, suited to the participant needs and demands. For the first time, I was freely able to You are also very welcome to pick up our talk.. talk without thinking.. and all the built translated literature and information leaflets on common mental health issues, frequently “up tension and pain in my body got a release used terms, self-help techniques and details as I was comfortably able to through my about other local services in the community, most pressing issues about myself and my which you can read in your own time. family. All this because my counsellor was speaking to me in Farsi, I felt she was equal It was so helpful to share personal to me and I could sense acceptance and her stories with other ladies in the group, and the genuine interest to understand and help me. “fact that the discussions were held both in I could trust her! English and Arabic, made me understand how I have always been fearing and misreading WHO IS IT FOR?” the big strong medical words, when all of that is just a part of being human. And what The Community Living Well Mother Tongue made it even better was that I was not alone Counselling service is available to people: in feeling that! • Aged 18 or over • Who are registered with a GP in Kensington and Chelsea, Queen's Park or Paddington GETTING IN TOUCH” • Who have Arabic or Farsi cultural and language needs To make a referral or for any more details, • Who are being looked after by primary care please get in touch: general practice services (not accessing any email: [email protected] secondary care mental health services). call: 07715 636 626 | 020 7259 8120 PEER SUPPORT MAGAZINE 5 6 JANUARY 2018 pixabay.com #PeerTalk EW DROP IN Peer Support open peer support group. This means that Groups begin in January plus any member can drop in, anytime. New and existing members are welcome to join and there's another chance to there is no limit on how many sessions you get involved in peer work by can attend. The first of these open groups will enrolling in peer support training. be taking place before our Feel Good Friday N meet up on Friday 26th January. More details PEER SUPPORT GROUPS on page 8-9. In October 2017 we launched the Peer Support PEER SUPPORT TRAINING Groups designed to bring people together who can share their experience of mental -- Starting in February -- health. Interested in peer support training? During January we’re signing people up to our next To attend the peer support groups, members course that will start in February.